Is It an STD? Symptoms That Are Usually Something Else

Most symptoms that send people looking for an STD test turn out not to be one. Discharge, itching, odor, burning when you pee, a bump that was not there yesterday — all of these are far more often bacterial vaginosis, a yeast infection or a urinary tract infection than they are a sexually transmitted infection.

That is the good news and the problem at once. The conditions overlap enough that you cannot tell them apart by looking, and the two that matter most for treatment — trichomoniasis and chlamydia — are the ones most often mistaken for something harmless.

This page collects what we have written on telling them apart, and is honest about where the line is: at some point the only thing that separates a yeast infection from an STI is a test.

What is usually not an STD

Bacterial vaginosis is the most common vaginal infection in people of reproductive age, and it is not sexually transmitted. It happens when the balance of bacteria that normally live in the vagina shifts. Sexual activity is a risk factor — new partners, more partners, and douching all raise the odds — but you do not catch BV from someone the way you catch chlamydia.

Yeast infections are an overgrowth of candida, a fungus that lives in the body normally. They are not sexually transmitted either, though they can follow antibiotics, hormonal changes or a course of steroids.

Urinary tract infections are bacteria in the urinary tract, usually from the person’s own gut flora. Sex can push bacteria toward the urethra, which is why UTIs often follow it, but a UTI is not an STI.

What is an STD, and looks just like them

Trichomoniasis is the one to be careful about. It is a genuine sexually transmitted infection, it is the most common curable one, and its symptoms — discharge, odor, itching, discomfort passing urine — are close enough to BV that the two are routinely confused. About 70% of people with trich have no symptoms at all.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea frequently produce nothing. When they do produce discharge or burning, there is no feature that reliably separates them from a UTI by symptom alone.

That is the whole reason this page exists. The symptom is not the answer. The test is.

Telling them apart

Bacterial vaginosis vs UTI
Bacterial vaginosis vs chlamydia
Yeast infection vs chlamydia
Yeast infection vs STD
Chlamydia vs UTI

Discharge, and what it means

STD discharge
Vaginal discharge: a complete guide
What is clear vaginal discharge?
Understanding brown vaginal discharge
Penile discharge
Does gonorrhea discharge have an odor?

Odor, bumps and irritation

7 vaginal odors explained
Vaginal bumps: 9 causes
Male yeast infection symptoms
Can men carry BV?

Treatment and afterwards

Understanding bacterial vaginosis
How long to wait for sex after yeast infection treatment
Can you have sex after using boric acid?

When to test instead of guess

Test rather than wait if you have a new partner, if a partner has told you about an exposure, if symptoms have not cleared after treating for something else, or if symptoms keep returning. Repeated BV that never quite resolves is a common reason people eventually test and find trichomoniasis.

Treating the wrong thing costs time, and with trich or chlamydia it also means the infection is still transmissible while you are treating for something it is not.

When you can test after exposure
Trichomoniasis test
Chlamydia and gonorrhea panel

A note on what this page is

Bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections and urinary tract infections are not sexually transmitted infections, and we have not filed them as though they were. They are here because they are what people are usually dealing with when they think they might have an STD — and because two infections that are sexually transmitted, trichomoniasis and chlamydia, hide among them.

This is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If symptoms are severe, worsening, or accompanied by fever or pelvic pain, see a clinician rather than a test kit.