4 Best At-Home Chlamydia Tests in 2024

Most Common STDs For Women And Men

When you're planning for a hot night under the sheets, you might not want to think about STDs. If you're happily smitten with your long-time partner, you may not think you have to.

But the possibility of infections and diseases are as much a part of sex as the fun is. Both men and women get them. Even if you didn't realize it, you've probably had an STD.

Knowledge is power when it comes to your sexual health. Recognizing the symptoms is a start, but you won't always notice chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and other STDs. You'll need to get tested to protect yourself -- and your partner. Fortunately, all of these common STDs can be treated, and most can be cured.

Nearly every sexually active person will have HPV at some point. It is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. More than 40 types of HPV can be spread sexually. You can get them through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. You can get them by skin-to-skin contact, too.

Most types of HPV have no symptoms and cause no harm, and your body gets rid of them on its own. But some of them cause genital warts. Others infect the mouth and throat. Still others can cause cancer of the cervix, penis, mouth, or throat.

Only one HPV vaccine is currently available in the United States. This vaccine, Gardasil-9 (9vHPV), protects against nine HPV types (6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58). The CDC recommends young women and men ages 11 to 26 get vaccinated for HPV. The HPV vaccine is also approved for women and men up to age 45 -- talk to your doctor to see if it is right for you. A Pap smear can show most cervical cancers caused by HPV early on.

Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STD in the U.S. It's spread mostly by vaginal or anal sex, but you can get it through oral sex, too. Sometimes you'll notice an odd discharge from your vagina or penis, or pain or burning when you pee. But only about 25% of women and 50% of men get symptoms.

Chlamydia is caused by bacteria, so it's treated with antibiotics. After you are treated, you should get retested in one to three months, even if your partner has been treated. Check with your doctor about when to get tested again to make sure the infection is gone.

Gonorrhea is another common bacterial STD. People often get it with chlamydia, and the symptoms are similar: unusual discharge from the vagina or penis, or pain or burning when you pee. Most men with gonorrhea get symptoms, but only about 20% of women do.

Gonorrhea is easily treated with antibiotics.

Syphilis is a tricky disease with four stages. In the primary stage, the main symptom is a sore. Sometimes syphilis is called the "great imitator" because the sore can look like a cut, an ingrown hair, or a harmless bump. The secondary stage starts with a rash on your body, followed by sores in your mouth, vagina, or anus.

Symptoms usually disappear in the third, or latent, stage. This stage can last for years or the rest of your life. Only about 15% of people with untreated syphilis will develop the final stage. In the late stage, it causes organ and nerve damage. It can also cause problems in your brain.

Your doctor can give you antibiotics to treat syphilis. The earlier treatment starts, the fewer antibiotics you'll need and the more quickly they work.

Both strains of the herpes virus, HSV-1 and HSV-2, can cause genital herpes, but usually the culprit is HSV-2. The main symptom of herpes is painful blisters around the penis, vagina, or anus. But you might get blisters inside your vagina or anus where you can't see or feel them. Not everyone who has herpes gets blisters.  

Herpes is easy to catch. All it takes is skin-to-skin contact, including areas that a condom doesn't cover. You're most contagious when you have blisters, but you don't need them to pass the virus along.

Herpes cannot be cured but you can take medication to manage it.

More women than men get trichomoniasis, which is caused by a tiny parasite. Men and women can give it to each other through penis-vagina contact. Women can give it to each other when their genital areas touch. Only about 30% of people with trichomoniasis have symptoms including itching, burning, or sore genitals. You might also see a smelly, clear, white, yellowish, or greenish discharge.

Trichomoniasis is treated with antibiotics. It is important to be retested within three months of treatment, even if your partner has been treated as well.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. It's passed through body fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. You can get it by having vaginal or anal intercourse with an infected person without a condom, or by sharing a needle with someone who is infected. You can't get HIV from saliva or by closed-mouth kissing. Very rarely HIV has been reported to be transmitted by open-mouth kissing, but only if both partners have mouth sores or bleeding gums. 

Symptoms of HIV infection are vague. They can feel like the flu, with muscle aches, fatigue, or a slight fever. You could also lose weight or have diarrhea. The only sure way to tell if you've been infected is to get your saliva or blood tested.

HIV can take years to destroy your immune system. Past a certain point, your body loses its ability to fight off infections. There's no cure for HIV, but powerful drugs can help people with HIV live long lives.

STD Trichomoniasis-Gene Of Parasite Decoded

A team of researchers led by Jane Carlton, Ph.D., a parasite specialist and an associate professor in the department of Medical Parasitology at New York University School of Medicine, have successfully decoded the genome of the parasite causing Trichomoniasis, one of the world's most common STD that usually affects both men and women.

The study results were published in the Jan.12 issue of the journal Science.

Moreover, this 4-year long study also hopes in throwing light on the parasite that is being estimated to infect 170 million people a year worldwide, including 8 million in North America.

Trichomoniasis is the most common but curable Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) disease, caused by the single-celled protozoan parasite, Trichomonas Vaginalis. Though it is common in men and women, young and sexually active women likely to be affected more by this disease.

Dr. Jane Carlton, said, 'There are a huge number of people infected out there, but they don't know,' however, the disease is easily curable, with a drug called Flagyl but undiagnosed people continue spreading it.

He added that men, when affected by trichomoniasis usually suffer no symptoms, while about half of the women do, reporting problems like vaginal itching, fishy-smelling frothy discharge etc. Trichomoniasis affecting pregnant woman would result in premature birth or low-weight babies and is also linked to pelvic inflammatory diseases.

To conclude, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have funded this genome research. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the institute reported that the 'Genetic mapping is a very strong step in the right direction with regard to a parasite we still have not fully appreciated.'

Source-MedindiaSRI

Reddit Stock Closes Up Nearly 48% On Its First Day Of Trading

Shares of social forum giant Reddit closed its first day of trading at $50.31, up nearly 48% from its IPO price of $34 per share. The company had indicated a target range of $31 to $34 per share in the run-up to its public-market debut, eventually settling on the top-end of that interval. Prices are still bouncing, though have cooled and appear to be settling in at below $50.

With $804.0 million in 2023 revenue, and still unprofitable (with net losses of more than $90 million last year), Reddit may appear to be trading on the high end of its revenue multiple compared to the nearest comparable social media companies like Snap. But it has a significant AI story to tell that could excite investors about its future. Reddit sold $203 million worth of contracts to AI companies for access to its data earlier this year. And Reddit is a treasure trove of exactly the kind of training data that always-hungry, large language model AI companies need, which bodes well for this to become a serious growth part of its future business.

It's worth noting that the FTC has opened an inquiry into Reddit's plan to license its user data to train AI models. If investor interest is sparked due to the company's AI strategy, it will be interesting to see how the stock continues to perform as that probe continues to unfold. 

Another win for tech

Reddit's strong IPO debut, following directly in the wake of Astera's blockbuster public offering, could shake up the current market dynamics and narrative surrounding going public. In the wake of a compression in tech valuations since the implosion of the 2021-era asset bubble, few tech companies have tested public markets. In part this is due to private-public valuation mismatches, among other factors.

But with the first two tech IPOs of the year both performing well, there's less weight in the argument that waiting is the best course of action for healthy private-market tech companies. With interest rate cuts anticipated in the back half of the year, some companies may hold off a little longer, but Astera and Reddit are indication that the waters are warm for tech shops that can show growth, perhaps profit on a quarterly if not yearly basis and have something to say about AI in their prospectus.

Early trading results do not always augur a trouble-free public market life, however. Many 2021-era tech IPOs have lost value since their early, hot debuts. Still, charts that point up are more bullish than charts that do not. If the double-header of IPO winners this week does shake loose more offerings from tech companies on the sidelines — both well-known IPO candidates like Turo that have filed publicly and those like Circle that have filed privately, and the companies that are simply big enough and old enough to do so — venture investors that did not put capital into either Astera or Reddit may have cause to sing their praises.

Will the IPO window genuinely open?

If the IPO does open under current market conditions, there's reason to expect the situation to hold, or even improve as the year continues. The Nasdaq Composite reached a new 52-week high today, with the index peaking at a higher maximum than it did back in 2021. That means that tech shares are, by one metric, as valuable as they have ever been.

Secondaries investors recently told TechCrunch that they weren't sure that a successful Reddit IPO would be enough to bring life back into the IPO market in 2024. But with Astera Labs' impressive performance yesterday and Reddit's strong showing today, maybe there will be more life in the IPO market this year than many thought. 

One can hope.

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