What are the common characteristics of female sexually transmitted diseases? What are the preventive measures for female sexually transmitted diseases

The characteristics of female sexually transmitted diseases are not obvious clinical symptoms, difficult diagnosis, and easy occurrence of reproductive complications. Preventing female sexually transmitted diseases requires hygiene and self cleanliness.

1、 Characteristics of female sexually transmitted diseases

1. Clinical symptoms are not obvious

This situation is often encountered in sexually transmitted disease clinics. Doctors tell male patients to bring their spouses or sexual partners for examination and treatment after being diagnosed with gonorrhea or non gonococcal urethritis. Patients often say that their spouse and sexual partner have no symptoms and there is no need for examination. Surprisingly, due to differences in physiological anatomy and reproductive physiology, women infected with sexually transmitted diseases are mostly asymptomatic and have mild symptoms, making it difficult for patients to detect and easily becoming carriers or sources of infection. For example, when a man suffers from gonorrhea, the symptoms are obvious, such as painful urination and a large amount of yellow purulent discharge at the urethral opening. After women suffer from gonorrhea, half of the patients have no symptoms, with an increase in vaginal discharge and a yellowing color, but the patients may not be aware of the abnormality. Another example is genital herpes. Painful herpes that occurs in the external genitalia of males is easily noticed by patients, while in females it occurs on the cervical mucosa, manifested as cervical erosion and mucopurulent secretions, but there is no rash on the external genitalia and no obvious clinical symptoms.

2. Difficulty in diagnosis

One of the reasons why it is difficult to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases in women is the lack of obvious or specific clinical symptoms. For example, different sexually transmitted diseases in women can manifest as increased vaginal discharge or vaginal discharge, making it difficult to distinguish which disease in clinical practice. Secondly, the clinical examination of sexually transmitted diseases in women is also more difficult than that in men. Male external genitalia are easily exposed, and direct examination is sufficient. For women, it is necessary to use a vaginal dilator for internal examination in order to observe lesions in the vagina and cervix. Genital warts that occur in the vagina or cervix are easily misdiagnosed if the lesion is small or the site is hidden. In addition, there are differences in the sensitivity and specificity of laboratory testing methods between males and females. For example, the sensitivity and specificity of the secretion coated with Gram staining test for the diagnosis of male gonorrhea reach 95%~99%. If the coating detects typical forms of Gram negative diplococcus in polymorphonuclear cells, it can be diagnosed as gonorrhea. However, for women, the sensitivity of secretion coating with Pilan's staining test is only about 50%, which means that using coating testing to diagnose gonorrhea in women, half of the patients miss the diagnosis. Therefore, the diagnosis of female gonorrhea requires the cultivation of secretive bacteria.