Cheating seems to be more prevalent than ever in this age of hook-up mobile applications, rising divorce rates and infidelity. You’ve cheated. What’s worse is that you’ve also contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

What do you do?

Here are 3 tips to help you set the situation, right:

Seek medical attention

First and foremost, go seek medical attention and get tested. It is incredibly important to determine what it was that you contracted, but more importantly to move forward and treat the STI. Is it bacterial or worse, viral?

Encourage your fling or the person you cheated with to also get tested for STIs. You need to be informed with their health status.

You’re probably overwhelmed with guilt right now, and frankly, preoccupied with trying to make things right with your partner. However, you’re no good to anybody if you can’t even take care of yourself and keep your body in a healthy state. So the first step is: go to a doctor.

Don’t be sexually intimate with your partner

You’ve already been dishonest and disloyal…do you also want to be solely responsible for your partner contracting a STI?

Choose honesty and encourage your partner to also get tested. Despite the many hurtful feelings and emotions your partner may be experiencing, this is not a moment for blaming. Instead, what is urgent is to receive medical attention.

If you decide to deceive and continue to be sexually intimate with your partner, there are no words but simply: you are a selfish pig.

Be honest and take ownership

Be mature about it and face your partner. Don’t find scapegoats and blame it on a failing relationship. There really is no reason to cheat. If the relationship was failing, then you should’ve ended it first before stepping into a new one.

Your words and actions should reflect respect – that’s what it means to be a respectable human being. Your partner will most likely need a lot of time to process and evaluate the unfaithful news, but this is the time to be mature about it.

Find out what is the real problem. Why have you turned to cheating? If you’re unhappy about being in a monogamous relationship, perhaps it would be wise to talk to your partner about having an open relationship. Nothing hurts more than being blind-sided. Communicate.