If a person has experienced a significant exposure to a body fluid known to present a risk for HIV transmission, then a decision must be made about whether to start medications, such as zidovudine, that may prevent that person from becoming infected. The decision must be reached in consultation with a health care provider and [...]

About 70 percent of people who contract hepatitis C do not develop symptoms, so they would not know they had been infected unless they were tested. If symptoms do develop, they are usually mild and occur one to two months after infection. They include jaundice (yellowing of the skin) in about half of those who [...]

First, a word about the woeful lack of routine testing for chlamydia. Unless a person is being seen in a clinic that specializes in STDs, chlamydia testing is usually not offered unless the health care provider notices an obvious symptom, such as discharge or irritation of the cervix, during a routine gynecological exam. Since women [...]

MRI is painless and noninvasive; it gives a three-dimensional scan of the body, producing images that are like slices of anatomy. It creates better pictures than CT scans (see below), but it’s expensive and time-consuming (an average scan lasts about 45 minutes). Also, being inside an MRI machine, according to one patient, is “like being [...]

Age is also a major factor. Most—more than 80 percent of the men diagnosed with prostate cancer are older, over age 65; 90 percent of the deaths are in this same group. Traditionally, less than i percent of prostate cancer cases have been detected in men younger than age 50, and only 16 percent have [...]