Sexual health checks

Sexually transmitted diseases are soaring and a test is the only way to confirm whether you’re infected. If you’re at risk, isn’t it time you bit the bullet and got yourself a sexual health MOT?


Using condoms can prevent a trip to a GUM clinic.


It doesn’t matter who you are – your age, sexual preference or number of partners – visiting a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic may help you deal instantly with a disease that could have severe long-term effects on your health.

If you have ever had unprotected sex, oral sex or even intimate sexual contact in the past, there is a risk that you may have caught a sexually transmitted disease (STD). As was famously made plain in the AIDS/HIV ads of the 1980s, when you sleep with someone, you sleep not only with that person, but all their sexual partners, and everyone they have slept with.

With the cautious atmosphere fostered by AIDS now faded, and modern sexual habits including more partners, higher levels of concurrent relationships and people starting to have sex at a younger age, STDs have rocketed.

Claiming anonymity

Many young people are scared, ignorant or feel they have no right to go to a GUM clinic. A huge number of adults are embarrassed to do so. Many more are intimidated or don't know where to ask or what will happen.

This, finally, is where the good news comes in. The health service is only too aware of people's concerns concerning sexual habits. For this reason, it has made testing and treatment for STDs as simple and hassle-free as it possibly can.

You can make an appointment with, or even walk into, any clinic in the UK and have the tests. They never disclose your identity – you can even give a false name as long as you remember it – and the test results will be given only to you. It is entirely free, as is any treatment.

What happens? Pretty much the same as for a normal doctor's appointment. You will be asked what you want to be tested for, advised what each infection is and asked for a brief sexual history. Then you give a urine test (so don't go to the toilet for a few hours before the visit) and a blood test if you want to be tested for hepatitis A, B and C and/or HIV.

Then, if you're a man, you will be given a penile swab; for women, it's a cervical swab – neither is anything more than briefly uncomfortable. You may also have a throat swab or anal swab, depending on your sexual habits, and women may have a brief internal examination.

Some results will be available almost immediately, others may take a week. You may be asked to return to pick the results up or be able to telephone the clinic for them.

Win-win situation

What if you get the tests back and you do have an STD? Don't worry: chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are all quickly and easily treated with antibiotics – miraculous when you consider they could make you infertile or even kill you.

Herpes and genital warts will never disappear, but treatment is such that symptoms are kept to an absolute minimum. For more serious diseases, early knowledge is something that will make a huge positive difference to your life and any treatment you may need. The hardest part will probably be telling your partner.

While the whole experience of going for a sexual health MOT can hardly be called fun, it is no worse than many other aspects of life.

'Contemplating a visit to a GUM clinic can bring on stressful thoughts and fears, but since you are likely to get a clean bill of health, these feelings will seem foolish in retrospect. And if you do find you have an STD, you should be thankful you found out sooner rather than later. Your partner certainly will be.

Further information

Sexual Health Direct (for information on your nearest GUM clinic): 020 7837 4044

fpa: www.fpa.org.uk

NHS National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV: www.doh.gov.uk/nshs/strategy.htm