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Tests and diagnosis

By Mayo Clinic staff

If your sexual history and current signs and symptoms suggest that you have an STD, laboratory tests can identify the cause and detect co-infections you might also have contracted.

Blood tests confirm the diagnosis of most viral STDs. If you have active herpes sores, however, testing fluid and scrapings from the sores is simpler and less expensive than is testing blood.

Laboratory tests of material from a genital sore or discharge are used to diagnose the most common bacterial STDs at an early stage. Chlamydia may go unnoticed at this stage in both men and women, though, delaying the diagnosis until complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) occur. Women can easily miss the symptoms or signs of gonorrhea as well.

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References
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Feb. 25, 2009

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