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Plain-English deep dives on HIV, hepatitis, HPV, syphilis and more.
Every major STI, explained in plain language: how it spreads, what it does to the body, how it's tested, and how it's treated or managed. Whether you're researching a recent diagnosis or a possible exposure, each guide sticks to what the CDC and current clinical guidelines actually say, with the real numbers to back it up.
Latest in std condition guides
Chlamydia reinfection means catching Chlamydia trachomatis again after you were cured, not a treatment that failed. It usually happens because an untreated partner passes the bacteria back, often within weeks, so partner treatment and a 3-month retest matter as much as your own pills.
Read the guideHIV spreads only when specific body fluids - blood, semen, vaginal fluid, rectal fluid, or breast milk - from a person with the virus enter another person's bloodstream. In practice that means anal or
Partners of someone diagnosed with Mycoplasma genitalium should generally be tested rather than treated blindly. Current CDC guidance supports testing and treating the partners of symptomatic patients
To prevent crabs and avoid reinfestation, limit skin-to-skin sexual contact with new or untreated partners, treat every partner from the last month at the same time, and decontaminate bedding and clothing with hot washing and drying.
You prevent syphilis by combining several layers: use condoms correctly and consistently, limit exposure to untested partners, and screen regularly if you're at risk.
Mgen reinfection happens when you get re-exposed to Mycoplasma genitalium after a cure - usually through an untreated partner who passes it back - rather than the original infection never clearing. Tr
Mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus, a relative of smallpox.
A syphilis test is a blood test, and diagnosis takes two of them: a screening test (RPR or VDRL, or a treponemal antibody test) followed by a different confirmatory test.
Crabs (pubic lice) are treated with an over-the-counter lice medication: 1% permethrin lotion or a pyrethrins-with-piperonyl-butoxide mousse applied to the pubic hair and other affected areas, then re.
Bacterial vaginosis, a yeast infection, and trichomoniasis are the three conditions most often confused with each other.
To test for crabs at home, examine the coarse hair of your pubic and perianal area under good light, ideally with a magnifying lens, looking for slow-moving lice or for nits (eggs) cemented to hair shafts.
Mpox and genital herpes can both cause painful sores on or near the genitals, but they're different infections with different culprits - mpox comes from the monkeypox virus, while herpes comes from HSV-1 or HSV-2.
A bad sore throat with deep fatigue and swollen neck glands is most often infectious mononucleosis (mono) from Epstein-Barr virus, but the same picture can be acute HIV, pharyngeal gonorrhea, or secondary syphilis.
Yeast, bacterial vaginosis, and the STI trichomoniasis produce nearly identical symptoms. Here's how the patterns differ, why guessing backfires, and where a test settles it.
A few STIs can harm fertility - but almost always only when they go untreated. Here's what each infection actually does, for anyone who can get pregnant and anyone with testes, and how testing protects you.
Syphilis is cured with penicillin. For primary, secondary, or early latent disease, that means a single injection of benzathine penicillin G into the muscle; late or unknown-duration syphilis needs th
Yes - you can get HPV more than once. Clearing one HPV type leaves you partially immune to that type, but not to the dozens of others you haven't met yet.
A gonorrhea test uses a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), which detects the bacterium's DNA in a sample.
Pelvic inflammatory disease often causes no symptoms at all.
BV in pregnancy is a common bacterial imbalance that's linked to preterm delivery and low birth weight. It's safely treated with oral metronidazole or vaginal metronidazole gel or clindamycin cream.