These infections are passed on during sexual contact between the penis and the rectum, throat or vagina. You can pass them on even if you have no symptoms. You can also transmit them to your eyes via your fingers, though this rarely happens. Gonorrhea and chlamydia cannot survive outside the body, so you can't pick them up from shared towels, toilet seats or locker rooms. However, women can pick up trichomonas this way.
Women can suffer serious complications as well.
Testing Your doctor will take a sample from your penis using a thin cotton swab. If you go to an STD clinic, the doctor will look at the sample under a microscope in order to tell whether you have an infection. A microscopic exam is the only way to detect trichomonas. The sample will then be sent to a lab for testing. Try not to urinate for two hours before getting tested, since you might wash away the organism causing the infection.