A sexually transmitted disease (STD) is a disease which spreads by having sex. STDs can spread through oral sex or anal sex, or when two people’s genitals touch. Today, STDs are usually called sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In the past, they were called venereal diseases (VD).

STDs can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites. Examples of the most common STDs are listed on this page.

The term sexually transmitted disease (STD) is used to refer to a condition passed from one person to another through sexual contact. You can contract an STD by having unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the STD.

An STD may also be called a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or venereal disease (VD).

That doesn’t mean sex is the only way STDs are transmitted. Depending on the specific STD, infections may also be transmitted through sharing needles and breastfeeding.

Symptoms of STDs in men

It’s possible to contract an STD without developing symptoms. But some STDs cause obvious symptoms. In men, common symptoms include:

pain or discomfort during sex or urination

sores, bumps, or rashes on or around the penis, testicles, anus, buttocks, thighs, or mouth

unusual discharge or bleeding from the penis

painful or swollen testicles

Symptoms of STDs in women

In many cases, STDs don’t cause noticeable symptoms. When they do, common STD symptoms in women include:

pain or discomfort during sex or urination

sores, bumps, or rashes on or around the vagina, anus, buttocks, thighs, or mouth

unusual discharge or bleeding from the vagina

itchiness in or around the vagina

The specific symptoms can vary from one STD to another

HIV or AIDS

HIV can damage the immune system and raise the risk of contracting other viruses or bacteria and certain cancers. If left untreated, it can lead to stage 3 HIV, known as AIDS. But with today’s treatment, many people living with HIV don’t ever develop AIDS.

In the early or acute stages, it’s easy to mistake the symptoms of HIV with those of the flu. For example, the early symptoms can include:

fever

chills

aches and pains

swollen lymph nodes

sore throat

headache

nausea

rashes

These initial symptoms typically clear within a month or so. From that point onward, a person can carry HIV without developing serious or persistent symptoms for many years. Other people may develop nonspecific symptoms, such as:

recurrent fatigue

fevers

headaches

stomach issues

There’s no cure for HIV yet, but treatment options are available to manage it. Early and effective treatment can help people with HIV live as long as those without HIV.

Proper treatment can also lower your chances of transmitting HIV to a sexual partner. In fact, treatment can potentially lower the amount of HIV in your body to undetectable levels. At undetectable levels, HIV can’t be transmitted to other people, reports the CDCTrusted Source.

Without routine testing, many people with HIV don’t realize they have it. To promote early diagnosis and treatment, the CDCTrusted Source recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 be tested at least once. People at high risk of HIV should be tested at least once a year, even if they don’t have symptoms.

Free and confidential testing can be found in all major cities and many public health clinics. A government tool for finding local testing services is available here.

With recent advancements in testing and treatment, it’s possible to live a long and healthy life with HIV.

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Chapter IX: SEX DISEASES

Sex diseases

The sex diseases are the same in both sexes, whether developed by direct or accidental infection. They are the greatest practical argument in favor of continence, morality and marriage in the sex relation.

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is a pus-discharging inflammation of the canal known as the urethra, which passing through the entire length of the organ, carries both the urine and the seminal fluid. It is caused by a venereal bacillus, the gonococcus. Under favorable conditions and with right treatment, gonorrhea may be cured, though violently painful, in fourteen days. Often the inflammation extends, becomes chronic and attacks other organs. This chronic gonorrhea often causes permanent contraction of the urethra, which leads to the painful retention of urine, catarrh of the bladder, and stone. Chronic gonorrhea, too, often ends in death, especially if the kidneys are attacked. A cured case of gonorrhea does not mean immunity from further attacks. New infections are all the more easily acquired. Gonorrhea has even more dangerous consequences in women than in men. The gonococcus bacilli infect all the inner female genital organs. They cause frequent inflammations and lead to growths in the belly. Women thus attacked usually are apt to be sterile; they suffer agonies, and often become chronic invalids. The child born of a gonorrheal mother, while passing through the infected genital organs, comes to life with infected eyelids. This is Blennorrhea, which may result in total blindness. Gonorrhea also causes inflammation of the joints, gonorrheal rheumatism, testicular inflammations which may lead to sterility. Some authorities claim that fully half the sterility in women is caused by gonorrheal infection of the Fallopian tubes. Gonorrheal infection of the eyes at birth is now prevented by first washing them in a saturated solution of boric acid, then treating them with a drop of weak silver solution.

Syphilis

The soft chancre

The soft chancre is the third form of venereal disease (the hard chancre being the first stage of syphilis). It is the least dangerous of the venereal diseases, but unfortunately, relatively the one which occurs most seldom. When not complicated with syphilis, it appears locally. It is a larger or smaller sore feeding and growing on the genital organs.

Venereal in advocate of continence

The most tragic consequence of all venereal disease is the part it plays in the infection of innocent children, and innocent wives and mothers. Often a pure and chaste woman is thus deprived in the most cruel and brutal manner of the fruit of all her hopes and dreams of happiness. Similarly, a young man may find himself hopelessly condemned to a short life of pain and misery. He may also suffer from the knowledge that he has ruined the lives of those dearest to him. Venereal disease, syphilis in particular, emphasizes the practical value of continence—quite aside from its moral one—in a manner which cannot be ignored!

This Article is based on works of Henry Stanton’s 1922 book Sex – Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain English and shall be continued based on feedback

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