Although STDs aren’t the most comfortable topic to address for many, this doesn’t make them any less harmful. STDs can cause potentially devastating health complications if left untreated or not treated correctly.

Our AFC Urgent Care Centennial team further elaborates on STDs and the importance of getting STD tested below, so keep reading!

What Are STDs?

STDs, or sexually transmitted diseases, are infections that typically spread from one person to another during vaginal, anal and oral sex. They’re really common (one in five Americans are currently affected), and lots of people who have them don’t have any symptoms.

Without treatment, STDs can lead to serious health problems, which we’ve listed below.

Health Problems Caused by STDs

• Male and female sterility
• Blindness
• Damage to major organs
• Cervical cancer
• Cancer of the vagina, penis, anus or throat
• Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can damage a woman’s fallopian tubes, leading to pelvic pain and sterility.
• Pain during urination or intercourse

What Makes STD-Testing So Important?

Like we said earlier, many types of STDs don’t show signs or symptoms. Because of this, getting regular STD tests can help you stay ahead of potential infections that you didn’t even know you had. Plus, if you do get one, getting treatment as early as possible will help relieve viral STD symptoms and will help quickly cure bacterial STDs.

As long as you’re sexually active, you should be tested for STDs at least once a year. Additionally, if you have more than one partner or don’t always practice safer sex by using a condom each time you have intercourse, you should be tested every three to six months.

Ways to Prevent STDs

• Practice abstinence. The surest way to avoid getting STDs is to not have sex.
• Reduce your number of sex partners. This can decrease your risk for STDs. It is still important that you and your partner get tested, and that you share your test results with one another.
• Practice mutual monogamy. Mutual monogamy means that you agree to be sexually active with only one person, who has agreed to be sexually active only with you. Being in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner is one of the most reliable ways to avoid STDs.
• Use condoms. Condoms lessen the risk of infection for all STDs, but you can still get certain STDs, like herpes or HPV, from contact with your partner’s skin even when using one.

At our AFC Urgent Care Centennial center, we offer private STD-testing and treatment. If you would like to learn more about STD-testing, or would like to be tested, don’t hesitate to stop by today.