The Incubation Period of Common STDs

You've just had unprotected sex with a new partner, and all of a sudden a strange mark has appeared in your pubic area. Although many sexually transmitted diseases can remain asymptomatic for years, it's good to have a few guidelines for when you have std symptoms and when you're just being paranoid. If the sheets haven't even cooled down yet, that pimple is almost certainly not a new STD symptom. Next time, practice safer sex. It will drastically reduce your stress levels.

Average Time from Exposure to Symptoms for Some Common STDs:

• Chlamydia: Although many people never have any symptoms, when symptoms do appear it is usually one to three weeks after exposure to the bacteria. Even asymptomatic patients with chlamydia can have complications, however, so it is important to be regularly screened by your physician.
• Gonorrhea: Gonorrhea is frequently asymptomatic. When symptoms do appear they may show up as early as two days after exposure, or take as long as one month.
• Syphilis: The chancre characteristic of the first stage of syphilis appears, on average, twenty one days after infection, but may appear any time between 10 to 90 days after exposure to the bacterium.
• Chancroid: Symptoms of chancroid may appear any time from one day to several weeks after infection. Most people find that lesions appear within five to seven days.
• Trichomoniasis: Although most men never have symptoms of trichomoniasis, in women symptoms usually appear between 5 to 28 days after exposure.
• Scabies: If you have never had scabies before, it may take one to two months for symptoms to appear. However, if you have previously been infected symptoms may show up after only a couple of days.
• Genital Warts: Most people who are going to have symptomatic genital warts will experience their first outbreak within three months of initial infection.
• Genital Herpes: Although most people never know they're infected, if symptoms are going to occur they usually show up within two weeks of exposure to the virus.
• HIV: In the majority of the infected population, HIV remains asymptomatic for years. The only way to know if you have HIV is to be tested. It is important to know, however, that it may take up to six months after exposure to the HIV virus before you will test positive on an HIV antibody test, although most infected people will test positive within 3 months. A negative test, therefore, isn't a reliable indicator of your infection status if you were only exposed last week. Tests that look directly for HIV RNA, the virus' genetic material, can detect an infection earlier, but are harder to find.
• Hepatitis B: Symptoms of hepatitis B usually show up between four to six weeks after infection. However, hepatitis B is completely preventable by vaccination.
• Molloscum Contagiosum: Scientists are uncertain of the incubation period of molluscum contagiosum. Current estimates range from two weeks to six months.

Sources:

The CDC Genital Herpes Fact Sheet.

The CDC Chlamydia Fact Sheet.

The CDC Gonorrhea Fact Sheet.

The CDC Syphilis Fact Sheet.

The CDC Trichomoniasis Fact Sheet.

The CDC Scabies Fact Sheet.

The CDC Molluscum Contagiosum Fact Sheet.

Genital Warts from The Mayo Clinic.

Hepatitis B from The Mayo Clinic.

Montero et al. "Chancroid: An Update" Infect Med 19(4):174-178, 2002.