Especially helpful are individual or group counseling sessions. Young men and women may feel more comfortable when they are in groups of the same sex. Counselors can discuss the symptoms of STDs, which include vaginal or penile discharge, painful urination, abdominal pain or genital sores. Many women regard most vaginal discharge to be normal and do not realize that some discharge may be a sign of infection that needs treatment. Hence, women need to be educated on the differences in normal and abnormal vaginal discharge.
Counselors can also point out factors that put young people at high risk for STDs.
These risk factors include the number of sexual partners, age, whether he or she has had a new partner in recent months, history of previous STD infection, whether their partner has other sexual partners, or whether their partner has STD symptoms. It is difficult for many women to know if they are at risk because they do not know whether their husband or boyfriend has multiple partners. The behavior of male partners may be the greatest risk factor for women. Current research is exploring whether such risk factors can be formalized into a checklist of questions on demographic, behavioral and related factors, called a risk assessment tool, and whether use of this tool can help to manage contraceptive choices and STD diagnosis and treatment.