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If you’ve had unprotected sexual contact, then there’s a chance you could have a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Anyone can get an STI – it doesn’t matter how many times they’ve had sex or how many people they’ve had sex with, we’re all at risk. And remember, you may or may not have symptoms, so that is not a reliable way of knowing if you have an STI or not.
Below are some of the symptoms most commonly associated with STIs. Remember though, without being examined and tested by a health professional, you can’t know for certain what your symptoms are caused by.
Discharge is fluid or mucus that comes out of your body. Some discharge is perfectly normal and we may all experience this from time-to-time. However, if you notice discharge from the vagina, penis or rectum that is unusual for you, it could be an STI.
Vaginal itching, swelling and soreness could be trichomoniasis
This can be a sign of vaginitis (this is not an STI)
This could be pubic lice (this is the droppings from the lice).
This could be pubic lice
This could be pubic lice and is caused by lice bites
Some people won’t ever experience any symptoms, and yet they’re still infected. For others, symptoms can take months to appear. For example:
STI tests are usually quick and simple. Depending on what you’re being tested for, a test usually involves an examination of your genitals, a swab from inside the vagina or from the tip of the penis and a urine or blood sample. Find out more about getting tested.
If you have any of the symptoms above you should get tested for STIs. You can do this at Brook services, other young people’s services, GUM or sexual health clinics or at some GP surgeries.
If you’re worried you might have an STI or have had sex with someone new but you don’t have any symptoms you can order an STI home testing kit. This is a test that arrives in the post that you complete at home and send back in the post.
Point of Care Testing
In some areas, trained professionals also go to community locations to test for HIV where you can get the results within less than 30 minutes. This is known as Point of Care Testing or rapid HIV testing. To complete the test, a sample of saliva from your mouth or a small spot of blood from your finger is taken. This sample does not need to be sent to a laboratory and the result is available within a few minutes.
Most STIs can be treated with a short course of antibiotics. Some STIs, such as HIV cannot be cured – but they can be treated to prevent them from getting worse.
If you test positive for any STI, your clinic will encourage you to talk to your current partner and sometimes to your previous partners so they can be tested as well. The clinic will help you find the best way to talk to other people if you need to, and can notify even contact them for you through ‘partner notification’ without even mentioning your name.
STIs can be caught during oral (licking, kissing or sucking someone’s genitals), vaginal or anal sex and some can also be passed through sexual touching and skin-to-skin contact – so the best way to avoid STIs is to use a condom or dam every time you have sex.
Even if you are using another method of contraception such as the pill, implant, patch, contraceptive vaginal ring, IUD or IUS – it’s important to use condoms and dams as well to also protect from STIs.
If you’ve had sex without a condom, it’s best to wait 6-7 weeks if you don’t have symptoms before you test. This is because it can take two weeks for chlamydia and gonorrhoea to show up on tests and 6-7 weeks for HIV. If you test before then, the test may not pick up on any STIs that you could have.
If you have symptoms, please contact your local sexual health clinic or GP as soon as possible.
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