In case you are wondering what is an STD, you should know that it stands for sexually transmitted disease and before it has been known as VD or venereal disease.
When talking about STDs we are referring to those diseases that can be passed on to another person through sexual activity from an infected person.
STI and the STD definition
There are some people who don’t really know the difference between STIs and STDs. In the first case we are referring to an infection. This means that the person in question might be infected by a virus, bacteria or fungus, but he or she could not have any symptoms yet. On the other hand in case of the diseases there are obvious signs and symptoms of the disease. This could be the STD definition.
According to this, someone could have an infection, but not a disease. It is important to know the difference, because this is the reason for which there are so many people who have an STI, but they don’t even know about it.
People at risk
Now that you know what is an STD, you should know that every sexually active person is at risk of contracting an STD or STI in case he or she has an infected partner.
In order to decrease the risk of getting a disease, you should follow some safety guidelines. Also since you know the STD definition, you may see that it is better to have a test periodically.
Safe sex
In case you are asking what safe sex refers to you should know that it means having intercourse without sharing body fluids such as vaginal fluid, semen or blood.
There are some methods through which you can make sure that you won’t need to know more about what is an STD.
One of the things that you could do is to be using a condom every time you have sex. You should use it in case of vaginal, anal or oral sex, and make sure that you use a new one when switching from one form to the other.
When it comes to STD definition most probably you also think about cunilingus and anilingus. In this case there should be a latex barrier such as a condom without a ring, or a dental dam or even a plastic wrap. To make sure that you won’t have to face consequences, think about mutual masturbation or clothed sex.
Hazards
When thinking about what is an STD, you should also consider that in case you have unprotected sex you could also contract HIV, not to mention that the different parasites, fungi, bacteria and viruses are free to spread from one person to the other.
STD definition
There are numerous STDs that you should know about, like the bacterial ones (chancroid, chlamydia, and gonorrhea), fungal (yeast infection and tinea cruris), viral (viral hepatitis, herpes simplex, HIV or AIDS, HPV), parasites (crab louse and scabies) and protozoal (trichomaniasis). Now you know what is an STD.
