STI Contact: What You Need to Know and How to Protect
You may be notified that a current or former sexual partner has tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection (STI), which means you may have been exposed. Depending on the infection, you may need testing or treatment, even if you have no symptoms. Receiving this news can be upsetting, whether you hear it directly from your partner, receive a text from an ex-partner, or are contacted confidentially by a healthcare provider or public health department.
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Next steps
If a partner has said they have an STI, it’s best to get this checked out and get treated – a sexual health clinic is the best place for this. Look online for services near you, and feel reassured that it’s all confidential.
STIs are contagious, so you should be upfront with any current partners and avoid sex until treated. The clinic can advise you on timing.
If you have one partner and they have an STI that has been treated, avoid sex or use condoms until seven days after you have both been treated.
What happens at the sexual health clinic?
Make an appointment with your sexual health clinic (or doctor, if they offer these services), who can test you for STIs. For men, this will involve a urine test and blood test. For women, it’s a self-taken vaginal swab and a blood test. The blood tests screen for other STIs, namely syphilis and HIV, and possibly hepatitis B if you are believed to be at risk.
Samples will be taken, but you will be given immediate treatment before the results return. Common STIs, such as genital herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea, will respond to a short course of antibiotics, as they are bacterial infections.
What if I test positive?
The clinic will discuss any positive test results with you. If you have tested positive for gonorrhea, you will be asked to re-test via a urine result two weeks after treatment. There's no need for a re-test with a positive chlamydia result. The clinic will discuss potential sexual contacts that may have been put at risk with your STI and will discuss how to inform them – either anonymously or directly from you – to encourage them to get treatment too.
If you have a current sexual partner or partners, you should use condoms or wait for at least seven days since you have both been treated before having sex.
What if I test negative?
If you receive a negative result, you’ve already received treatment just in case, and there’s no need to inform any sexual partners or abstain from sex.
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