[Question #10567] List of All STIs/STDs

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21 months ago
Hello,
I am very interested in getting tested for as many STIs/STDs as possible in the US (even if they are rare in the US) as I know most of them don’t have any symptoms. It may seem a little extreme, but I am very particular about my health. I know there are around 30 different types of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can be transmitted sexually, and I’ve been researching to try to find a list of all STIs/STDs in the world and I cannot find one anywhere, even on the CDC or WHO website. Would you be able to help me with this?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
21 months ago
Welcome to our forum. Thank you for your confidence in our services. You open a very interesting topic -- and one that is more complex than you might have thought. I'm using it as an opportunity for one of my occasional blog-like replies that might be educational for other forum users.

I'm not sure why you're having trouble finding lists of STDs. When I try a simple gooogle search for "list STDs" or "list of STD pathogens" or other similar terms, I come up with many sites that have this information. If some of them do not list every bacteria, virus, or other pathogens that sometimes are sexually transmitted, the lists on any three or four of them probably contain them all. Here are three to start with:

American Sexual Health Association (ASHA, the sponsor of this forum):  https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/stds_a_to_z/ 
CDC:  https://www.cdc.gov/std/general/default.htm
WHO:  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sexually-transmitted-infections-(stis)

FYI:  Don't get concerned or hung up on STD versus STI. Although some sources prefer one term over the other, in fact it's just a matter of personal preference. There is no difference in meaning. (And English is the only language for which there is any debate. In all other languates, there is only one term in use.)

One of the potential problems is terminology:  Lots of bacteria and viruses are sexually transmissible but usually not sexually transmitted. COVID-19, influenza, tuberculosis, staph, strep, and many others all can be shared by partners during sex, but since sex accounts for few cases (and if sex didn't exist it wouldn't make any difference in their frequency), they aren't considered STDs. Some conditions are sexually transmitted in some populations, but not others. Among men who have sex with men, many intestinal infections are almost always sexually transmitted, but sex is a rare cause in heterosexuals. Hepatitis C virus is often listed as an STD, but the only sexual transmission scenario that occurs with any measurable frequency is between men having traumatic (i.e. potentially bloody) sexual practices with other men; it is not sexually trnasmitted at all between men and women, or so rarely the risk can be ignored.

Please be cautious about "getting tested for as many STIs/STDs as possible". As one common example, the blood tests for HSV1 and HSV2 are not very good; in people without symptoms they so often are wrong or misleading that experts recommend against testing except in high risk circumstances, like symptoms that suggest herpes or sexual exposure to a known infected partner. By the same token, some tests included in some laboratories "comprehensive" STD testing panels are entirely unnecessary and included as much for the lab's profit motive as anything else. For example, even though EBV, CMV and HTLV [you can look them up if unfamiliar] can be STIs in some settings, they usually are not and positive results usually don't matter. Such panels also often include sexually transmissible bacteria like Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis which in fact are entirely normal bacteria in the genital tract and do not need treatment even if positive. For other STDs, there is no lab test anyway (e.g. molluscum contagiosum). On top of all this, there are syndromes whose exact cause is unknown:  for example, with current technologies the causes in 50% of cases are unknown and (so far) unknowable for nongonococcal urethritiis (NGU) in men; and it's more like 60-70% in its female counterpart, nongonococcal cervicitis. Then there's bacterial vaginosis, the most common cause of abnormal vaginal discharge in women -- whose cause is unknown and many cases of which may or may not be STDs at all.

As a general rule, the average sexually active person who changes partners from time to time should be tested periodically for gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and syphilis; and for women, perhaps trichomonas. And that's usually just about all.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD
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21 months ago
Hello,
Thank you for your response. I was doing research on HTLV and I see that it can cause a type of lymphoma (cancer). If this is true, why is it not a part of routine STI screening? And are the tests really not that accurate for it?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
21 months ago
HTLV is one of those viruses properly viewed as sexually transmissible but not usually sexually transmitted. Also it's rare and there is nothing to be done about a positive result; even in infected persons the large majority never get lymphoma and there is no early test to detect lymphoma. I have no knowledge about the details of the available tests.---
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21 months ago
Okay. I guess I’m just worried about having children in the future and potentially passing it onto them, or my current partner. I recently did get tested for all of the most common STIs and came back negative for everything except for HSV-2. Under the test results, it did say my value (2.66) falls into the false positive range, so my doctor ordered another test to confirm or deny the results. I have never had any sores and I’ve never noticed any on my partner either, however, we have both had previous partners so who really knows. As long as it won’t have extreme complications for me, my partner, or my future children, I’m okay with it. 
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
21 months ago
If you don't live in sourthern parts of Japan, Africa or South America, or in parts of the Caribbean or Middle East, there little chance you have HTLV or will ever be exposed to it. 

With the most commonly used HSV2 antibody test, an index value of 2.66 probably indicates something like a 60-70% chance you have it. Keep an eye out for symptoms of even very minor blisters, sores or irritated spots in the genital area, upper thighs, buttocks, and lower abdomen (think of the body areas covered by men's boxer shorts). Over half of HSV2 infected people without apparent symptoms come to recognize such symptoms over time. With or without symptoms, the chance is high enough that you might want to sort it out, given your plans for motherhood someday -- like repeat testing or maybe a Western blot test. The chance of neonatal herpes is low even if you are infected, but it's certainly far above the chance of any potential problem from HTLV! Terri Warren, this forum's herpes expert, is very experienced in these issues. Feel free to start a new thread on this issue if you are interested.

That completes the two follow-up exchanges included with each question and so ends this thread. I hope the discussion has been helpful. Best wishes to you.
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