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STDS ● FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
3. How common are STDs in America?
4. If I use a condom can I still get an STD?
5. How do I know if I have an STD?
7. Can an STD be cured?
8. Can I get an STD again?
9. What happens if I don't get treated?
10. How do STDs affect pregnancy?
11. How can I avoid getting an STD?
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A Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) is a virus, bacteria, or other small organism that can be transmitted through genital or sexual contact with someone who has the disease.
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• Some STDs live on the skin around the penis, vagina or rectum. You can get an STD if your skin touches the other person’s skin in these areas (even if you don’t have sex). • Other STDs (like HIV and Hepatitis B) are spread by contact with infected blood and sexual secretions. • STDs are also transmitted just as readily through oral contact with secretions and contact with exposed skin surfaces. |
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• Every 2 seconds another person contracts and STD – that’s 15.3 million STDs per year.1,2 • 70 million people in the U.S. who have an STD,1,2 over 80% don’t know because they have no symptoms.3 • Persons under the age of 25 make up the majority of the population acquiring STDs.4,5 |
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• It has been reported that condoms leak, break or slip off 3-15% of the time even when used 100% of the time.4,6,7 • Even if you use a condom 100% of the time, it does not eliminate the risk of contracting an STD.4 • Condoms do not prevent the transmission of STDs from lesions on areas not covered by condoms such as Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) / Gential Warts or Genital Herpes (HSV2).4 • Adolescents are more susceptible to contracting STDs (even with condom use) than adults.4,5 |
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• Often times, STDs carry no symptoms so it is impossible to know unless you have medical testing. • Other times you may experience symptoms such as painful urination, abnormal discharge, painful sores, warts, fever, pain during intercourse and more. • These symptoms may go away on their own but the disease may still live in your body and be passed along to your partners even with no symptoms present.
You can take a short quiz to find out if you should be tested for STDs.
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CPC offers free and confidential STD testing at our Mountain View Center. Call 650-964-8093 for an appointment.
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Some STDS can be cured; others cannot which means you will have them for life (i.e. Herpes and HIV). However, even STDs that are curable can have lasting effects on your body. Of the STDs that can be cured, the earlier you receive treatment, the less severe the damage to your body may be.
Read more about each STD on our Fact Sheets Page. |
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Yes, having an STD once does not make you immune from getting it again.
Read more about each STD on our Fact Sheets Page.
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If untreated, STDs can manifest themselves in a variety of ways including chronic and acute pain, infertility, hair loss, rashes, blindness, arthritis, psychosis, and cancer.8,9
Without treatment you may be more susceptible to contracting additional STDs. Not getting treatment can increase the symptoms of incurable viral STDs.
Read more about each STD on our Fact Sheets Page. |
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Some STDs can be passed to the baby or can cause miscarriage, tubal pregnancy, birth defects, blindness, or premature delivery.9
Read more about each STD on our Fact Sheets Page. |
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The only way to protect yourself from STDs is sexual abstinence outside of a mutually monogamous faithful relationship such as marriage. No other form of protection can offer the guarantee that you will not contract an STD.
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1. Cates W. Jr. (1999) Estimates of the incidence and prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. Sex. Tran. Dis. 26, S2-S7. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2. American Social Health Association (1998) Sexually Transmitted Diseases in America: How Many Cases and at What Cost? Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, CA. 3. Bunnell R.E., Dahlberg L., Rolfs R., Ransom R., Gershman K., Farshy C., Newhall W.J., Schmid S., Stone K., St Louis M. (1999). High prevalence and incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in urban adolescent females despite moderate risk behaviors. J. Infect. Dis. 180, 1624-1631. 4. National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases (2001) Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention. National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington D.C. 5. Piccinino L.J., Mosher W.D. (1998) Trends in contraceptive use in the United States: 1982-1995. Fam. Plann. Perspect. 30, 4-10. 6. Hatcher R.A (1998) Contraceptive Technology, 17th ed. Ardent Media, New York. pp. 800. 7. Fu H., Darroch J.E., Haas T. Ranjit N. (1999) Contraceptive failure rates: New estimates from the 1995 national survey of family growth. Fam. Plann. Perspect. 31, 56-63. 8. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (2000). Tracking the Hidden Epidemics, Trends in STDs in the United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta. 9. Thomas C.L. (1993) Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary, 18th ed. F .A. Davis Company, Philadelphia.
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