What happens if you think you may have an STI?
If you have had unprotected sex with anyone who has previously had unprotected sex with anybody else, you should consider attending a clinic to have a screening for sexual infections. The best place to go to is the GUM clinic, the details of these clinics can be found in the services section of this site. The service is totally confidential and you are allocated a number, which you are then identified with rather than your name.
The person who sees you will ask you your reason for attending. They will ask you if you have any symptoms, for example is your discharge different, is there more of it, a different colour, a different consistency or smell, are you itchy and also is it nippy when you have a wee. Do you have any spots or warts in the genital area. For girls they may be having bleeding in between their periods especially after sex, or pain when having sex. Sometimes you may experience lower tummy cramps. It is important to understand that you can have an infection but not have any symptoms at all.
After discussion about your sexual history the person seeing you will be able to offer you the appropriate tests. You may choose to have them all or just certain ones, but the health worker will help you decide what would be best. Most will have a Chlamydia test, as this is the most common infection, 1in 8 sexually active young people under the age of 25years has this. It involves giving a urine sample only. Taking a swab from the vagina or tip of the penis can check for other infections including Gonorrhoea. You may be offered a blood test, which checks for HIV and Syphilis.
You will be asked to give details of any partners that you have had over the past 6 months, as if any of the tests come back positive they will need to be contacted and offered a test. Your name is not mentioned in this procedure so they will not know that you have tested positive.
You will be asked to call the clinic in a week for the results and if any of them are positive you will need to make a further appointment to get your treatment. Ideally your present partner goes along at this time too and is treated and tested as well. Then you must not have sex for a week following treatment to allow the antibiotics to clear the infection. If you have an HIV test, which is positive, this involves a lot more in depth counselling and treatment. HIV is still very rare in this area but the numbers continue to rise. It is mainly found in IV drug users but there is still no cure for it, so make sure you always protect yourself by using a condom.
Useful Websites (if applicable)
http://www.ruthinking.co.uk/about_sex/index.aspx