People often get awkward when talking about sex and bodies, and that can keep them—especially young people!—from speaking up and seeking help when their reproductive and sexual organs don’t feel right. Knowledge is power. You’re the expert on what feels right with your body. If you’re experiencing pain, burning, or any other unusual or uncomfortable physical feelings, that’s a red flag to talk to a doctor. Here are some common things to watch out for:
Did you know your genitalia is home to a lot of bacteria? That’s a good thing! Our bodies are home to millions of helpful bacteria that keep us working well. Every part of the body—your mouth, stomach, intestines, and genitalia—have bacteria. So just as with any other part of your body, keep your private bits clean. Genitals do a great job of self-cleaning, so don’t douse them in soap. It will kill off the good bacteria that occur naturally. Instead, clean your genitalia just with warm water.
If you have a vulva, never use a douche. A douche is water or a chemical squirted into the vagina. Companies sell douches by marketing the false idea that vaginas are smelly and dirty and need to be cleaned. Actually, the opposite is true. Douches wipe out a vulva’s natural, healthy bacteria, leaving it vulnerable to unhealthy, foreign bacteria. That can cause infections. So douches are a dangerous scam.
If you have a penis that’s uncircumcised, the foreskin can get inflamed or infected. If your penis hurts or it stings when you pee, it may be infected. To prevent that, clean underneath the foreskin with warm water when you take a shower. Without regular cleaning, smegma, a whitish-yellow substance, can build up under the foreskin. Smegma can look like pus, but it’s dead skin cells, oils, and other fluids that build up.
One of the most common and painful problems for people of all genders are urinary tract infections (UTIs). A UTI occurs when bacteria that aren’t normally in the bladder get inside the urethra and begin to multiply in the bladder. Bodies are designed to keep out invading bacteria. But sometimes bacteria get inside anyway.
Signs of urinary tract infections are a semi-constant tickling urge to pee, pain while peeing, peeing often in small amounts, and cloudy urine that smells bad. If you have any of these symptoms, see a doctor. If left untreated, UTIs can spread from a minor annoyance to a full-blown kidney infection. Antibiotics or natural remedies can treat UTIs. See your doctor for advice and treatment ASAP if you suspect you have a UTI.
People with vulvas are at a higher risk for UTIs because the urethra is close to the vaginal opening. Sometimes sexual activity can bring bacteria from the vagina into the urinary opening, causing a urinary tract infection. Peeing after sex reduces the risk of UTIs, so doctors will often recommend that people with vulvas go to the bathroom within fifteen minutes of vaginal intercourse.
Yeast infections are another common condition that happens to 75 percent of people with vulvas. They’re not fun. A yeast infection comes with vaginal itching, swelling around the vagina, soreness, and pain during vaginal sex.
A healthy vagina contains bacteria and some yeast cells. But when the balance of bacteria and yeast changes, the yeast cells can multiply. Anything that helps bacteria grow out of control can cause yeast infections. To reduce the risk of yeast infections, do the following:
If you think you might have a yeast infection, see your doctor for a diagnosis and treatment. Over-the-counter medications, available to people of all ages, will usually do the trick.
If you want to kiss someone, be aware of two kissing-related diseases. The first is oral herpes, a.k.a. cold sores. Herpes lives in the bloodstream of half of all Americans. Many people with this virus never have any symptoms. Most people (90 percent!) who have the oral herpes virus don’t even know it. For other people, the virus will cause sores around the mouth. Some people get sores every few months, usually when they’re stressed out, sick, tired, or about to get their period. The sores are clusters of little blisters that scab over. Cold sores go away on their own after about a week.
Cold sores hurt! And they’re contagious. Herpes is spread by direct skin-to-skin contact between a cold sore and someone else’s mouth or genitalia. You can’t get herpes from sharing silverware, cups, or pillows with someone who has a cold sore. If you have oral herpes, see your doctor for a prescription antiviral medication that clears up cold sores quickly and reduces the frequency of outbreaks. Over-the-counter and prescription creams help cold sores heal faster. Long story short: If you have a cold sore, don’t kiss anyone on the mouth or put your mouth on their genitals.
The other disease to know about is mononucleosis, or mono. Mono is a virus that is transmitted through saliva. You can get it through kissing but also through saliva droplets in the air from sneezing or coughing. You can also get it from sharing drinks or utensils with someone who has mono. If you have mono, you’ll likely have a fever, a sore throat, and fatigue. If you have these symptoms, see a doctor. The clinic can test to see if you have mono and tell you how to deal with it. If you have mono, cover your coughs and sneezes and don’t kiss anyone until the virus has gone away. There’s no quick cure for mononucleosis. You have to wait, rest, and take care of yourself (often for weeks) while the body fights the infection.
STIs are infections that spread through sexual contact—any combination of contact between a mouth, vulva, penis, or anus. Before you are sexually intimate with another person, talk about your sexual histories and the risk of STIs. The best ways to prevent STIs are
To prevent the spread of STIs, it’s absolutely essential to know whether you have any! A lot of STIs have few or no symptoms but are still contagious, so get tested! If you’re sexually active, get tested for STIs at least once a year. If you have several partners, get tested more often. Any doctor’s office can test for STIs, and many cities in the United States have public health clinics that will test for free or at low cost. Because they’re part of your medical record, all STI tests are always 100 percent confidential. It is against the law for a doctor or any other medical staff to share the results with your family, employer, or the public.
Many people don’t get tested for STIs because they’re embarrassed. But STIs are very common. Half of sexually active people in the United States will have an STI by the age of twenty-five. These are the six most common STIs in the United States:
HPV is the most common STI. Researchers estimate that at least 80 percent of sexually active Americans will have an HPV infection during their lifetime. Most of the forty known strains of HPV have no symptoms. The body gets rid of them without your ever knowing about it. Some strains of HPV cause genital warts, and others cause infections in the mouth and throat. The most dangerous strains cause a variety of cancers, including cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, or anus. HPV vaccines protect against HPV strains that cause cervical cancer and genital warts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends young women aged eleven to twenty-six and young men aged eleven to twenty-one get vaccinated.
Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STI. Bacteria causes this infection, which is treated with antibiotics. Most people have no symptoms. Some people notice an unusual discharge from the vagina or penis or pain or burning when they pee. You’re contagious even if you don’t have symptoms. In 2015 rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reached a record high. Researchers aren’t sure why, but they think it could be because fewer people are using condoms during vaginal and anal sex. If left untreated, chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammation in women and difficulty getting pregnant.
Gonorrhea, also known as the clap, has similar symptoms to chlamydia. Most people have none. Some people experience unusual discharge and pain or burning when they pee. A doctor will prescribe antibiotics if you have this STI. If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to long-term pain and a host of fertility problems.
At first, the main symptom of syphilis is a sore at the original site of infection. Then it turns into a rash, followed by more sores on the mouth, vulva, or anus. Left untreated, syphilis causes organ, nerve, and brain damage. In extreme cases, it can also cause death. Be sure to see a doctor if you suspect you have this STI. It can be treated with antibiotics.
Genital herpes is a strain of the herpes virus that causes sores on the penis, vulva, or anus. It can be spread by any genital-to-genital or mouth-to-genital contact if one of the sexual partners has a herpes sore. Genital herpes outbreaks can be suppressed by one of several antibiotics. Studies have shown that antibiotics can also reduce the number of outbreaks by at least 75 percent if the medication is taken regularly. Be sure to check with a doctor if you think you have genital herpes. And remember that if you have oral herpes, you do not automatically have genital herpes and vice versa.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The virus attacks and weakens the immune system. People with AIDS are extremely susceptible to common diseases such as the flu and pneumonia that a healthy immune system would fight off. These common illnesses are life-threatening to someone with AIDS because their body can’t fight them off. Untreated, people with HIV/AIDS die from usually nonfatal illnesses such as pneumonia and the flu.
HIV is spread through body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. That means you can’t get HIV from kissing, hugging, sitting on a toilet seat, or sharing drinks or silverware with a person who has HIV.
You can get HIV by having unprotected vaginal or anal sex with an infected person. You can also get HIV by sharing a needle with someone who is infected. Infected mothers can pass the virus to their newborns during vaginal delivery and through breast milk.
Anyone can get HIV regardless of race or sexual orientation. In the United States, the group most at risk of contracting HIV are African American men who have sex with other men. Dennis Sifris, MD, and journalist James Myhre said, “While some may suggest that culture and sexual behavior are solely to blame for this, the fault lies more with the social and economic inequities that can fuel any infectious disease outbreak. Poverty, social injustice, and the lack of an effective government response together enable the spread of disease in communities that simply haven’t the resources to combat it.”
There’s no cure for HIV yet, although drugs can help people with HIV live long lives. Pre-exposure antiviral medication is available for HIV-negative people to take to prevent contracting the disease. The rate of HIV infection in the United States is declining through condom use and virus-suppressing drugs. However, thousands of people every year contract HIV in the United States. Since the epidemic was identified in the early 1980s, more than 1.2 million people in the United States have received an AIDS diagnosis. Among people aged thirteen to twenty-four with HIV, an estimated 51 percent didn’t know they had the disease. So get tested!
Does wearing tight jean shorts cause yeast infections?
Wearing tight, non-breathable fabric doesn’t cause yeast infections, but it does make them more likely. Tight jeans, leggings, leotards, or spandex don’t allow much airflow into your crotch, so your sweat builds up and makes the place warm and moist—which bacteria love. Get out of wet clothes (like workout gear or swimsuits) as soon as possible and towel off well. If you do need to wear tight clothes, give your crotch some time afterward to air out. Some doctors recommend sleeping without underwear a few nights a week.
I want to get tested for chlamydia, but I don’t want to go to my family’s doctor. Is there somewhere else I can go?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a website to help people find clinics that do STI testing in their area: https://gettested.cdc.gov/. Check it out! Many clinics do STI tests for free or at a discount rate for low-income people. Any Planned Parenthood branch will also offer STI tests. Look up Planned Parenthood, and see if there are any branches in your area.