Can an STD lay dormant for years?

Answer 1

Yes.

One of the factors that makes STDs so common is that most people with an STD don't even know they are infected. It is not uncommon for someone to be infected but to have no noticeable symptoms - in other words, they are asymptomatic. Therefore, people can be infected with an STD for many years without knowing it. During that time, they still can transmit the infection on to some or all of their sex partners.

That's why some scientists call STDs "the hidden epidemic." They're common, they're invisible, and they can have serious long-term health consequences including infertility and even (rarely) death.

Chlamydia, for example, is one of the most common treatable STDs, but three-quarters of all women and half of all men with chlamydia have no noticeable symptoms at all.

Half of all women with gonorrhea, and ten percent of men, don't show symptoms either. Many other STDs can lie dormant for months or years as well.

It's no wonder, then, that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates there are more than 20 million new STD infections in the U.S. each year.

It's very easy to have an STD and not know about it. That's why safer sex should be the rule rather than the exception.