Basic Facts About STDs

Here are a few basic facts everyone should know for his or her own protection:

STDs are easily spread through any person-to-person transfer of bodily fluids such as semen, vaginal secretions, or blood.
When someone has a sexually transmitted disease, anyone who has sex with that person stands a good chance of becoming infected. Thus, having sex with multiple partners carries a greater risk of disease than staying faithful to a spouse or long-term partner. Even a monogamous relationship isn't necessarily risk-free, however, since one partner could be carrying an infection picked up during a prior sexual encounter.
Many sexually transmitted diseases are highly contagious. For example, if a man has gonorrhea, a woman who has sex with him just once stands an 80 to 90 percent chance of getting infected. If the man has gonorrhea plus chlamydia, as frequently happens, the woman could be infected with both diseases at the same time.
Vaginal intercourse is the classic route of STD infection. However, other important routes include anal sex (among men or man-to-woman), oral sex, sexual abuse of children, and mother-to-baby infection during childbirth.
Sexually transmitted diseases weaken the immune system, so a person infected with one STD has a greater risk of acquiring other infections. Unfortunately, recovering from an STD does not make a person immune. Anyone who has had a particular STD is still at risk of getting it again.
Men are more likely to show clear symptoms of STDs. Symptoms in women may not be as obvious, and the problem could be misdiagnosed.
Many women infected with certain types of STDs have no early symptoms at all and may unknowingly infect sexual partner(s).
Gay men still face the greatest risk of HIV infection. Researchers estimate that they account for 42 percent of new HIV infections in the U.S, each year, and for 60 percent of new HIV infections among men. In addition, several recent studies have revealed high--and increasing--levels of other STDs in the gay community.
Exclusively gay women face virtually no danger of contracting gonorrhea, syphilis, or chlamydia. However, a number of other STDs can be spread from woman to woman. They include genital warts associated with the human papillomavirus, herpes, and hepatitis B.