An interactive guide to sexually transmitted diseases + you don’t have to shag someone to get some of them

In this guide we’re going to discuss a common topic on Twitter that led to some having the shocking belief that you can only get an “STD” by having sex. We’re here to tell you that while that may be the case sometimes depending on which STD you’re talking about, that, is not always the case as there are most certainly STD ‘s out there that you don’t have to shag your mate to actually get.

For starters, this guide was sparked by a Twitter thread after a man tried to “clown” if you will a woman for getting routinely tested. Routine sexual health testing is important because you don’t have to shag someone to get an STD. Let me repeat that for the people in the back. You do not have to shag someone to get an STD.

Just for a little razzle dazzle, we’d also like to add that there is nothing wrong with a single woman having a sex life even if she was active.

Alright let’s get started.

1. Molluscum

Not going to hold you on this one as long as we’ve heard of this one nobody around these parts has ever been able to pronounce this one. It according to WebMD, is indeed a sexually transmitted disease that appears like a cluster of bumps on one’s skin.

According to the American Sexual Health Association —- this STD was once a harmless skin infection in children. However alike other viruses (yes this is a virus) such has evolved into becoming an STD in adults.

This STD can be transmitted in the following ways:

• Objects like towels and such that an infected person has used or touched.
• Things like a swimming pool, particularly if an infected person has been in the swimming pool.
• Clothing items that come in contact with the infected lesions.

The period in which someone may take to actually show symptoms takes on average 2-3 months but may take as many as six months.

As we go through this guide, the point we’re trying to make here is that the common misconception that you have to have sex to get STD ‘s is by all accounts signs that someone might be a child themselves or dangerously immature. Pay attention to these types people.

HOWEVER full stop. We want to make something about HIV particularly clear. You cannot, let thou repeat this part, you cannot get HIV by simply sharing a towel or a juice bottle with someone who may be HIV positive. That is one of the oldest misconceptions about HIV probably older than many of us and our time on this earth today. In order to transmit HIV you must:

2. Mononucleosis (aka the kissing disease.)

Anytime (totally unrelated but funny) I see this one I for some reason think of that gum commercial where the lady goes something about a clean mouth. This STD and its aptly titled codename are/is as it is described. It is an STD you can get by kissing someone and typically is also the route that things like oral herpes are spread. (Herpes while super super common is still considered an STD but is not at all considered as serious as it once was.)

This also may be known as HSV-2.

In fact, official estimates from the World Health Organisation as early as 2016 — that some 491.5m people were living with some form of herpes (particularly genital but also including oral/etc.) This means that depending on where you live in the world you probably know someone or have encountered someone who has it.

Okay now we’re going to get into the many ways that things can be transmitted (and remember this does not apply to HIV because HIV cannot be transmitted by saliva.)

Some of the big ones that you can get not by having “sex” (usually by most and awkwardly defined as intercourse): herpes, mono, and meningitis. These three are commonly transmitted by simply touching; kissing, or interacting in some way with someone’s mouth that has been infected (especially if that person has had a recent oubreak.)

Ah the beloved but aforementioned act of a “Nosh Off.” Having a moment of in this particular act (at least condomless) can result in potential exposure to: syphilis, herpes, gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Human papillomavirus (the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US (via the CDC.)

(Btw the CDC considers this sexual contact even though others do not.)

Here’s a full list of even more.