Which STD Causes Chapped Lips?

Chapped lips are not caused by a sexually transmitted disease.

Chapped lips are characterized by cracking, fissuring, and peeling of the skin of the lips. In order to prevent chapped lips, avoid too much exposure to the sun, drink fluids and stay hydrated, use lip balm or lipstick when going outside in a dry cold weather, use a sunscreen lip balm when going outside in sunny weather, and moisten the air at home with a humidifier.

The cold sores caused by herpes are different from chapped lips. Cold sores are tingling or painful fluid-filled blisters on the edge of the lip where it meets the skin of the face.

More on Sexually Transmitted Diseases at TheBody.com

To find out more about this topic, we recommend the following articles:

• What Do the Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Look Like?
• Herpes Simplex (Cold Sores and Genital Herpes)

In addition, our Q&A experts sometimes address questions about chapped lips in our "Ask the Experts" forums. Here are some of those questions and our experts' responses:

• HIV through chapped lips
  I think there may have been some of the waiter's blood on a hamburger I ate. My lips are very chapped. Am I at risk of HIV infection?
• oral sex with chapped lip
  I gave a guy oral for a minute or two, and afterwards I noticed that my chapped bottom lip was bleeding. I'm worried that some of his pre-cum may have got into my lip.
• Angular Chelitis or Chapped lips?
  I have recently been having problems with minor cracking at the corners of my mouth. Is this caused by a fungal infection? It goes away when I use a chap stick.