What Young Adults Need to Know About Getting Tested for STIs

As a young adult, chances are that sex has been on your mind at some point. But have sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tions also been at the top of your mind?

Sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tions (STIs) are infec­tions or con­di­tions that you can get from sex­u­al activ­i­ty that involves your penis, vagi­na, anus, or mouth. They’re espe­cial­ly com­mon among teenagers and young adults, with about half of new cas­es in the US occur­ring in peo­ple ages 15 – 24. 

The rea­sons why STIs are more com­mon in the younger crowd are var­ied, from not know­ing enough about STI pre­ven­tion and hav­ing mul­ti­ple part­ners to not real­iz­ing just how seri­ous an STI can be for a person’s health. They can also quick­ly spread if peo­ple aren’t test­ed and then have sex with a new part­ner, unknow­ing­ly pass­ing the STI on to that partner. 

The good news is that there are plen­ty of ways to pre­vent the spread of STIs if you’re sex­u­al­ly active, like using con­doms or reduc­ing the num­ber of sex­u­al part­ners. And while STI test­ing might seem more after-the-fact, it’s actu­al­ly one of the best ways to pre­vent spread­ing STIs in the future. It can also mean that you get the care you need before the STI takes a major toll on your health.

Unfa­mil­iar with STI test­ing? Here are answers to some of the most com­mon ques­tions about get­ting test­ed for STIs.

Which STIs Can I Get Test­ed For?

There are many types of sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tions. Cer­tain STIs can cause symp­toms like fre­quent or painful uri­na­tion, vagi­nal dis­charge or odor, itchy gen­i­tals, or painful sex.

Also read: What Your Vagi­nal Dis­charge Says About Your Health

Some of the com­mon STIs you might get test­ed for – and what they can do to your body if left untreat­ed – include:

STIs Caused by Bacteria:

• Chlamy­dia, which can seri­ous­ly dam­age your repro­duc­tive system
• Gon­or­rhea, which can spread through­out your body and cause swollen or painful joints, liv­er inflam­ma­tion, and even dam­age to your heart valves or brain
• Syphilis, which can dam­age your brain, heart, and oth­er organs
• STIs Caused by Viruses:
• Human papil­lo­mavirus (HPV), which, depend­ing on which strain of the virus you get, can lead to cer­vi­cal cancer
• Her­pes sim­plex virus (com­mon­ly known as her­pes), which can’t be cured but can be treat­ed to help you man­age symp­toms, make out­breaks less fre­quent, and decrease the risk of spread­ing it to others
• Human immun­od­e­fi­cien­cy virus (HIV), which attacks your immune sys­tem and could lead to acquired immun­od­e­fi­cien­cy syn­drome (AIDS). It can’t be cured, but there are treat­ments to keep your immune sys­tem healthy and sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er your risk of pass­ing it to others

If I’m Not Hav­ing Symp­toms, Do I Still Need to Get Tested?

With or with­out symp­toms, untreat­ed STIs can cause seri­ous dam­age to your body and even make you vul­ner­a­ble to life-threat­en­ing infec­tions or dis­eases. If you don’t get test­ed you might not get diag­nosed until you have had the infec­tion for a while. This can make it more dif­fi­cult to treat, and you may have passed it to oth­ers before you knew you had an STI.

The Duly Care Team is here if you need any help prac­tic­ing safe sex, whether that’s cor­rect con­dom use or if you just want to dis­cuss your STI risk. Sched­ule an appoint­ment with your Duly pri­ma­ry care provider today.

When and How Often Should I Get Tested?

Since the dam­age to your body from untreat­ed STIs can hap­pen over many years, it’s best to catch STIs in their tracks. 

Here are gen­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions and con­sid­er­a­tions about when and how often you should get test­ed for STIs: 

• Young sex­u­al­ly active adult women under the age of 25 should get test­ed for chlamy­dia and gon­or­rhea. Sex­u­al­ly active women 25 years and old­er should also get test­ed if they are at increased risk for these infec­tions (for exam­ple, they have a new part­ner, mul­ti­ple part­ners, their part­ner has an STI, etc.). 
• Men who have sex with oth­er men should get test­ed for chlamy­dia and gon­or­rhea every year. 
• Young adult women ages 21 – 29 should get a Pap smear to make sure there are no con­cern­ing changes to their cervix which could indi­cate cancer
• Any­one with HIV should get test­ed for sev­er­al STIs at least year­ly since they’re at high­er risk for get­ting most oth­er STIs
• Preg­nant women are gen­er­al­ly test­ed for cer­tain STIs like HIV and syphilis, but they may need oth­er STI test­ing depend­ing on their risk factors
• Women over 30 should talk with their provider about whether a Pap smear and HPV test is recommended
• Men who are sex­u­al­ly active with oth­er men are at high­er risk of STIs and should be test­ed reg­u­lar­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly if they have mul­ti­ple partners
• Any­one who shares nee­dles for drug use should get HIV test­ing regularly
• All sex­u­al­ly active peo­ple who have sex with­out a con­dom should have reg­u­lar STI testing

Since everyone’s needs are a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, your best bet is to talk to your provider about when you should get tested.

Also read: To Screen or Not to Screen: When to Get Com­mon Can­cer Screen­ings Quiz

What Should I Expect When I get Tested?

STI test­ing might sound stress­ful, but many of the tests are ones you’re like­ly already used to hav­ing at your annu­al phys­i­cal or OBG­YN visit. 

Depend­ing on the STI you’re get­ting test­ed for, you may need:

• A blood test
• A urine test 
• An oral swab, which takes sali­va from your throat or mouth
• A gen­i­tal or rec­tal swab, which col­lects a sam­ple of cells or dis­charge in your gen­i­tal area
• A phys­i­cal exam to look for vis­i­ble signs of cer­tain STIs, like gen­i­tal warts

In most cas­es, STI test­ing doesn’t hurt. How­ev­er, it can be a bit uncom­fort­able, so talk to your provider if you’re wor­ried about pain. 

Also read: 7 Tips to Feel Less Awk­ward at an OBG­YN Appointment

What If I Test Pos­i­tive for an STI?

Your provider will work with you on an action plan and help you find ways to man­age symp­toms. Keep­ing up with any treat­ment is crit­i­cal to either ful­ly cure the STI or to man­age it so that you low­er your risk of pass­ing it to others.

The next step? Take a deep breath. Give your­self cred­it for tak­ing charge of your health and get­ting test­ed. And while it can be scary to find out you have an STI, remem­ber that even though untreat­ed STIs can cause seri­ous health prob­lems, most of them can be treat­ed or man­aged so that you can live a nor­mal, healthy life.