Once again, the best way to handle sexually transmitted disease is to prevent its spread by faithfully following safety precautions, including "safer sex" techniques.
If an STD does develop, it may be treated with medications, surgical procedures, or possibly both.
For a given STD, it is important to take the right medication exactly as prescribed. For example, even though gonorrhea and chlamydial infections often occur together, they require different medications. Never try to treat a sexually transmitted disease without a doctor's supervision. Using the wrong medication could do more harm than good.
By far the most common group of medications used to treat sexually transmitted diseases are the antibiotics that are available in ever-increasing variety. Sometimes a disease-causing organism "learns" to outwit a given antibiotic, at which point a different one is required. To cope with this ongoing problem, pharmaceutical companies are constantly striving to develop new antibiotics.
Metronidazole, a different type of antimicrobial medication, is used to combat STDs caused by anaerobic (non-oxygen-dependent) bacteria or protozoa.
Although there is currently no way of completely curing a human papillomavirus infection, the lesions and warts these viruses cause can be treated by a number of methods, including cold cautery (freezing the tissue away), laser surgery (burning the tissue with high-intensity light), LEEP (loop electrosurgical excision procedure) that removes the tissue with a hot wire loop), and conventional surgery. Medications such as Condylox (podofilox), Podocon-25 (podophyllin), trichloroacetic acid, and Aldara (imiquimod) can be used in the treatment of external genital warts.
Three medications are available for the treatment of genital herpes: Zovirax (acyclovir), Famvir (famciclovir), and Valtrex (valacyclovir). While not a cure, each of these medications can be used to help speed the healing process when an outbreak occurs. They can also be taken on a regular basis to help reduce the frequency of outbreaks. To remove growths on or in the vagina, cervix, or uterus, electrosurgical excision is an option.
