diff --git a/discord/utils.py b/discord/utils.py
index 0882250c7..6bdca37d9 100644
--- a/discord/utils.py
+++ b/discord/utils.py
@@ -369,15 +369,26 @@ def resolve_invite(invite):
 _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX = '|'.join(r'\{0}(?=([\s\S]*((?<!\{0})\{0})))'.format(c)
                                      for c in ('*', '`', '_', '~', '|'))
 
-_MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX = re.compile('(%s)' % _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX)
+_MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX = re.compile(r'(?P<markdown>%s)' % _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX)
 
-def escape_markdown(text):
-    """A helper function that escapes Discord's markdown.
+def escape_markdown(text, *, as_needed=False, ignore_links=True):
+    r"""A helper function that escapes Discord's markdown.
 
     Parameters
     -----------
     text: :class:`str`
         The text to escape markdown from.
+    as_needed: :class:`bool`
+        Whether to escape the markdown characters as needed. This
+        means that it does not escape extraneous characters if it's
+        not necessary, e.g. ``**hello**`` is escaped into ``\*\*hello**``
+        instead of ``\*\*hello\*\*``. Note however that this can open
+        you up to some clever syntax abuse. Defaults to ``False``.
+    ignore_links: :class:`bool`
+        Whether to leave links alone when escaping markdown. For example,
+        if a URL in the text contains characters such as ``_`` then it will
+        be left alone. This option is not supported with ``as_needed``.
+        Defaults to ``True``.
 
     Returns
     --------
@@ -385,8 +396,22 @@ def escape_markdown(text):
         The text with the markdown special characters escaped with a slash.
     """
 
-    text = re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', text)
-    return _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX.sub(r'\\\1', text)
+    if not as_needed:
+        url_regex = r'(?P<url>(?:https?|steam)://(?:-\.)?(?:[^\s/?\.#-]+\.?)+(?:/[^\s]*)?)'
+        def replacement(match):
+            groupdict = match.groupdict()
+            is_url = groupdict.get('url')
+            if is_url:
+                return is_url
+            return '\\' + groupdict['markdown']
+
+        regex = r'(?P<markdown>[_\\~|\*])'
+        if ignore_links:
+            regex = '(?:%s|%s)' % (url_regex, regex)
+        return re.sub(regex, replacement, text)
+    else:
+        text = re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', text)
+        return _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX.sub(r'\\\1', text)
 
 def escape_mentions(text):
     """A helper function that escapes everyone, here, role, and user mentions.