Sexual Health

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium that hijacks columnar epithelial cells of the genital tract, producing an infection so often silent that transmission and ascending damage occur before any symptom prompts a test.

Contraception works by interrupting one of a small number of physiological steps required for pregnancy (ovulation, sperm transport, fertilisation or implantation), and matching a method's mechanism, efficacy and risk profile to the individual is what UKMEC eligibility criteria formalise.

Genital herpes is a lifelong infection in which herpes simplex virus establishes latency in sacral sensory ganglia after primary infection, so the virus (not just the initial outbreak) remains present for life and can reactivate as recurrent lesions.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a gram-negative diplococcus that directly invades columnar and transitional epithelium, producing a florid local inflammatory response set against a backdrop of rapidly evolving antimicrobial resistance that dictates how it must be tested and treated.

Pelvic inflammatory disease is infection ascending from the lower genital tract into the uterus, fallopian tubes and adjacent structures, where the resulting inflammation and scarring (not the initial infection itself) cause its long-term morbidity.

Syphilis is a systemic infection with the spirochaete Treponema pallidum that progresses through distinct, mechanistically linked stages: a localised primary chancre, disseminated secondary disease, silent latency, and destructive tertiary disease, each caused by the same organism behaving differently over time.