STD Symptoms in Women and Men

What STD symptoms look like

The signs that bring most people to this page are a handful that several infections share: burning or pain when you urinate, discharge from the penis or vagina that looks or smells different, pain during sex, bleeding between periods or after sex, sores, blisters or bumps on or around the genitals, itching, a rash, and pain low in the belly or in a testicle. Oral and anal sex add a sore throat and rectal pain, itching, discharge or bleeding, though infections in the throat and rectum are usually silent.

The pages linked above go through each infection in detail. The short version: chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis mostly cause discharge and burning, when they cause anything; herpes causes blisters that break into sores; syphilis causes a single painless sore and, weeks later, a rash; HIV causes a brief flu-like illness in some people and then nothing for years; the hepatitis viruses cause tiredness, nausea, dark urine and yellowing of the skin or eyes, when they cause anything at all.

Why most people have no symptoms

For every one of these infections, the most common experience is no symptom at all. The CDC estimates that most people with chlamydia, gonorrhea in women, trichomoniasis, genital herpes and hepatitis B or C do not know they have it, and HIV can go years without a sign. Infections in the throat and rectum are almost always silent. That is not a reason for comfort: silent infections still cause damage – pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, liver disease – and still pass to partners. A test is the only way to know. Symptoms do not shorten the time an infection takes to show up on a test, and having none does not mean you are clear.

What else causes the same symptoms

Burning when you urinate is more often a urinary tract infection than an STD. Vaginal discharge, itching and odor are more often bacterial vaginosis or a yeast infection. Bumps on the genitals are often ingrown hairs, folliculitis, skin tags, molluscum or friction, and a single sore can be a cut or a reaction to a product. A rash has dozens of causes. None of this means the symptom is not an STD – it means the symptom cannot tell you, and neither can a photo on the internet. A test tells you whether the infection you are worried about is there; a clinician tells you what a sore or rash is.

When to see a clinician rather than wait for a test

Some symptoms need a clinician, not just a lab. A sore, blister, ulcer or rash should be examined – and, where possible, swabbed – while it is there, because a blood or urine test cannot tell you what a sore is. Severe pelvic or lower-belly pain, pain or swelling in a testicle, a fever with pelvic pain, vision or hearing changes, a severe headache, or yellowing of the skin or eyes need prompt medical care. If you are pregnant, tell your prenatal provider about any symptom or exposure. And if you may have been exposed to HIV in the last 72 hours, go to an urgent care or emergency room today and ask about PEP, which can prevent infection only if it is started in time.

How testing works, and what it cannot tell you

Chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and Mycoplasma genitalium are tested from a urine sample; syphilis, HIV, herpes and the hepatitis viruses from a small blood draw. There is no swab and no exam at our partner labs. Each test looks for one infection, so a negative chlamydia test says nothing about gonorrhea, and a urine test checks the urethra and cervix, not the throat or rectum – tell the care advisor about oral or anal exposure. The 10-Test Panel checks the ten most common infections in one visit; trich and M. gen are separate tests, and there is no blood or urine test for HPV. Every test also has a window period after exposure before it can find the infection; the timing for each is on our When to Get Tested page, or call (866) 872-1888 and a care advisor will tell you which test and which day.

After a positive result

Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, trichomoniasis and M. gen are cured with antibiotics; hepatitis C is cured with a course of pills; herpes, HIV and hepatitis B are managed with medication that lets most people live entirely normally. A member of our care team calls you, explains the result, and sets up a consultation with a physician. Depending on the infection, care is a prescription sent to your pharmacy, an in-person visit for an injection, or a referral to ongoing care. Partners need to be told and tested, and for some infections a retest a few months later checks for re-infection.