You can get tested for STDs at a doctor's office, a local health department, Planned Parenthood, or a Title X family-planning clinic — often free or on a sliding scale — and at-home kits let you colle
To get rid of crabs at home, apply an over-the-counter 1% permethrin lotion or a pyrethrins-with-piperonyl-butoxide mousse to the pubic hair and other affected areas, leave it on as directed, then rin
Crabs symptoms most often show up as intense itching in the genital area, plus tiny lice or pale eggs (nits) glued to the base of coarse pubic hair. Some people also notice small bluish-gray spots on
Yes, pubic lice can live on eyebrows, eyelashes, and other coarse body hair — not just the genitals. These same insects ( Pthirus pubis ) sometimes spread to the lashes, beard, chest, or armpit hair.
You can sharply lower the odds of passing herpes to a partner — though not to zero — by combining daily suppressive antiviral medication, consistent condom use, avoiding sex during outbreaks, and hone
PrEP is daily (or scheduled) medicine HIV-negative people take before possible exposure to prevent infection; PEP is an emergency course started after a single possible exposure. PrEP is ongoing preve
DoxyPEP is a single dose of the antibiotic doxycycline taken after sex to lower the risk of getting certain bacterial STIs. Standing for doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, it targets bacterial inf
PrEP is daily or on-demand medicine that HIV-negative people take to prevent infection before exposure. You have two main forms: oral pills (Truvada or Descovy) and an injectable, cabotegravir (Apretu
Untreated chlamydia can quietly damage the reproductive tract over months to years, even when you feel completely fine. In women it can climb to the uterus and tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory dise
A pregnancy STI screening panel is the set of infection tests built into routine prenatal care. At the first prenatal visit, everyone who's pregnant is screened for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B, bec
PID treatment is a multi-drug course of antibiotics, not a single pill. The standard outpatient regimen is a ceftriaxone injection plus doxycycline and metronidazole taken for two weeks CDC, 2021. Bec
Truvada is a daily prescription pill (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) taken by HIV-negative people to prevent HIV — a strategy called PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis. Taken as prescribe
Early warning signs of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) include lower abdominal or pelvic pain, unusual discharge with a bad odor, fever, pain or bleeding during sex, burning with urination, and blee
Trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a parasite, while bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an overgrowth of the vagina's own bacteria — not an STI in the traditional sense. Both can ca
Yes — pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) can cause infertility by scarring the fallopian tubes. When infection inflames the tubes, healing leaves behind scar tissue that can block or distort them, so t
PID is diagnosed clinically, not by a single test. A clinician treats on suspicion when a sexually active woman has pelvic or lower-abdominal pain with no other cause plus tenderness when the cervix,
You get trichomoniasis from sexual contact with someone who carries the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis . It passes during penis-to-vagina, vagina-to-penis, or vagina-to-vagina sex when genital fluids
Trichomoniasis in women often causes a frothy, yellow-green discharge with a fishy smell, plus genital itching, burning, soreness, and pain when urinating or having sex. But roughly 70% of infected pe
Most men with trichomoniasis have no symptoms at all — roughly 70% notice nothing. When symptoms do show up, they look like urethritis: itching or irritation inside the penis, burning after urinating
No over-the-counter product or home remedy cures a sexually transmitted infection. Yogurt, garlic, douching, and "detox" cleanses don't clear chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, or any other STI. Bacterial
Yes — you can absolutely get trichomoniasis again after you've been treated and cured. Treatment clears the current infection, but it gives you no lasting immunity. The most common way people get rein
Oral chlamydia is a throat (pharyngeal) infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis , picked up through oral sex with an infected partner. It almost never causes symptoms, so most people d
Yes, trichomoniasis is curable. It's caused by a single-celled parasite, and the right course of antibiotics clears it completely in most people. Women are treated with a week of metronidazole pills,
Trichomoniasis and chlamydia are both common, both often silent, and both fully curable — but they're entirely different organisms. Trich is a parasite treated with metronidazole; chlamydia is a bacte