Persistent or recurrent NGU is urethritis that comes back or never fully clears after a first round of antibiotics. The usual culprits are an untreated partner who reinfects you, or a harder-to-kill o
PCR (a nucleic acid test) finds the pathogen's genetic material directly, so it detects an active infection — used for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis. An antibody test finds your immune syst
Mostly yes — alcohol doesn't interfere with the antibiotics used for chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis. The real exception is metronidazole and tinidazole (for trichomoniasis and BV), which react badl
Mpox testing means swabbing an active skin lesion and running PCR to detect monkeypox virus DNA. There's no useful blood or antibody test for diagnosis, and you can't be tested before a sore appears —
Most mouth and lip sores fall into one of two buckets: an aphthous ulcer (canker sore), which is a shallow, non-contagious a crater inside the mouth, and a herpes cold sore, which is a contagious clus
You can get treated online for some STIs without an in-person visit: a telehealth clinician reviews your test results or symptoms, then sends a prescription to your pharmacy. This works for several ba
Seven viruses are known to cause human cancers, and the two most famous are HPV (human papillomavirus) and Epstein-Barr virus. HPV is the most common STI and drives nearly all cervical cancer plus thr
An intensely itchy rash usually comes down to a short list: scabies (a mite that burrows under the skin and is often sexually transmitted in adults), bed bug bites, or eczema. The fastest tells are pa
Scabies is treated with a prescription scabicide. The standard choice is permethrin 5% cream applied over the whole body from the neck down and washed off after 8–14 hours; oral ivermectin is an alter
Scabies spreads mainly through direct, prolonged skin-to-skin contact — typically the kind that happens during sex or among people living together. Brief touch like a handshake rarely passes it. Less
Scabies looks like a pimple-like, intensely itchy rash, often with tiny crooked, raised lines called burrows where the mite has tunneled into the skin. Itching is worst at night. Classic hotspots incl
A yeast infection is treated with antifungal medicine that clears the overgrown Candida . For a simple case, you can use an over-the-counter intravaginal azole cream over several days or take a single
Scabies reinfection means new mites have burrowed into your skin after a previous case was treated — usually from an untreated partner or household contact, or from bedding and clothing that wasn't de
Vaginal pH doesn't appear on any major HIV-prevention guideline, and HIV is not transmitted through changes in pH. What actually drives HIV transmission during vaginal sex is contact between infecting
Yes, a yeast infection during pregnancy is safe to treat and rarely harms the baby — but the medication matters. Topical azole creams placed in the vagina are the preferred treatment in pregnancy, whi
After STD treatment, timing depends on what you're checking. A true test of cure — confirming the infection is gone — is only routine for a few infections and is done weeks after you finish meds. Sepa
Yes, men can get yeast infections. The most common form is candidal balanitis — a Candida overgrowth on the head of the penis that causes itching, redness, and a patchy rash. It usually isn't a sexual
A rare genetic mutation called CCR5-delta32 can make a person highly resistant to HIV by removing the doorway the virus uses to enter immune cells. The same idea explains the only documented HIV cures
Yes — a yeast infection can be cured. A standard uncomplicated case clears with a short course of antifungal cream or a single antifungal pill, and most people feel better within days. Recurrent or st
Reducing and stopping HIV stigma and discrimination means treating HIV as the manageable medical condition it is — backed by facts, not fear. The science is clear: HIV doesn't spread through casual co
Health agencies worry about Mycoplasma genitalium because it's an emerging sexually transmitted bacterium that's increasingly hard to cure. It lacks a cell wall, so common antibiotics fail, and resist
Same-day and rapid STI testing is real, but only for a few infections. True rapid tests — results in minutes — exist for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis C, which use blood. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and tric
The STD test you need depends on what kind of sex you've had and where. Vaginal or oral or anal exposure each points to a urine sample or a self-collected swab at the right site for chlamydia, gonorrh
Crabs (pubic lice) and scabies are both itchy, sexually transmissible skin parasites — but they're different organisms with different signs. Crabs are insects that live in coarse pubic hair and leave