STDs from toilet seats
Germs in restrooms may concern you. So, you may want to learn about the viruses, bacteria, and parasites that can survive on bathroom surfaces and identify ways you can avoid taking those germs with you.
When wondering what diseases you can catch in restrooms, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — also called sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) — may be one of your greatest concerns.
STDs mainly transmit through vaginal, anal, and oral sex, and sometimes, during activities like:
Most STDs don’t transmit through:
- Restroom toilet seats
- Other hard surfaces
- Shaking hands or hugging
- Using the same towels or dishes as someone
- Insect bites
But there may be some that you may need to be careful about.
Bacterial STDs
These diseases include chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Bacteria that cause STDs live in the mucous membranes around your penis, vagina, anus, and mouth. But they can’t survive for long outside the mucous membranes.
Viral STDs
If an STD is viral, it can spread outside the mucus membranes and to other skin cells. The viruses that cause STDs don’t spread far but can survive on porous skin near your mucous membranes. Viral STDs include:
Parasitic STDs
Some STDs are caused by live parasites like trichomoniasis and pubic lice — also called crabs. Parasitic STDs can happen on surfaces including:
- Toilet seats
- Towels
- Clothing
- Bedsheets
- Blankets
The only way to get a parasitic STD is for your genitals to come into direct contact with a toilet seat while a live parasite is present there. But, this may happen in rare cases because parasites can’t live for a long time on hard surfaces like toilet seats. Still, they do live longer than viruses and bacteria.
Exceptions to the rule
You are not likely to catch a viral or bacterial disease on a toilet seat. Physical contact has to be “back-to-back” for you to contract a bacterial or viral infection from a toilet seat.
A person’s genitals have to come into direct contact with the toilet seat surface. You have to then sit with your genitals in the exact same place soon after the original transmission happened.
To contract viruses like HIV, you must have an open wound for the virus to reach your bloodstream. Your open wound has to be in direct contact with the same surface soon after another person’s genitals touched it.
Genital herpes can spread from an infected person even if they don’t have sores. As with HIV, your genitals would have to come into direct contact with a surface very soon after an infected person. Transmission of genital herpes in restrooms and on toilet seats is very unlikely.