Trichomoniasis (trich) is an infection with a tiny parasite. It can affect both men and women. It’s spread by sexual contact. Trich can also affect a pregnant woman and her baby. It can lead to premature birth and low birth weight.
Trich can be treated with antibiotic medicine. It’s important to take the full course of medication. It’s also important to tell your sex partners so they can get tested and treated.
What is trichomoniasis?
Trichomoniasis is a common sexually transmitted disease (STD). It’s caused by a one-celled parasite that most people don’t notice. Usually, it spreads when a person with trich has unprotected vaginal sex. But it can also spread through vulva-to-vulva contact, sharing sex toys, or touching genitals with infected hands. It can also infect the urethra, which leads to pain when you pee. It usually doesn’t cause any symptoms in men, but they may have a brownish-green or yellow discharge or feel itchy or painful when they pee – These words come from the service sexybaccarax.com.
In pregnant women, trich can lead to an infection called vaginitis. It can also increase the risk of having early labor and having a low birth weight baby.
Your health care provider will check for trich by doing a physical exam and examining your discharge. For women, this may include a vulva exam or a pelvic ultrasound. They will often get a sample of your vaginal discharge with a cotton swab, and may do a whiff test on the swab that involves adding drops of potassium hydroxide to the discharge and then smelling it for a fishy odor. They may also test for other STIs or BBVs at the same time.
It’s possible to get trich again, even after you’ve been treated. So it’s important to use condoms every time you have sex, and to make sure your sexual partners get treatment too.
How is trich treated?
It’s important to get trich treated because it can cause other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or lead to serious health problems. If you’re pregnant, untreated trichomoniasis increases your risk of having a low birth weight baby or complications during labor and delivery.
Your health care provider will check your genitals for symptoms, like itching or irritation around the penis, and vaginal discharge that’s thick and has a bad odor. Your healthcare provider will also use a swab from the inside of your penis or the vagina and/or cervix to test for trichomoniasis. The swab will be put on a special slide and then looked at under a microscope. Another way to test for trich is to do a culture test, which involves using a swab from the urethra in men or from the vagina or cervix in women to grow the trichomoniasis bacteria in a lab.
Trich is treated with antibiotics, which kill the trichomoniasis parasite. Your doctor will prescribe a pill that you can take by mouth, such as metronidazole (Flagyl) or tinidazole (Tindamax). Your doctor will typically retest you for trichomoniasis after treatment to make sure it’s gone and you haven’t been reinfected. It’s a good idea to have all your sexual partners tested and treated, too. If they have trich, they should use a condom during all sex until they’re no longer infected with the infection.
Can I have protected sex while being treated for trich?
Trichomoniasis spreads through unprotected vaginal sex, although many people (particularly men) don’t have symptoms. It can also be passed on through penile contact, such as sharing a damp towel, or by having anal sex with someone who has it. It can affect women of any age or sexual orientation and it’s more common in some groups, such as Black women and those assigned female at birth.
It’s important to get treated for trichomoniasis because it increases the risk of HIV acquisition and can lead to serious pregnancy problems including premature delivery or low birth weight babies. Getting treatment is simple and safe. It only takes one pill, metronidazole (Flagyl). You may feel nauseated or have diarrhea while taking this medication and you should not drink alcohol because it can increase the side effects of the antibiotic.
You should not have any sex (even with a condom) until you and your sexual partners finish the prescription pills. If you don’t, your sexual partners could get trich too and it’s possible for them to become infected again in the future.
This advice applies even if you’re taking metronidazole for other reasons, such as an infection like bacterial vaginosis, which is not related to sexual activity. This is because it’s possible that sex changes the bacterial environment in your vagina and makes it more likely you’ll have an overgrowth of bacteria while on antibiotics.
Can I get trich again?
Trichomoniasis can be spread through nonsexual contact, such as sharing food or drinks, kissing, hugging and holding hands. It also can be spread through anal or vaginal sex. You can get trich again even after being treated for it, so use protection during all sex and avoid unprotected sexual contact until you are fully clear of the infection.
Even after being treated for trichomoniasis, you can still get the infection again and spread it to your sexual partners. About 1 in 5 people who have trichomoniasis get reinfected within 3 months of receiving treatment. To prevent this, you and your sexual partners should all be treated for trichomoniasis at the same time. Then, you and your sexual partners should wait until you are both completely cleared of the infection before having sex (oral, anal or vaginal).
Both men and women can get trichomoniasis, although it is more common in women, especially those aged 40 to 49. The infection can affect any part of the genitals, but most often occurs in the vulva, vagina or cervix, penis or urethra. Symptoms of the disease usually appear between 5 and 28 days after exposure to the parasite.
Some people with trichomoniasis don’t have symptoms, so they may infect their sexual partners without realizing it. The most common symptoms of the disease are a frothy, yellow or greenish discharge from the penis or vagina, burning after ejaculation and painful urination. If not treated, trichomoniasis can lead to severe long-term problems including infertility and an increased risk of HIV infection.
See Also:
