Hesperian Health Guides
Chapter 16: Sexually Transmitted Infections and Other Infections of the Genitals
HealthWiki > Where Women Have No Doctor > Chapter 16: Sexually Transmitted Infections and Other Infections of the Genitals
HealthWiki > Where Women Have No Doctor > Chapter 16: Sexually Transmitted Infections and Other Infections of the Genitals
How to use this chapter:
This chapter describes illnesses and problems spread by sexual relations. If you have never had a sexual partner, you cannot get most of these. HIV and some types of hepatitis are spread by sex but also by contaminated blood or sharing needles for injections. The chapter also describes yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis, 2 infections that cause unusual discharge from the vagina but are usually not caused by sex. The chapter mostly describes signs affecting the vulva, vagina, and the cervix but common signs of STIs affecting the penis and anus are also included.
Some other illnesses that can spread sexually, but are more often spread by other kinds of contact, are not included in the chapter, such as Zika and mpox (monkeypox)
Untreated STIs can cause serious problems. Get treated as soon as you know something might be wrong. Your sexual partners will need to be treated too, even if they have no signs.
This chapter will also help you treat some problems of the genitals that are not sexually transmitted.
Sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, are infections passed from one person to another during sex. Most types of sex can spread an STI. It can be penis-in-vagina sex, or penisin-anus sex, or oral sex (mouth to penis, mouth to vagina). Sometimes STIs can spread by just rubbing an infected penis or vagina against another person’s genitals. STIs can be passed during pregnancy to a developing baby before it is born, or during childbirth.
Unless they are treated early, STIs can cause:
- infertility.
- babies born too early, too small, blind, sick, or dead.
- pregnancy in the tube (outside the womb).
- death from severe infection.
- lasting pain.
- cancer of the cervix, liver, throat, and anus