stds and your pregnancy: what you need to know

Planning Your Pregnancy and Get Tested for Stds

If you are trying to have a baby or are just thinking about it, it is not too early to start getting ready for pregnancy. Preconception health and health care focus on things you can do before and between pregnancies to increase the chances of having a healthy baby. For some women, getting their body ready for pregnancy takes a few months. For other women, it might take longer. Whether this is your first, second, or sixth baby, the following are important steps to help you get ready for the healthiest pregnancy possible.

1. Make a Plan and Take Action

Whether or not you’ve written them down, you’ve probably thought about your goals for having or not having children, and how to achieve those goals. For example, when you didn’t want to have a baby, you used effective birth control methods to achieve your goals. Now that you’re thinking about getting pregnant, it’s really important to take steps to achieve your goal—getting pregnant and having a healthy baby!

2. See Your Doctor

Before getting pregnant, talk to your doctor about preconception health care. Your doctor will want to discuss your health history and any medical conditions you currently have that could affect a pregnancy. He or she also will discuss any previous pregnancy problems, medicines that you currently are taking, vaccinations that you might need, and steps you can take before pregnancy to prevent certain birth defects.

3. Take 400 Micrograms of Folic Acid Every Day

Folic acid is a B vitamin. If a woman has enough folic acid in her body at least 1 month before and during pregnancy, it can help prevent major birth defects of the baby’s brain and spine.

4. Stop Drinking Alcohol, Smoking, and Using Street Drugs

Smoking, drinking alcohol, and using street drugs can cause many problems during pregnancy for a woman and her baby, such as premature birth, birth defects, and infant death.

If you are trying to get pregnant and cannot stop drinking, smoking, or using drugs―get help! Contact your doctor or local treatment center.

Smoking Resources

1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669)

5. Avoid Toxic Substances and Environmental Contaminants

Avoid toxic substances and other environmental contaminants harmful materials at work or at home, such as synthetic chemicals, metals, fertilizer, bug spray, and cat or rodent feces. These substances can hurt the reproductive systems of men and women. They can make it more difficult to get pregnant. Exposure to even small amounts during pregnancy, infancy, childhood, or puberty can lead to diseases. Learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones from toxic substances at work and at home.

6. Reach and Maintain a Healthy Weight

People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk for many serious conditions, including complications during pregnancy, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon). People who are underweight are also at risk for serious health problems.

The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating and regular physical activity.

If you are underweight, overweight, or obese, talk with your doctor about ways to reach and maintain a healthy weight before you get pregnant.

7. Get Help for Violence

Violence can lead to injury and death among women at any stage of life, including during pregnancy. The number of violent deaths experienced by women tells only part of the story. Many more survive violence and are left with lifelong physical and emotional scars.

If someone is violent toward you or you are violent toward your loved ones―get help. Violence destroys relationships and families.

8. Learn Your Family History

Collecting your family's health history can be important for your child's health. You might not realize that your sister’s heart defect or your cousin’s sickle cell disease could affect your child, but sharing this family history information with your doctor can be important.

Based on your family history, your doctor might refer you for genetic counseling. Other reasons people go for genetic counseling include having had several miscarriages, infant deaths, or trouble getting pregnant (infertility), or a genetic condition or birth defect that occurred during a previous pregnancy.

9. Get Mentally Healthy

Mental health is how we think, feel, and act as we cope with life. To be at your best, you need to feel good about your life and value yourself. Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad, or stressed sometimes. However, if these feelings do not go away and they interfere with your daily life, get help. Talk with your doctor or another health professional about your feelings and treatment options.

10. Get a Full Panel Std Test and Have a Healthy Pregnancy!

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Should I Get A Gonorrhea Test?

What is gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). It’s caused by infection with the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It tends to infect warm, moist areas of the body, including the:

• urethra (the tube that drains urine from the urinary bladder)
• eyes
• throat
• vagina
• anus
• female reproductive tract (the fallopian tubes, cervix, and uterus)

Gonorrhea passes from person to person through unprotected oral, anal, or vaginal sex. People with numerous sexual partners or those who don’t use a condom are at greatest risk of infection. The best protections against infection are abstinence, monogamy (sex with only one partner), and proper condom usage. Behaviors that make a person more likely to engage in unprotected sex also increase the likelihood of infection. These behaviors include alcohol abuse and illegal drug abuse, particularly intravenous drug use.

SYMPTOMS

Symptoms of gonorrhea

Symptoms usually occur within two to 14 days after exposure. However, some people infected with gonorrhea never develop noticeable symptoms. It’s important to remember that a person with gonorrhea who doesn’t have symptoms, also called a nonsymptomatic carrier, is still contagious. A person is more likely to spread the infection to other partners when they don’t have noticeable symptoms.

Symptoms in men

Men may not develop noticeable symptoms for several weeks. Some men may never develop symptoms. 

Typically, the infection begins to show symptoms a week after its transmission. The first noticeable symptom in men is often a burning or painful sensation during urination. As it progresses, other symptoms may include:

• greater frequency or urgency of urination
• a pus-like discharge (or drip) from the penis (white, yellow, beige, or greenish)
• swelling or redness at the opening of the penis
• swelling or pain in the testicles
• a persistent sore throat

The infection will stay in the body for a few weeks after the symptoms have been treated. In rare instances, gonorrhea can continue to cause damage to the body, specifically the urethra and testicles. Pain may also spread to the rectum.

Symptoms in women

Many women don’t develop any overt symptoms of gonorrhea. When women do develop symptoms, they tend to be mild or similar to other infections, making them more difficult to identify. Gonorrhea infections can appear much like common vaginal yeast or bacterial infections.

Symptoms include:

• discharge from the vagina (watery, creamy, or slightly green)
• pain or burning sensation while urinating
• the need to urinate more frequently
• heavier periods or spotting
• sore throat
• pain upon engaging in sexual intercourse
• sharp pain in the lower abdomen
• fever

TESTING

Tests for gonorrhea

Healthcare professionals can diagnose gonorrhea infection in several ways. They can take a sample of fluid from the symptomatic area with a swab (penis, vagina, rectum, or throat) and place it on a glass slide. If your doctor suspects a joint or blood infection, he or she will obtain the sample by drawing blood or inserting a needle into the symptomatic joint to withdraw fluid.  They will then add a stain to the sample and examine it under a microscope. If cells react to the stain, you most likely have a gonorrhea infection. This method is relatively quick and easy, but it doesn’t provide absolutely certainty. This test may also be completed by a lab technologist.

A second method involves taking the same type of sample and placing it on a special dish. This will be incubated under ideal growth conditions for several days. A colony of gonorrhea bacteria will grow if gonorrhea is present.

A preliminary result may be ready within 24 hours. A final result will take up to three days.

Complications of gonorrhea

Women are at greater risk of long-term complications from untreated infections. Untreated infection with gonorrhea in women may ascend up the female reproductive tract and involve the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. This condition is known as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and can cause severe and chronic pain and damage the female reproductive organs. PID can be caused by other sexually transmitted diseases as well. Women may also develop blocking or scarring of the fallopian tubes, which can prevent future pregnancy or cause ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. Gonorrhea infection may pass to a newborn infant during delivery. 

Men may experience scarring of the urethra. Men may also develop a painful abscess in the interior of the penis. The infection can cause reduced fertility or sterility.

When gonorrhea infection spreads to the bloodstream, both men and women can experience arthritis, heart valve damage, or inflammation of the lining of the brain or spinal cord. These are rare but serious conditions.

TREATMENT

Treatment of gonorrhea

Modern antibiotics can cure most gonorrhea infections. Most states also provide free diagnosis and treatment at state-sponsored health clinics.

At home and over-the-counter remedies

There are no at-home remedies or over-the-counter medications that will treat an infection with gonorrhea. If you suspect that you have gonorrhea, you should seek care from a healthcare professional.

Antibiotics

Gonorrhea is usually treated with an antibiotic injection of Ceftriaxone one time to the buttocks or a single dose of Azithromycin by mouth. Once on antibiotics, you should feel relief within days.

The law requires healthcare professionals to report the infection, usually to the county public health department. Public health officials will identify, contact, test, and treat any sexual partners of the affected person to help prevent the spread of the infection. Health officials will also contact other people these individuals may have had sexual contact with.

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea is a growing challenge. These cases may require more extensive treatment, with a seven-day course of an oral antibiotic or dual therapy with two different antibiotics, usually for a total of seven days of therapy. The antibiotics used for extended therapy are usually given once or twice a day. Some common antibiotics used include azithromycin and doxycycline. Scientists are working to develop vaccines to prevent gonorrhea infection.

PREVENTION

Prevention of gonorrhea

The safest way to prevent gonorrhea or other STDs is through abstinence. If you do engage in sex, always use a condom. It’s important to be open with your sexual partners, get regular STD testing, and find out if they’ve been tested. 

If your partner is showing signs of a possible infection, avoid any sexual contact with them. Ask them to seek medical attention to rule out any possible infection that can be passed on.

You’re at a higher risk of contracting gonorrhea if you’ve already had it or any other STDs. You’re also at a higher risk if you have multiple sexual partners or a new partner.

Get FDA Approved Gonorrhea Testing Today!