A health care provider who has expertise in diagnosing sexually transmitted infections can usually make the diagnosis of molluscum con-tagiosum by looking at the bumps. There is no blood test or other test to routinely diagnose this infection. If there is doubt, a lesion can be biopsied to assist in making the diagnosis, but this [...]
The symptoms of herpes usually last for a short time and go away for long stretches of time, so many people put the symptoms out of their minds and don’t seek medical attention. When people do seek medical help, they may find that some health care providers are not very well informed about herpes. This [...]
Transmission occurs only through oral, genital, or anal sexual contact with an infected partner. It usually but not always takes several exposures for transmission to take place. Correct use of condoms helps prevent transmission of this infection. There is no blood or culture test that is reliable,testing for donovanosis requires a biopsy of an infected [...]
Some people think that if you trust a partner you don’t need to talk about these things, and they worry that communicating with a partner about sexual health issues may cause that partner to leave. The problem with this approach is that, in an effort to show your partner that you trust him or her [...]
There are many reasons that a woman may experience pain with intercourse, only some of which are related to sexually transmitted infections. Pain can originate from sores on the outside of the genitals (herpes) or from vaginal infections (yeast or trichomonas), which often cause pain with initial penetration. Infection of the cervix or pelvic organs [...]