The trend is alarming, the researchers wrote in a press release, because it can lead to misdiagnoses that could "result in the continued spread of the disease, but may also have a ripple effect for the millions who view the post and perceive they have a similar condition which they then wrongly self-diagnose." Untreated STDs can lead to severe health problems and spread to newbornsĪlong with the shame that often comes along with having an STD, the infections can also have severe medical consequences if left untreated or mistreated, which is a problem the study authors fear is becoming increasingly common. Davey Smith, another co-author, said STD-related shame and lack of access to proper diagnosis and treatment facilities may also push people to use the internet as a diagnostic tool. Ayers, a co-author of the study, this crowd-diagnosis trend has likely taken off because it only takes a fraction of the time it takes to see a doctor. The median time it took for a reply to a request for diagnosis on Reddit was three hours.Īccording to Dr. The researchers also found 87% of the messages requesting diagnoses help were met with replies, and usually multiple. Just over 30% of that 58% even posted images of their symptoms to assist with the process. You can get chlamydia in the urethra (inside the penis), rectum, or throat.
They found that use of the message board doubled starting in November 2018 and that 58% of people who posted on r/STD explicitly requested other r/STD members help diagnose their STDs. The majority of chlamydial infections in men do not cause any symptoms. The researchers at UC San Diego in California who conducted the study specifically looked at the user exchanges on the r/STD message board between November 2010, when Reddit launched, through February 2019. The sexually transmitted diseases chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are at an all-time in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the ways in which people with STDs are seeking proper diagnoses could be contributing to the problem.Īccording to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an increasing number of people are turning to the social media site Reddit to get an STD diagnosis either without going to the doctor or after going to the doctor but apparently not being satisfied with what they were told.
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