Hep C or Hepatitis C is a virus that attacks the liver. It is spread though either blood to blood contact or as we are learning now can also be sexually transmitted. For this reason Hep C is now considered an STI, in particularly concerning for the health of gay men.
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Herpes is a fairly common sexual infection with many men and women worldwide having been infected with HSV at some point in their life. From a sexual health perspective Herpes is fairly easy to manage.
The key points are to avoid sexual contact when the rash is present. Early treatment with antiviral medications can shorten the length of time the herpes outbreak episode lasts. If you are having frequent herpes outbreaks daily prevention medications are also available to reduce the risk of outbreaks.
As with all sexual health issues if you have any worries or concerns it’s important to see your doctor for a sexual health checkup and make sure that everything is ok.
From clinical experience HIV is the most feared sexual infections. This has lead to significant stigma and concerns especially for those living with HIV.
What we do now is that HIV now is able to be blocked with multiple ways including “safe sex” is use of condoms. PrEP – the use of a drug Truvada that blocks HIV infection as well as TAsP or “treatment as prevention” We know that people who are living with HIV and are successfully treated to a point they have undetectable viral load, are not able to infect other people with the HIV virus. People with undetectable viral load also have a greatly reduced chance of progression to AIDS and AIDS defining diseases.
Genital warts caused by the HPV virus is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections.
Warts are transmitted via skin to skin contact where the Human Papilloma Virus is shed and able to to enter the body. There can be a long time, even years between exposure to the virus and the warts showing up. This can be confusing to people who worry that their most recent sexual partner was the source of infection. This is rarely the case.
You can learn more about the HPV vaccine from your family doctor, this can help prevent against the 4 most virulent strains of the wart virus.
In gay men anal warts can lead to anal cancer so it’s important that visual inspection for warts both on the genitals as well as anus are part of your regular gay men’s STI checkup.
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that has recently seen a resurgence within the gay and men who have sex with men community as a sexual health concern.
Syphilis is caused by a small spirochete bacteria that enters the body via broken skin.
There are three stages to infection:
For this reason regular sexual health screening is vital to catch Syphilis as there may be no obvious symptoms of infection.
Scabies is a small mite that is easily transmitted with close skin to skin contact. For this reason close sexual contact can easily pass this from person to person.
Scabies is not exclusively shared via sexual contact as the mites are able to survive extended periods of time on clothing as well as sheets, towels, clothing and furniture.
If you have contracted scabies, the treatment of scabies involved application of medication to the skin but also cleaning and heat treating all fabrics and clothing that has been in close contact with infected individuals.
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