Three steps for women to self-examine STDs

You may not want to be caught carrying condoms with you, and you may be embarrassed to buy condoms, but these are responsible actions for your body. In the early stages of a sexual relationship, if you are the first to suggest using a condom, or if you take out a condom, the other person may wonder if you "do this often" and think you are more "professional". However, when establishing a sexual relationship, you have to pay attention to your own life and health: Will he pass you AIDS or herpes? If you don't care about yourself, who cares? Who cares more about your future than you?

People’s misconceptions about STDs

Myth 1: Only sexually promiscuous people can get STDs

Many people think that as long as they "keep themselves clean" they will not get sick. In fact, among the sexually transmitted disease patients Sun Lijun treats, there are virgins, preschool children, and old ladies in their 70s. She said that among all patients with STDs, 70% to 80% have no experience of promiscuity, and everyone has the possibility of contracting STDs.

Myth 2: STDs are only transmitted through sex

STDs are mainly spread through sexual contact, but they are also spread in other ways. Taking genital warts as an example, 60% to 80% of patients are infected through sexual contact, and 20% to 30% are infected through other ways, of which indirect contact transmission is very common. Experts from the Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that STDs can be transmitted within the family. In addition to sexual transmission between couples, in a few cases, family members may also be infected through contact with the secretions of STD patients. However, the possibility that the above-mentioned 6 people in the family will be sick at the same time is extremely low.

WomenThree steps to self-examination for STDs

Symptoms - Know the subtleties

Due to differences in anatomy and reproductive physiology, many women may have asymptomatic or mild symptoms after being infected with STDs, making it difficult for patients to detect them. Even if they have symptoms, women rarely consider STDs, thus becoming hidden carriers or sources of infection. When men get the disease, they often have obvious symptoms. For example, gonorrhea will cause symptoms such as frequent urination, urgency, painful urination, and a large amount of yellow purulent secretions flowing out of the urethra.

After women are infected with gonorrhea, half of the patients will not show any symptoms, and some even only show symptoms of general gynecological diseases, such as increased leucorrhea and yellow color. Therefore, patients may not necessarily realize that this abnormality is a manifestation of a sexually transmitted disease. Another example is genital herpes. Painful blisters that occur on the male external genitalia are easily noticed by patients. If a woman is infected and occurs in the vagina or cervical mucosa, it will appear as cervical erosion and the secretion will be thicker or purulent. However, the vulva often does not have a rash, so it is ignored.

Female STDs are not easy to detect

In recent years, the number of female STD patients has increased rapidly, and the ratio of male and female STD patients has reached 1.4:1. Women's failure to diagnose STDs in time often lays the foundation for the difficulty in completely curing STDs. Clinically, many male patients repeatedly fail to recover, and this is often the reason. Some experts remind that when some of the following symptoms occur, remember to be vigilant and seek medical treatment in time.