It might be said that there’s no good time to tell your partner that you have an STD. As awkward conversations go, it ranks pretty near the top of the list. Honesty is always the best policy, though, and if you have been for STD testing and received a positive result, your partner really is the first person you should talk to – they’ll need to get tested as soon as possible as well, and the longer you leave it, the harder the conversation is going to be.

However, there are good times and bad times to break the news. If you are thinking of telling your partner about your STD results during one of these five situations – then don’t!

On a First Date

You may want to begin a relationship on an honest and truthful basis, but if you’ve recently been for STD testing, perhaps the first date with someone isn’t the best time to mention it. Keep your conversation on small talk, future aspirations and the occasional well chosen compliment – save the honest discussion of sexual history and STDs for another time! – but certainly before any physical contact.

After You First Have Sex

The first sexual experience with a new partner can be many things – romantic, awkward, exciting, fun. But when it comes to pillow talk afterwards, STDs should not be a topic of conversation – that’s the kind of frank discussion you really need to have before and not after.

When You Meet The Parents

Meeting your partner’s parents can be a nerve racking experience. Most people feel under pressure to impress – few relationships can survive long under sustained parental disapproval. It’s unlikely that your potential in-laws will start quizzing you on your sexual history at the dinner table, but even if they do, it is probably best to avoid any mention of STDs…especially if you haven’t come clean with your partner beforehand!

When You Confess To An Affair

Confessing to an affair can be one of the hardest conversations you’ve ever had, and there are plenty of relationships that simply haven’t recovered from this particular revelation. But if you’ve had the misfortune to pick up an STD during your affair, perhaps it’s best to break the painful news to your partner at a different time to telling them about the affair itself!

After You’ve Got Married

You may be trying to find ways to make your wedding day truly unforgettable, but if you are thinking about using it to make a certain kind of revelation to your partner, then think again! Whatever the right time to mention and STD may be, you can be certain that it isn’t straight after tying the knot!

Many people now undergo STD testing as a couple long before the wedding day, and while this may sound clinical, it’s really the most straightforward way of making sure both partners have a clean bill of health before they get married.

Some STDs can be cured, and there are ways of managing the symptoms of others to ensure they’re barely a hindrance any longer. In the case of the diseases that there are cures for, delaying over a test and treatment can cause irreversible damage to the body, so regular STD tests are all important.

Here are the diseases that can be cured, followed by those that can be managed:

STDs with Cures

The sexually transmitted diseases that can be cured are all bacterial infections: Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and Syphilis. All three can be ‘silent’ and must be tackled quickly to avoid irreparable damage.

- Gonorrhea is tackled with a course of antibiotics or antimicrobial, but if left alone can result in Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, scarring to the urethra and infertility.

- Chlamydia is tackled by a week on doxycycline or a single dose of azithromycin, but can cause damage to the reproductive system in women and infertility in men.

- Syphilis is tackled with a course of penicillin (or alternate antibiotic for those with allergies), but this will not tackle any of the damage done to the eyes, brain, nervous system, joints, heart or bones in the later stages of the STD. Untreated Syphilis can even kill the patient.

Bear in mind that in all these cases, a cure does not mean the sexually transmitted disease cannot be caught again!

STDs with Manageable Symptoms

Beyond that, currently no major STDs can be completely cured. The good news is that the symptoms of other diseases can be managed once their presence is known via a STD test:

- Although Hepatitis C has no cure, the symptoms can be so minor as to not be noticeable. It can develop into a chronic condition that can cause serious liver failure though – if your doctor knows about this, the situation can be monitored and treatments offered to prevent it from becoming worse.

- Though some strains of genital warts can lead to cancer, the majority of them are harmless – just unsightly. The treatment provided won’t destroy the virus – which can remain in the body for years – but will remove the visible symptoms, which are often the main source of transmission.

- While it’s well documented that there is no cure for HIV and AIDS, certain antiretroviral treatments can dramatically improve both quality of life and life expectancy. As with many of these, an early diagnosis is vital for maximum impact.

- Most Herpes sufferer will find outbreaks uncomfortable, but rarely dangerous. However, if they have been diagnosed than episodic and suppressive antiviral therapy can be administered to control the attacks.

Many people work with the principal that ignorance is bliss when it comes to STDs – they’d rather not have to confront the truth and would prefer to live with doubt. The bottom line though is that many STDs have no symptoms and can be doing irreparable damage to your body for all the time they’re left untreated. A simple cure can get rid of Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia, but it can’t undo the damage! If you’re in doubt, then stop delaying and buy a STD test today!

How can HIV/AIDS be caught?

HIV and AIDS are transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids. There are several common ways that people are infected:

• Sexual contact through vaginal or anal sex
• Sharing needles with an infected individual. Rarely, this can include tattoos and piercings
• Blood transfusions or accidental exposure to infected blood
• Mother to child transmission during pregnancy or during birth. Breast feeding, in some cases, can also lead to HIV infection

How can it be prevented?

The most important precautions to take are to make sure that you always use a new, sterile needle for any injection that you take, and to always use a condom during sex unless both you and your partner have had an HIV test. The contraceptive pill, diaphragms and spermicidal jelly cannot prevent infection during sex – only condoms are an effective preventative.

What are the symptoms?

Unfortunately, HIV and AIDS do not present any clear symptoms. Approximately 4 weeks after infection, most people will suffer a fever, glandular swelling, rashes, a sore throat and muscle aches. Since these symptoms are so general, they are frequently mistaken or misdiagnosed. The only way to be certain is to take an HIV or AIDS test.

What are the treatments?

There is currently no cure or vaccine for HIV or AIDS. However, there are various courses of retroviral drugs that can help to manage the symptoms and greatly increase the quality and length of life. Early diagnosis is critical, which is why HIV tests are so important for anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to the virus.

How do I get an HIV test?

There are numerous sexual health clinics around the Australia that offer confidential HIV tests. Most people choose to purchase them privately online rather than through their insurance for the sake of privacy.

The first HIV test that is usually administered is the HIV-1 test. This is a blood test that checks for the antibodies that the body produces to fight the HIV infection. However, it can only be taken six weeks or more after exposure, as it takes time for the body to generate these antibodies. Another HIV test, the HIV PCR, can detect the virus 4-11 days after exposure. If either of these initial tests gives a positive result, follow tests are required to confirm it (the HIV-1 test can occasionally give false positive results, as it is very sensitive.)

How often should I have an HIV test?

Comprehensive STD screening, including an HIV test, is recommended once a year for all sexually active adults who have three or more sexual partners in that year. An HIV test is also recommended if you intend to start having unprotected sex with a partner, and, due to the risk of transmission to a child, is usually part of a standard health check up at the start of a pregnancy.

Swallowed bleach will prevent HIV infection

According to an Associated Press article from earlier in the year, some teens in Florida are under the mistaken belief that swallowing bleach will kill the HIV virus. Whether or not any teens genuinely believe this bizarre AIDS myth, it’s important to restate the fact that swallowing bleach will not kill the virus – but might very well kill you. While using bleach on shared needles is advice direct from the Centers for Disease Control, swallowing it is going to do no good whatsoever, and may well do some bad…

Madmen are leaving syringes filled with HIV positive blood where they will infect random people

There are all sorts of AIDS myths around syringes containing HIV infected blood either deliberately or accidentally infecting innocents who come across them. Movie theatre chairs, gas pump handles, coin slots on payphones and random injections at nightclubs have all be touted, but none of them amount to a real threat with no recorded instances of people contracting the virus through any of these methods. The forwarded emails these are typically spread through are mischief-making scare mongering according to various sources, and there are two sources of comfort to take if still worried: 1) The HIV virus cannot last for very long outside of its host, so discarded needles are unlikely to be a threat, and 2) Even if injected with a syringe of fresh HIV infected blood, there is around a 1 in 200 chance of becoming HIV positive (though this increases with the volume of blood involved)

Mosquitos can transmit HIV

It’s an HIV myth that you can get AIDS via mosquito bites. Because mosquitoes do not inject blood into their prey, they cannot spread HIV in this way. The way they can spread the likes of malaria and yellow fever is through the insect’s saliva but HIV is not spread in that way. If the insect has HIV infected blood in its gut, there’s a slim chance that swatting it, and then scratching the itch could lead to infection, but it’s such a long shot that this has never been recorded.

HIV can only infect gay men and drug users

This is an age-old AIDS myth that just won’t go away. The HIV virus can infect anyone of any age, ethnicity or sexual orientation. While it’s true that anal sex carries a higher risk of infection, most penetrative sex acts carry a risk of transferring the virus.

A HIV infected mother cannot have children

HIV does not affect fertility – though it’s possible that in its later stages women will have a higher chance of spontaneous miscarriage. The chance of transferring the disease to an unborn child is 15-30% normally but reduced to 2-3% if they follow medical guidelines.

There were plans to kill a Sesame Street Character with AIDS to teach children about death

When Jim Henson died in 1990, rumour spread that Ernie from Sesame Street would be killed off, either because Jim Henson did his voice and no-one else could be found, or to teach children to deal with death. Despite the studio’s denial, these rumours continued to spread and one of the explanations was that he would either die through terminal illness – AIDS, cancer or leukaemia – or via some kind of traffic accident. None of the muppets on the show have ever passed on, although when the actor who played Mr Hooper died in 1982 the show dealt with the situation honestly, and culminated in the adults helping Big Bird understand that his friend wouldn’t be coming back.

However, one HIV related Sesame Street story is true – in 2002, it was announced that the South African version of the show was to introduce a female muppet who was HIV positive to fight stereotypes of people with the virus. It may seem an odd area to introduce into a children’s show, but with 1 in 9 people HIV positive in South Africa, the importance of working against the stigma of females with the virus is an issue that they felt needed to face head on.

Hopefully listing these AIDS myths will help people better understand a disease that has much misinformation spouted about it! Although we still have no cure for AIDS, if you are concerned that you may have become infected, getting HIV testing as soon as possible is very important. Not only will you be able to prevent the spread to other people, but scientists have developed many ways of improving the quality of life for sufferers and an early diagnosis can really help.

There’s a wide variety of sexually transmitted infections and stds, so take a look at the info we’ve given below and discover how to protect yourself against them.

STIs and stds are passed on by sexual contact, which include oral intercourse, anal sex and vaginal sex.

Sexually transmitted diseases and stis are very contagious and they can cause discomfort, infertility and plenty of other problems for the sufferer.

Herpes is a sexually transmitted infection that most sufferers might not even know they have. However, even if they don’t have symptoms, they are still able to pass on the infection to others.

An outbreak of herpes can variety from a light soreness to sore blisters on the genitals in male and female sufferers. The first episode of symptoms can last 2 to 3 weeks and further episodes of symptoms can also occur from time to time. However, these are usually less severe than the first episode.

There’s herpes can’t be cured, but there’s several treatments available that can ease symptoms.

Gonorrhea is a extremely common sexually transmitted disease, which is due to Neisseria gonorrhoeae virus.

As well as genital areas, the virus also lives in the rectum, throat and the eyes. infected women can also transfer gonorrhea to their newborn infants during childbirth, which can give babies eye infections and can eventually cause blindness if left untreated.

Gonorrhea can generally be treated effectively with antibiotics, which can be got from your dr.

If you believe you may have an sexually transmitted disease or sti, there’s many sexual health clinics that will be able to test you and offer treatment. To find out where your local clinic is, totally contact your local health authority who’ll be happy to assist you.

On the other hand, you may totally visit you doctor who’ll also be able to assist you. don’t be nervous about the explicit nature of your problem – the doctor will often see similar sexual health issues.

The only way to be 100 percent safe from sexually transmitted diseases and sexually transmitted infections is abstinence. despite this, if you are sexually active, you can protect you and your partner by enduring regular sti and std tests. as well as this, you should ensure you use a condom for any kind of sexual activity. this’ll also help to protect you against pregnancy.

Stop worrying and start living, home testing is easy and cheap or free. If you are worried that you have been at risk, like millions of other people, get tested privately Request a HIV, STD Test Now,  and receive your results in 10 minutes.  All for 50% less than a doctor’s office visit. No hassles, no embarrassment, no insurance reporting, complete privacy.

Benefits of Private Home HIV & STD Testing

• Complete Privacy
• No insurance reporting.
• No undressing.
• HIV, STD testing and results are completely private.
• Most accurate tests on the market.
• Same HIV, STD tests administered by doctors, testing clinics and hospitals nationwide.
• Certified for Home Use.
• Visible Results in 10 Minutes.
• On-staff physicians available to help interpret test results and answer any questions you might have.
• Online Support 24 / 7
• Local Discreet Shipping, in an Anonymous Envelope.