- Test for gonorrhea one week after exposure for a reliable result. Urine tests for gonorrhea can provide accurate, same-day results. If you have performed oral sex, it is possible to develop gonorrhea in your throat. Genital gonorrhea can cause painful urination or foul-smelling and possibly bloody discharge from the penis or vagina. Gonorrhea of the throat can cause soreness.
- Chlamydia usually shows up in a test six weeks after infection. In rare instances, chlamydia can remain undetectable for up to three months. As with gonorrhea, chlamydia can be detected in the urine. It is advisable to be tested six weeks and then again 90 days after exposure. Chlamydia can be present and cause no symptoms. This is especially true in men. But absence of symptoms does not mean you should avoid testing.
- You will develop genital lesions between two and six weeks after exposure. Tests for herpes involves swabbing an active lesion and then examining the swab samples under a microscope. There are blood tests available to check for herpes infection. However, this test does not differentiate between herpes type 1, the kind that causes cold sores, and herpes type 2, which causes genital sores. There is no available cure for genital herpes.
- Syphilis can incubate for three months before a positive result can be obtained. Sometime between day nine and day 90 after exposure, you may develop a lesion at the site of the infection. Six weeks later, you will develop a rash all over your body that will last approximately one month. At this point, the symptoms of syphilis will resolve, and the disease will become latent in the body but still transmittable. If you have latent syphilis and receive no antibiotic treatment, you could potentially develop late-stage syphilis. Late-stage syphilis can cause syphilis-related insanity, heart defects and potentially death. Syphilis is easily treatable if found early. Regular testing and treatment have now made syphilis infection almost unheard of in the U.S.
- HIV can take between three and six months to show up in a test after infection. This is why it is important that people who are exposed to HIV be tested twice even if the initial test is negative. The test can be performed in the doctor's office by swabbing the cheek or by blood test. It can take decades to develop symptoms from undiagnosed HIV. Once you develop symptoms, the viral load in your body will be extremely high and difficult to control. This is why early detection is vital.
- Human papillomavirus is usually tested for when a woman has an abnormal pap smear or when a person develops genital warts. There are over 30 strains of HPV. The sexually transmitted types are HPV type 16, which can cause cervical cancer, and type 18, which can cause genital warts. These types can show up in a pap smear or blood test as late as three months after infection.
