You have likely heard the terms before — STD and STI — and though you may know what each acronym stands for, you may wonder what the difference is between the two. While some people, including health professionals, will tell you there is no difference and that the terms can be used interchangeably, the truth is that there are a few differences. Though few, those differences are somewhat significant.
The main difference between an STD and STI is the name. STD stands for “sexually transmitted disease,” while STI is an acronym for “sexually transmitted infection.” These are umbrella terms that individuals, including healthcare professionals, use interchangeably to describe a virus or bacteria that is transmitted through sexual contact of any kind.
That said, if you want to get technical, STIs precede STDs, in most cases. Moreover, many cases of STI never develop into full-fledged STDs. This is because most diseases begin with infection.
When a person contracts an STD or STI, he or she is first exposed to a virus or bacteria that enters the body. Typically, medications can attack and kill this virus or bacteria before they multiply, thereby eliminating the prospect of a disease developing. That said, if an infection is allowed to remain in the body and multiply, only then might it develop into a sexually transmitted disease. In the case of disease, the invading organism begins to interfere with the body’s normal functions and processes.
Another major difference between the terms “STD” and “STI” lies in the origin of both. Prior to the 1990s, sexually transmitted infections were referred to as “venereal diseases”—which individuals, as they are bound to do, later abbreviated to VDs. This term was derived from the Latin word venereus, which is the verb form of “Venus,” the Roman goddess of love. In an era when people understood the connotation behind VD, the term was inoffensive. However, as society became less familiar with classical literature and mythology, the euphemistic effect was lost and, eventually, VD held nothing but negative connotations. Sextually transmitted disease, then, took venereal disease’s place.
STD did not remain the preferred term for long, though. Less than 10 years later, the World Health Organization determined that the word “disease” cast a negative stigma onto anyone who contracted a sexually transmitted infection. Thus, it suggested another term: “Sexually transmitted infection.” STI has been around for going on 25 years, and it has yet to develop the negative connotation that STD did. This is likely because most people view infections as far less serious or severe than diseases.
That said, many people continue to use the terms STI and STD interchangeably, even doctors.
Though both STI and STD are umbrella terms to describe a sexually transmitted infection, they present very differently. An STI refers to the earlier stage of the same condition that causes an STD. However, because it is in the early stages, many carriers do not present symptoms and, therefore, are unaware that they are infected. Only once the STI progresses into a full-blown disease does a person start noticing signs of infection. At that, point, however, the infection has already run rampant throughout the body and caused considerable damage.
Regardless, if you have an STD or STI, immediate diagnosis and treatment is necessary. Most STIs can be treated quickly, before they cause any damage or have a chance to develop into a disease. With others, however, the transformation to an STD is inevitable, and treatment is not always possible. In these cases, healthcare teams focus on disease and lifestyle management and transmission prevention.
Now that you are familiar with the differences between an STI and STD, you can take measures to protect yourself and, more importantly, to prevent the development of an STI into an STD. Along with using protection, awareness is one of the best means of protecting yourself against a sexually transmitted infection.