Which STDs are Curable?

Which STDs are Curable?

What you don’t know can hurt you –– especially in regard to STDs. In fact, STD ignorance and general misunderstandings about sex play a major role in the spread of STDs. Simply put, since people aren’t properly educated about sexual wellness, they don’t know how to deal with problems like STDs. This is all the more frustrating because many  STD-related issues have cures and can be handled with relative ease; you just have to know what to do if you think you have an STD first. With that in mind, today we’re going to provide a resource listing which STDs are curable, and which ones aren’t.

Why Are Some STDs Curable While Others Aren’t?

The most basic answer to this question revolves around the biological makeup of STDs. In that sense, STDs fall into two distinct categories: viral and bacterial. Bacterial diseases are curable. Usually a simple dose of antibiotics is enough to eradicate them completely. Viral infections on the other hand cannot be cured. You can seek out vaccinations for certain viral STDs, but there’s no way to “cure” a viral STD in the traditional sense.

Curable STDs

Getting down to brass tacks now, here are a few common STDs that are curable:

• Chlamydia (bacterial)
• Gonorrhea (bacterial)
• Syphilis (bacterial)
• Trichomoniasis (parasitic)

Most sexually active people will at the very least be familiar with these diseases in some way –– if not through firsthand experience. And the good news about these STDs is that you can get rid of them with simple medical treatment. There are a few things about these diseases and their treatment to note, though. First, just because these STDs are curable it doesn’t mean they’re harmless. Quite the contrary. Certain bacterial STDs left untreated can cause infertility, birth complications, blindness, internal organ failure, paralysis, and, in rare instances, even death. So it’s vital that sexually active individuals get tested and receive treatment for bacterial STDs regularly. Second, just because the symptoms of an STD abate, it doesn’t mean that the infection is gone. Always take medication as instructed –– for as long as your doctor recommends. Lastly, recent isolated reports have suggested that certain strains of gonorrhea are becoming resistant to traditional antibiotics. At this point, the story is an aberration and nothing more.

Incurable STDs

These viral STDs currently aren’t curable through modern medical techniques:

• Herpes (genital and oral)
• HPV
• Hepatitis B and C
• HIV

While people who contract a viral STD won’t be able to rid themselves of the disease completely, there are many ways to manage, mitigate, and limit the effects and symptoms associated with viral infections. Often, the key factor is identifying the disease early, so that treatment can begin as soon as possible. This is especially important in relation to HIV –– for obvious reasons.