In recent times, knowledge and research about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have become ubiquitous in society, especially in developed countries that have resources like the United States. Sex is a natural biological process, and for this reason, the idea that practicing something so natural and pleasurable for humans could lead to deadly consequences has been widely studied for years now. STDs have been found to come in many different forms, such as bacterial, viral, and fungal. It has also been found that people who are in the minority in terms of sexual preferences, such as gay men and lesbian women, are more vulnerable to these diseases for various reasons, on the one hand they practice more non-traditional forms of sex which allows diseases to spread easier for them than for people who practice more common forms of sex, apart from the fact that members of the gay community might have difficulty coming out to their parents, let alone strangers who are medical professionals, and admitting that they engage in sex. in different ways, it is still considered taboo for young people to talk about sex and sex-related topics in general. This makes them particularly embarrassed to speak out and leads to a combination of unawareness and misinformation and the further spread of sexually transmitted diseases. What many teens don't know is that many of the deadliest and most dangerous STDs show no symptoms. So even if they tell themselves they will do something when there is a visible problem, it still puts them at great risk. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As previously noted, one category of STDs comes from bacteria. To better understand bacterial STDs, it is recommended to understand bacteria. Bacteria are extremely common organisms, in fact in the human body there are more bacterial cells than human cells. Not all bacteria are harmful, some are necessary for human survival and fight infections that might enter the body. They are also used in some foods. This is not to say that the damage bacteria can cause should be underestimated, as bacteria are still responsible for many harmful diseases, some of which are not even STDs. Antibiotics can be used to fight them, but large-scale antibiotics could harm the good bacteria. It is also important to remember that antibiotics cannot be used to target viruses, because viruses are different from bacteria. Some bacteria are heterotrophic and feed on other bacteria to survive. Other bacteria are autotrophs and produce their own food. They have a cell wall that protects them and a flagellum that helps them move. Bacteria are prokaryotic, meaning they do not have a nucleus or organelles like other cells. However, they have a cell wall and ribosomes. These single-celled prokaryotes reproduce in a process called binary fission, a form of asexual reproduction performed by bacteria in which the offspring look exactly like their parents. The exceptions are when a mutation occurs and these can actually make the bacteria resistant to antibiotics and allow them to spread even further. This ability of bacteria to resist antibiotics is what helps them harm the body when it comes to diseases like gonorrhea. There are many types of bacterial STDs, but one of the most common is gonorrhea. Raja Nayaran, who has a degree in biostatistics,says gonorrhea is caused by a bacterium that can enter through the urethra and infect epithelial cells. This will cause white blood cells to come and fight the infection to stop it from spreading. In theory, this should be the end, but gonorrhea attacks different parts of the urethra at the same time and so many white blood cells will go to fight it at the same time. This high level of activity will cause inflammation. In a study conducted by Christopher K. Fairley, Jane S. Hocking, Lei Zhang, and Eric P. F. Chow, it was found that gonorrhea affects homosexual men more than any other gender or demographic group, so more awareness on the topic should be spread . One of the main reasons given for the spread is that gay men have a tendency not to notify their partners even when they know they have the disease. In another study conducted by Christine Kaestle and Martha Waller, approximately eleven thousand young adults analyzed three aspects of their lives: their identity, their sexual behavior, and their sexual attractions. Over a thousand of these participants were experiencing or had recently experienced a bacterial STD. These individuals were then taken and studied further to assess whether they had misperceived the risk of contracting the bacterial sexually transmitted disease they suffered from. The results found that bisexual women who had recently had sex had a higher risk of bacterial STDs than heterosexual women with similar amounts of sexual activity. Despite this, bisexual women were more likely to believe that their straight counterparts had a higher risk of bacterial STDs than they did. Viral STDs are different from bacterial ones because they cannot be cured with antibiotics, their symptoms can only be relieved through medical treatment. . As implied by the name, viral STDs come from, well, viruses. Viruses have different shapes and structures, but all variants share some common elements. In viruses, there is a molecule made up of nucleic acids that carries all the genetic information of the virus, and that molecule is surrounded by a protein layer for protection. There are four variants of viruses: icosahedral, enveloped, complex and helical. An icosahedral shape is made up of equilateral triangles positioned to form a large sphere. Icosahedral-shaped viruses enter the environment after the cell dies and breaks down. A shell-like structure is like an icosahedral structure, but it has a lipid bilayer, or a layer of fat, surrounding it, hence the term shell. Helical viruses are surrounded by circular proteins and have the overall shape of a tube. The complex structures of viruses can have an icosahedral or helical shape. They may have a single protective layer or a head and tail type of structure. Only viruses that target bacteria have heads and tails and are called bacteriophages. Bacteriophages will use their tails to make a hole in the cell wall of the bacterium and will use their tails to insert harmful DNA into the bacterium. According to Laura J. Grimshaw, assistant medical director of a sexually transmitted disease research center in the Bronx, New York, human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. There are over 6 million new cases each year, and 75% of sexually active people aged 15 to 49 show signs of exposure to the virus. Despite this, evidence indicates that knowledge of the disease is limited, with less than 30% of women having heard of it and a proportioneven lower who has substantial knowledge of it. Grimshaw says HPV often shows no symptoms and makes people believe they don't have it, causing them to inadvertently spread it to others. There are over 100 variants of this disease and 40 of these are associated with genital tract infections. Cervical cancer cannot occur without HPV infection, making it vital that people become more educated on this topic. According to the Center for Disease Control, it is more common for women to transmit the disease to men than vice versa, which means that women's great ignorance of the disease is causing the spread of HPV in most genders. Most anal cancers are also associated with HPV variants, and lower risk variations still have an association with warts and lesions. On a more positive note, simple protective measures such as condoms have been associated with a statistical decrease in HPV risk, both directly by measuring the development of HPV and indirectly by measuring the development of HPV.cervical cancer. Better than avoiding the spread of the virus is to prevent its development in the first place. The HPV vaccine has been approved for use in the United States since 2006. This vaccine targets only 4 variants of the disease, and it is also notable that it does not protect against current infections. A last, but not irrelevant category of sexually transmitted diseases is fungal. . To understand fungal STDs, it is important to first understand fungi. The structure, methods of reproduction, and life cycle of fungi are all relevant to understanding fungal sexually transmitted diseases. According to Lumen learning, fungi are eukaryotic, meaning they have a nucleus and other organelles surrounded by a membrane, unlike bacteria which do not have one. It is made up mostly of hyphae, which are microscopic threads that work together to create a more intricate network called mycelium. The mycelium is not yet large enough to be seen with the naked eye alone. Fungi can reproduce sexually or asexually. The most common asexual reproduction method for fungi is the production of asexual spores. These come from one parent through mitosis, making them identical to the parent. Genetic variation, a fungal progeny that is not identical to its parent, results from sexual reproduction. This usually occurs in response to changing environmental conditions. One of the most common fungal sexually transmitted diseases is a yeast infection. According to Melissa Conrad Stoppler, a board-certified pathologist in the United States, most cases of yeast infections come from the fungus Candida albicans. The remaining known yeast infections are from other Candida species. However, Candida is not an automatically harmful substance. It is estimated that 20% to 50% of healthy women already have it in their bodies. Infection occurs when the amount of yeast and bacteria is altered and the yeast overshadows the bacteria. This can occur with any condition of the body that alters its chemical balance, including diabetes, pregnancy, and oral birth control. Yeast infections can also result from injury to the vagina, especially in women with suppressed immune systems. Yeast infections are very common in women: 75% of them are affected at least once in their lives. In most women, itching is the most common symptom, but other symptoms include burning, vaginal discharge, and discomfort during sexual activity or urination. Since these symptoms are common with other STDs, the most accurate way to figure out which STD is causing the problems is.