An STD or sexually transmitted disease is usually an infection which spreads from one person to another during sexual contact. Some STDs can also be transferred through touch, since they spread by skin contact. People hardly like to talk or discuss about STDs, but it is very important to rule out the possibilities of STD. Whether one likes it or not, if STD testing is ignored, then it can lead to long term consequences.

Why STD Testing is Important

Often STDs have no signs and symptoms, and the only way to know that are you suffering from an STD is to get tested for it. So it is a good idea to get yourself tested, as you never know if you might have STD even though you don't show symptoms. Also, when STDs are diagnosed, most of them can be cured.

Consequences of Not Getting Tested

If one has STD and is not getting tested for the same, then it could lead to health problems which can cause permanent damages or might prove to be fatal. Some of the problems are:

1. Undiagnosed and untreated STDs can lead to damaged reproductive system, leading to sterile men and women. 
2. Chlamydia, if untreated can lead to epididymitis and shrinkage of testicles and infertility in men. It also leads to pelvic inflammatory disease. But good news is, it can be treated easily.
3. Syphillis can make a person blind and deaf, and can also be passed on to babies. 
4. Gonorrhea, which can also be treated easily with antibiotics, can lead to infertility or death if untreated. 
5. Even HIV/AIDS if diagnosed in early stages can enable the patient to lead a normal life and does not mean only death, contrary to conventional perceptions.  

Symptoms of STD

While, gonorrhea, chlamydia and human papilloma virus (HPV) have no symptoms, the common symptoms of STDs might vary. 

1. In women, the common symptoms are pain and burning sensation during urination, blood in vaginal discharge as also abnormal vaginal discharge, abdominal pain, blisters, warts, and swollen glands. 
2. Men often experience inflammation of the testicles, prostate, sores, fever, urethral discharge and pain during urination.

If these symptoms are observed, it is vital to get tested for STDs. Also the best way to protect your partner is not to practice unsafe sex and to refrain from the same until diagnosed and treatment is complete.
 
Getting yourself tested for STD is also beneficial, as it can prevent against complications like cancers and infertility. The standard STD panel of tests consists of Herpes IgG antibody and HIV antibody blood tests, along with a blood test for syphilis antibody and DNA urine test for gonorrhea and Chlamydia.

The Dangers of Putting Off STD Testing

The year 2014 has seen a massive increase in the number of patients affected by Gonorrhoea. The most infected age group is between 15 and 24. This is mainly due to lack of knowledge in this age group about the disease. Here are some facts about Gonorrhoea that one must know.

Gonorrhoea Transmission
Gonorrhoea, also known as drip, is transmitted when a normal person comes in contact sexually with an infected person. Infected fluid of a mother can also pass to her newborn infant during delivery. The disease can affect both the genders.

Cause of Gonorrhoea
Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria cause the disease. The bacteria grow in mucus membranes and usually grow in the warm and moist areas of humans' reproductive tracts such as uterus and fallopian tube of women. These can also grow in anus, mouth as well as throat. As a matter of fact, the infection can be passed even via oral or anal sex.

Symptoms of Gonorrhoea
An infected person will develop symptoms of the disease in 2 to 14 days. Men may feel burning or painful sensation while urinating. Other symptoms are as follows:

1. Swollen and painful testicles
2. Swollen or redness at the tip of the penis
3. Penis may have a drip or discharge
4. Frequent urination
5. Recurrent soreness of throat

Females have milder symptoms of the infection. This makes it difficult to diagnose, and is sometimes misinterpreted as common vaginal yeast or other bacterial infection.

Following are a few symptoms of the disease in women:

1. Burning or painful urination
2. Frequent urination
3. Vaginal discharge
4. Soreness in throat
5. Fever
6. Lower abdominal pain
7. Pain while sexual intercourse

If the disease is not treated, infection spreads in blood stream leading to rashes, fever and even pain in the joints. Such unnoticeable symptoms make it difficult to treat.

Testing Methods of Gonorrhoea
One method is that penile or vaginal discharge samples are taken from patients and examined under a microscope by adding reactive stain. However, this is not an accurate assessment.
Another test is conducted where exposing samples are incubated. In case of infection, colony of gonorrhoea shows growth. Preliminary test may take 24 hours. Final assessment may take around three days. Samples can be from the patient's anus, joint fluid, blood, throat, vagina or tip of the penis.

Treatment
The disease is treatable under proper medical supervision. However, the bacterial resistance to Azithromycin drug has made it more difficult for treatment.

Protection
It is highly recommended to have a protected intercourse. Women of age group less than 25 need to have STI evaluation once a year.

Know All About Gonorrhoea

The HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a critical disease. This virus invades a person's immune system which is the body's defense against infections such as viruses and bacteria. The immune system doesn't work properly and becomes deficient once attacked by HIV. One social acknowledgement to HIV that has gained enough recognition is the HIV counselling due to the crucial need to counsel the patient about sexual behavior and the risks associated with it. 

Importance of HIV counselling 
The human immunodeficiency virus has become an epidemic in nature and has reached to a distressing proportion worldwide as it is in its third decade. Thus, counselling becomes remarkably crucial part of the treatment. 

HIV prevention counselling is a significant mode of behavioral invasion particularly in the deficiency or lack of an effective curative treatment or vaccine. HIV counselling varies from other forms of counselling sessions. Apart from being a health obstacle, the disease is equally overwhelming for the family as well as people around you. family. It is also connected with endless and intense human suffering which stimulates multiple emotional responses. Such reactions involve self-denial, grief, fear, loss, anxiety, anger, annoyance, depression self-blaming, pity, self-condemnation isolation and suicidal thoughts. 

Also, the risk of passing the virus to the partner during sexual activity is high and the patient must be aware of safe sex and the risks associated with unprotected sex. Hence, counselling becomes paramount. 

Counselling session s information Self-care counselling: 
The patient must be well informed about the disease and should be supported in embracing attitudes, actions, and beliefs which will defend and serve as a protective shield to the body s immune system. Improving, enhancing, and transforming nutrition is required. A few other things that are emphasized are, encouraging physical activity, avoiding objects, actions, and events that threaten the body, overcoming anxiety and stress that compromise the psychological, mental, physical and welfare of the body, and seeking and giving support for self-care. 

Types of counselling: 

Patient centered counselling: It changed the focus of counselling from a single informative one to one that concentrated on a patient s circumstances and needs. This involved active listening, to render better support and managing client's particular prevention needs. 
Risk reduction counselling: This includes examining client s awareness about sexual activity and their feelings.Using their current HIV knowledge as an appealing tool, the limitations they have for protected sex is discussed. A better understanding is ensured in the patients so that unsafe behaviors can be avoided. 
Grief counselling: People who are contaminated with HIV have an elevated risk of acquiring depression. Counselling helps you to deal with any emotional outburst. 
Aims of counselling in HIV infection-

Prevention is the first purpose of HIV counselling. It decides whether the lifestyle puts that individual at a higher risk. Helping to recognize and distinguish the definitions of high-risk behavior. The counselling contributes to behavioral change and also aims at working with the person and his family to obtain and sustain that change in approach and behavior.

HIV Counselling - Why It Is Important To Get It?


- hiv testing in pregnancy should be done early so as standard care can be taken for the pregnant women.


- this hiv testing must be repeated in the third trimester, usually before 36 weeks of gestation. This should be done in women with hiv-seronegative and also in pregnant women who are at a high risk of developing hiv infection.


- expedited hiv tests should be performed at the time of delivery and labor and this is a must in women who have not been documented for hiv. The results of the test should be available in one hour of the test and the testing should be available 24 hours. In case the results are positive then, infant postnatal antiretroviral and intrapartum drug prophylaxis should be started immediately.


- women who have not been able to be tested for hiv at the time of labor and delivery are suggested expedited screening for hiv. Their screening can be done immediately postpartum or their babies should undergo screening. In case the infant and mother, both are positive, then infant antiretroviral drug prophylaxis should be started immediately. These mothers should avoid breastfeeding their babies, until the supplemental hiv tests are negative. In infants with positive hiv, prophylaxis should be discontinued and antiretroviral drug therapy should be started.


- in case of acute hiv infection during pregnancy, that is in the intrapartum period, or during breast feeding, initial testing can be performed with an antigen/antibody combination immunoassay. If the supplemental test is negative, then an additional test which is the virologic test (dna, rna) are necessary for the diagnosis of the hiv infection.
- if the mother is hiv positive then this information must be documented in the infant's medical record and also communicated to the infants care provider.
The knowledge of an antenatal maternal hiv infection allows the:
- women with hiv infection to get the correct antiretroviral therapy along with prophylaxis for the infections which might occur due to the immunocompromised state of the body. This also prevents and decreases the risk of transmission to their partners.
- when there is provision for antiretroviral therapy for the mother during pregnancy and labor along with antiretroviral drug prophylaxis for the baby there is less risk of perinatal transmission of the hiv.
- the hiv infected women should be counseled for a cesarean delivery. The option of an elective cesarean reduces the perinatal transmission of the hiv.
- the hiv women should be counseled about the risk of breastfeeding.

Identification and Management of Perinatal HIV Treatment

Don't Panic !

Having unprotected sex isn't the smartest move a person can make, but it isn't necessarily the end of the world, so follow the advice below and you should be fine.

We Had Unprotected Sex And...I Think I'm Pregnant

Finding out you're pregnant can be the happiest or the scariest day of your life.

Don't wait around and bury your head in the sand saying 'it won't happen to me' and 'I'll be fine' you might not be, and then you'll find yourself in a much more difficult situation than if you'd faced the situation head on and quickly.

If the intercourse happened less than 72 hours ago, emergency contraception, the morning-after pill, can be taken as a precaution against you becoming pregnant. However, note that the sooner you take the emergency contraceptive pill, the higher its efficiency is.

We Had Unprotected Sex And...I Think I Have an STI

Check for any unusual symptoms around your genitals (vagina or penis), such as:

Pain when you urinate
Itching
An unusual or smelly discharge
Sores
Unexplained bleeding
If any consult your healthcare provider immediately

Not all STIs have visible symptoms so even if you think you're fine, after having unprotected sex, get tested!

Go For Sexually Transmitted Disease Profile Including HIV ( 1ST Month HIV RNA, 3RD MONTH HIV ELISA), HSV 1 and 2, HbsAg, HCV, Urine Routine, VDRL, etc.

We Had Unprotected Sex And...I Think I May Get HIV

Take Post Exposure Prophylactic Drugs (Anti - HIV) as soon as possible. It works when started within 72 hours and must be continued for 1 month to prevent HIV.



What If You Have Unprotected Sex?

People who suffer from human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known as'hiv, are known as hiv positive people. The virus is the agent of aids that is currently incurable. Hiv is known to alter the human immune system and makes people much more susceptible and vulnerable to diseases and infections. 

Body fluids such as semen, blood, breast milk, vaginal fluids etc. Of an infected individual contains the virus, which can be passed from one person to another during blood-to-blood and/or sexual contact. Hiv positive women may even pass on this virus to their children during pregnancy, delivery or by breast feeding them. Hiv is also transmitted during oral, anal or vaginal sex, by contaminated hypodermic needles and by blood transfusion. 

Mentioned below are a few issues that a hiv positive woman have to face apart from discrimination and stigma, fear of infecting their children or partners, violence and abandonment. 

1. Menstrual disorders: changes in menstrual cycles are frequently reported by hiv infected women. However, menstrual dysfunctions are due to varied reasons that aren't directly related to the disease. Although most of the hiv positive women suffer from amenorrhea i. E. The unusual absence of periods, it is not just due to hiv but also because of weight loss or immunosuppression. 
 
2. Contraception: it is very important that the contraception a hiv positive woman chooses not only acts as birth control, but also to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and hiv. Although condoms do not provide exceptional pregnancy prevention, they are excellent at preventing transmission of the hiv virus. Permanent sterilization is usually the most chosen contraceptive method for hiv serodiscordant couples.

3. Surgical complications: hiv positive women are at a higher risk of undergoing gynecologic surgery. This is because they are more vulnerable to pelvic infectious disease that requires surgical intervention. There is also a greater risk of developing vulvar cancer in hiv positive women. 

4. Fertility: there has been an increase in the number of seropositive women contemplating pregnancy and childbirth. Most couples resort to assisted reproduction to lower the risk of horizontal hiv transmission. Studies show that undergoing hiv treatment and having an undetectable viral load is helpful in preventing the transmission of hiv. It is important to consult a medical expert if you are unable to get pregnant after at least 6 months of trying. Fertility problems are more common in hiv positive women than hiv negative women.

Issues for HIV Positive Women

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