Alarmed by the thought of taking an STD test? Just be thankful you aren’t going to experience the mercury treatment! Learn more with this brief history of STD treatment.

For as long as human beings have existed, they’ve had to deal with Sexually Transmitted Diseases, or STDs. Nowadays, we are fortunate that many of the most common STDs are easily treatable, contraception is reliable, and that diagnosis has become very accurate. But back in the day, when there was no reliable STD test for most diseases and even less chance of getting an effective preventative or a cure, catching an STD could be a very serious business indeed…

Old Remedies

Like many diseases, STDs were not well understood in the era before modern medicine, and were subject to a huge amount of superstition and misunderstanding. You could forget getting a definitive STD test from a doctor with many diseases sharing similar symptoms, accurate diagnosis was almost impossible before blood tests were perfected. One disease was likely to be mistaken for another, and if you were carrying an STD but were not displaying any symptoms, you had absolutely no way of finding out.

Even worse than the lack of a reliable method of diagnosis were the dubious ‘cures’ that were on offer most of the old remedies were truly eyewatering. Mercury was the common treatment for syphilis, though whether it did anything other than make the sufferer chronically ill is open to debate! Silver nitrate and arsenic have also been used in the past to treat various STDs, and if your infection resulted in sores, lesions, or blisters, then it got even worse you were liable to have them cut or burnt away by the doctor who treated you.

Modern Treatment

Thankfully, things have come a long way since the old days of STD treatment. The arrival of antibiotics changed the face of medicine, and offered a simple and effective treatment for many of the most common STDs, such as syphilis, gonorrhoea, and chlamydia. Even the diseases that remain incurable, such as Hepatitis C and genital herpes, can be carefully managed so that those who are infected with them can continue to live normal lives.

Matching advances in treatment have been improvements in diagnosis. Anyone can now undergo an accurate STD test to determine whether or not they have been infected. A simple blood or urine sample can be tested for a wide range of STDs, and the tests are extremely accurate. Gone are the days when one STD would be mistaken for another, or when a symptomless STD would go undetected by a doctor. Nowadays, if you go for a test, you’ll get an accurate result.

Of course, modern times have led to vast improvements in treatment, but they have also brought with them a host of new challenges. The recent appearance of HIV and AIDS, and the rise of drug resistant strains of STDs are a great danger to sexual health around the world. In the developing world, where medical standards are not so high, STDs continue to pose a significant danger to the majority of the population. But whatever the problems modern healthcare workers face, when it comes to STDs, we’ve come a long way since mercury treatment!

It is difficult to sift through the many waves of misinformation with regard to STDs. That is why it is important to arm yourself with proven facts and findings.

There are a myriad of myths and distorted beliefs circulating with regard to Sexually Transmitted Diseases or STDs. Listed below are a series of facts and findings from health care providers and practitioners as a means of separating fact from fiction.

-Sexual abstinence is the only way to guarantee one will avoid STD infection 100 percent.

-The risk of acquiring or transmitting an STD is directly associated to sexually active persons who have multiple sex partners.

-STDs are acquired or transmitted during intimate sexual activity.

-Not all persons infected with an STD show obvious symptoms.

-Inanimate objects do not transmit STDs – people transmit STDs during intimate sexual activity.

-A person can be infected with one or several different STDs at the same time.

-Undetected, untreated and/or inadequately treated STDs can lead to serious health problems that may ultimately result in permanent tissue damage, threaten one’s life and/or result in loss of life.

-Unlike some other diseases, having an STD once or several times does not provide immunity from “getting” an STD in the future.

-Persons who are advised by their health care professional they are infected with an STD should take rapid action to insure their sex partners are advised to seek medical assistance – evaluation.

-Persons who are sexually active with multiple sex partners should seek regular medical checkups to facilitate early detection and reduce the risk of medical complications from undetected – untreated infection.

-Prevention includes: abstinence; if sexually active, maintaining a mutually exclusive relationship for you and your partner; use of a quality latex prophylactic.

-Chlamydia and gonorrhea are bacterial STDs usually localized to the initial site of infection.

-Symptoms with gonorrhea are very similar to those of chlamydia for both women and men. -Syphilis is a systemic disease that is spread via the blood and/or lymphatic system and the organism that causes syphilis multiplies itself within the circulatory system.

-Syphilis can progress through four stages: Primary, Secondary, Early Latent and Late Latent.

-Undetected – untreated STDs can lead to medical complications requiring extended and costly medical care and may involve extended hospital care.

-STD infections can seriously impact one’s social, educational and/or daily living environment. -Regular testing for sexually transmitted infections is recommended annually for those who engage in unprotected sex and for those that have multiple partners.