Is it only a threat if sexually active? If you have the potential risk of having a sexually transmitted disease, but not have sex, could you die from it? (Aka do sexually transmitted diseases occur when two people have intercourse or does only one person have it and could either die or spread it to others?)
Thank you!
These are such great questions--are you considering becoming a researcher? If not, you should! ;)
Let’s start with some basics. Infections are caused by teeny, tiny living* things like bacteria, viruses, or parasites that enter your body, begin growing or multiplying, and change the way your organs are working. Infections can be spread in many different ways, like by breathing in someone’s cough droplets, touching someone’s rash, or having sex with someone who has bacteria in their genital area. Sexually transmitted infections are those that are spread by sexual contact; sexual contact meaning skin touching genital skin, or genitals touching someone’s blood, semen, or vaginal secretions.
Some infections are spread in multiple ways, and this goes for a few sexually transmitted infections too. For example, HIV can be sexually transmitted, and it can also be transmitted during breastfeeding, blood transfusions, or in pregnancy from the gestational parent to the fetus. Other sexually transmitted infections, like gonorrhea, can only be spread during sex.
Sexually transmitted infections are not “created” when two people have sex. In other words, one person has to already have a sexually transmitted infection in order for transmission to other people to occur.** If two people have sex and neither has a sexually transmitted infection, no infection will result from that sexual encounter.
If you have a sexually transmitted infection and don’t get it treated, you will continue to have that infection. Continuing to have sex or not, does not affect how the infection impacts you--it only affects the other people you have sex with. If left untreated, a few sexually transmitted infections can eventually lead to death, others can cause long-term health damage like infertility or chronic pain, and some are just annoying or embarrassing. However, ALL sexually transmitted infections can be tested for and treated or cured.
*Whether or not viruses truly count as living things is a… debate. ;)
**Where infections originate from in the first place, and how they start circulating in humans, is an entirely different, complicated, and interesting topic!
With love,
ReproRants
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