Click on the links for more infomation on the common sexually transmitted infections:-

Chlamydia

Chlamydia is much easier to catch than it is to spell! It's the world's commonest bacterial sexually transmitted infection and costs the NHS up to £100 million a year in treatment costs associated with the complications that it can cause.

It's a bacterial infection that occurs in the urethra, pelvis or eyes and can be spread through vaginal and anal sex, close physical contact and also – although there's no firm evidence – oral sex. It can also be passed on to the eyes from the genitals by your fingers. Most women and many men show no symptoms initially and will continue to spread it unwittingly.

Symptoms

Alarm bells should ring if you have a burning sensation when you pee, a slight, cloudy liquid that oozes from the tip of the penis (not the one you're used to), abnormal discharge from the vagina, urethra (water passage) or anus or an eye infection. These can all be caused by other things and it's advisable to get yourself checked out for it if you have recently contracted another sexual infection such as genital warts or gonorrhoea.

Sometimes, symptoms can show between one to three weeks after contracting chlamydia. Often, however, women, in particular, do not display any symptoms at all and can develop Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) resulting in infertility or ectopic pregnancies (when the egg is fertilised and implants itself in the fallopian tube rather than the womb) later in life.

Treatment

Testing for chlamydia doesn't have to involve an examination or swab test. You can now ‘pee in a pot' and the result will be sent to you via text If you wish. Antibiotics usually cure it completely in around a month.

Using a condom during sex can help you prevent passing on and/or contracting chlamydia

Gonorrhoea

Gonorrhoea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection (after chlamydia) and is caused by neisseria gonorrhoeae.

It is a bacterium that can multiply easily and favours warm, moist areas such as the cervix, the uterus (womb) fallopian tubes, the urethra (water passage) and the throat. Gonorrhoea is spread through sexual contact and can be passed from mother to child during childbirth. It can also infect other parts of the body, for example, if you touch your eyes after touching infected genitals.

Symptoms

Although it is possible to have gonorrhoea without displaying any symptoms, the signs to look out for a discharge from the penis or vagina, needing to pee more often, a burning sensation or pain when peeing, and bleeding between monthly periods (women only!).

It's very important that you seek treatment as soon as you can as serious complications can develop if gonorrhoea is left untreated. In women it can develop into Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) resulting in infertility or ectopic pregnancies (when the egg is fertilised and implants itself in the fallopian tube rather than the womb) later in life. Men can develop epididymitis, which is a pain in the testicles that can lead to infertility if left untreated.

Treatment

Treatment is painless and efficient. A sample of fluid is taken and sent to a lab for testing and if found early enough, it can be treated with antibiotics.

Using a condom will substantially reduce the risks of catching, or passing on, gonorrhoea.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.

Warts

The Human Papilloma virus (HPV) certainly sounds slightly more sophisticated than warts, but it's the same thing. If you catch it in your foot, you'll probably get a verruca. And those occurring in, on or around your privates are known as genital warts.

Genital warts are very contagious and are one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases around. They are contracted by direct skin-to-skin contact and can spread through sexual contact and touching infected genital areas such as the vagina, cervix, vulva, penis, anus, rectum and urethra (water passage).

In many cases, the symptoms do not show themselves, and when they do, this can be weeks or even years after contracting them. Some people, however, are immune to the virus and will never catch it, despite repeated contact with an infected person.

Symptoms

In men the warts (which look like little lumps and stand up from the skin) are commonly found under the foreskin and on the tip of the penis. They can also be found on the scrotum and round the anus. Infected women will usually find them at the opening of the vagina and around the anus. Less commonly, they can be found inside the vagina and on the cervix.

Women showing no symptoms may have HPV detected during their regular smear test. Men showing no symptoms are unlikely to find out if they have genital warts.

Treatment

Although the HPV infection cannot be cured, there are several ways to remove visible genital warts: creams, freezing them off, burning them off and using laser treatment. However, once contracted, the virus stays in your body forever and is likely to cause warts to appear in the future.

Condoms provide some protection if they cover the infected area, but aside from keeping the area clean and dry and not sharing towels, cloths etc, there is little else that can be done.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.

Thrush

Wearing lycra shorts, tight jeans, using too much vaginal deodorant or perfumed bubble baths and taking antibiotics can be a dangerous combination as they increase the chances of developing candida albicans, or thrush.

Thrush is a yeast infection which develops from a yeast that normally lives harmlessly on the skin. Sometimes conditions change and the yeast increases rapidly causing infection. It likes warm, moist environments and although it is possible to contract it without sexual contact (a mother taking antibiotics and breastfeeding her baby, for example, can pass on the antibiotics to her child which then destroy the harmless bacteria that keep thrush at bay) it is sometimes regarded as a sexually transmitted infection.

Symptoms

People can display several symptoms, so, ladies, the things to look out for are itching, soreness and redness around the vagina, vulva or anus, a cottage cheesy discharge from the vagina, a swollen vulva and pain when having sex. Gents, you don't get off scot-free – you're likely to find irritation, burning or itching and a redness or red patches under the foreskin or on the tip of the penis, the same kind of discharge under the foreskin, difficulty in pulling the foreskin back (uncircumcised chaps only!) and a slight discharge from the urethra. Both men and women may find it painful to pee.

Treatment

Treatment for thrush is either application of cream to the external genital area or maybe pessaries (vaginal tablet) for the ladies are usually all that's required, sometimes it is treated with an oral tablet too.

Wearing a condom during sex can help to prevent either passing on or becoming infected with thrush.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.

Trichomonas

This is an infection caused by a microscopic parasite found in the vagina and the urethra (water pipe) in both men and women.

It can be passed on in a variety of manners: through unprotected vaginal, oral or anal sex and possibly through sharing sex toys. Also, a mother can pass it on to her baby at birth. If left untreated men can develop infections of the urethra or prostrate and women can suffer complications during pregnancy.

Symptoms

Yellow or green (and sometimes frothy) discharges from the vagina or penis. inflammation, itching, and soreness in and around the vagina. Pain when peeing, and pain during sex.

Sometimes, however, symptoms are very mild and some men and women display no symptoms at all.

Treatment

In order to diagnoseTV, a swab is taken from the vagina or the tip of the penis and a urine sample may also be required. Antibiotics are then prescribed and sexual contact is best avoided during the treatment.

Using a condom during sex can help you prevent passing on and/or contracting trichomoniasis.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.

Syphilis

What do the following people all have in common: Henry VIII, Nehru, Nietzsche, Lenin, Napoleon, Keats, Van Gogh, Al Capone and Oscar Wilde? It's said that they all died of Syphilis. (There's no suggestion, however, of any relationship between any of them!)

Syphilis can be extremely serious. If allowed to run its full course, there are three stages of infection and in its third stage it can be a killer.

Infecting the blood and other bodily fluids, Syphilis is a bacteria which can be passed on through unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex, by sharing sex toys, skin-to-skin contact if rashes and sores are evident and from a mother to her unborn child.

Symptoms

The symptoms in the first stage often go unnoticed but the typical signs include painless sores in or on the genital area, painless, reddish brown sore on the mouth or nose. These sores appear around three to four weeks after contracting syphilis and last up to two months. After they clear, you still have syphilis.

Stage two can start anything from six weeks to six months after contraction. A rash (often on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet and the genital area) can be the first sign and is often accompanied by flu-like symptoms. These go away eventually; however, you still have syphilis.

The final stage is very rare and very serious and can appear many years after the first infection if not treated. It can cause permanent damage to the heart and brain (people often appear to be 'mad'), blindness and the associated organ damage leads to death. So it's quite a good idea not to catch it, really. Remember the condoms!

Treatment

Blood and urine samples, plus a swab from a sore will provide enough for diagnosis and then antibiotics will combat it in its early stages.

Using a condom during sex can help you prevent passing on and/or contracting syphilis.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.

HIV/AIDS

The most widely publicised, the most frightening and, in certain parts of the world, the most indiscriminate killer, HIV/AIDS cannot be cured. There are good, effective treatments though. Before these came about, a person with HIV who then contracted one of the associated infections or diseases (TB, pneumonia, cancer...) due to their inability to fight off infection was considered to have AIDS. This is no longer a widely-used term and doctors may now refer to full-blown AIDS as advanced HIV infection.

It is estimated that there are around 50,000 people in the UK living with HIV. For someone to become infected they would have to have a sufficient amount of the virus in their blood and the body fluids that contain enough HIV to infect someone are blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk. The myths about contracting HIV from things like toilet seats and sharing cigarettes are wide and varied – none are true.

Vaginal or anal sex without condoms (there is a small risk through oral sex), sharing needles or syringes, from mother to baby – before and during birth and whilst breast feeding – are all ways of passing on the virus. Theoretically, it can be contracted through receiving donated blood and donated organs but all blood and tissue donations are now screened for HIV.

Symptoms

HIV damages the body's immune system making it unable to fight off illness and infection. Most people don't notice that they have been infected; however, those that do may experience persistent flu-like symptoms, unexplained weight loss, diarrhoea, white spots in the mouth, purple bumps on the skin and inside the mouth, nose or rectum.

Symptoms vary with each individual and occur when the immune system is so damaged that other infections start to cause problems.

Treatment

An HIV blood test will detect the presence of the virus from around three months after contracting it. However, before it shows up in a test, an infected person still has enough of the virus to pass it on. Although anti-HIV drugs exist which help manage the illness and slow down the damage to the immune system, there is nothing yet that can rid a person of HIV entirely and most people who contract it eventually die.

Using a condom during sex can help you prevent passing on and/or contracting HIV.

As always, if you suspect that you may have contracted any STI, seek professional help and treat it as soon as you can.