Sexually transmitted diseases are a highly prevalent affliction occurring all over the United States. One in four Americans has, had or will contract a sexually transmitted disease in their life. A great way to prevent this is taking advantage of local STD testing clinics. These clinics will take your health and the health of your potential partners into account and treat this trust with the utmost care. Local STD testing can provide you with the answers you are looking for in regards to what diseases you might have, or don’t have.
A full battery of tests should be performed. However, with each test comes a higher price. For someone on a lower budget the bacterial infections such as syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and genital chancres can be tested for a lower price. Viral infections tend to cost a lot more due to the necessity of work that goes into the blood drawn. Viral hepatitis (hepatitis B), herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2, human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are all higher priced testing than their bacterial counterparts. Tests can be run if you think you’ve contracted pubic lice or scabies, but most of the time you can tell whether or not you have one or the other by a simple visual scan of your skin or pubic hair.
Not all of these are strictly transmissible through sexual contact. Herpes, pubic lice and scabies can all be transmitted through touch. Herpes can be transmitted through saliva as well as through sexual contact and has a higher rate of transmission if open wounds are involved. HPV as well can be passed on through skin to skin contact. This kind of risk begs to have people test for them.
Sexually transmitted disease tests can also take into account sexually transmitted infections (that is to say afflictions that might not blossom as a disease but can still be transmitted). Getting tested can ensure that you are not unwittingly passing along an infection to your partner. These can be highly embarrassing to discover, but you shouldn’t let that deter you from getting regular check ups at your local STD testing centre.