Annual STD Tests Young, Single, Sexually Active Women Should Get

You Won’t Get Tested For STDs Unless You Ask

Posted by: Catherine Strawn Filed in: sex
11:00AM, Monday April 20th 2009

April is STD Awareness Month, which should serve as a yearly reminder to get tested for STDs if you’re sexually active. When you make your annual trip to the gyno, your doc will probably give you a Pap smear, check your boobs for lumps, and inspect your lady parts for abnormalities. But your gynecologist won’t test you for anything else, unless you ask—so ask! Here’s what tests you should be getting.

HPV: A Pap smear will check your cervix for abnormalities, which can be an indicator of HPV.

Gonorrhea: If you don’t have any symptoms, your doctor will give you a urine test.

Chlamydia: As with gonorrhea, a urine test will reveal whether you have an asymptomatic infection.

HIV/AIDS: The doctor will either take blood to be tested or swab the inside of your mouth to test cells.

Depending on your sexual practices, you might want to ask for additional tests. These are less common in annual exams, as symptoms will often indicate that you have contracted one of them, but we think it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Syphilis: This bacterial infection can be discovered even if there isn’t an outbreak by examining a blood sample.

Herpes: This virus can either be detected with a blood test or by taking a sample of fluid from a sore, although no good screening test exists for the disease.

Now, go call your gynecologist. If you make STD testing a yearly ritual, rather than something you do only when you’re worried you’ve contracted a disease, the whole process becomes less scary. And don’t you want healthy reproductive organs for years to come? We do. [Mayo Clinic, Planned Parenthood, US News and World Report, Health.com]

comments

rsonnack
wrote on April 20 2009 @ 01:26 pm: [report]

I went to the gyno in January, and she told me that she would give an STD test because she just likes to do it for everyone in my age group (I’m 20). I said ok, even though I KNOW I don’t have one, whatever floats her boat. Then I get a bill for $300 a few weeks later!!! Luckily insurance should cover most of that, but you’d think she’d at least give me a heads up that she was going to charge me $250 to test for diseases I already knew I didn’t have…

sparklestar
wrote on April 20 2009 @ 02:14 pm: [report]

If you are sexually active you can never know for sure that you don’t have something. I am assuming you are since you have a gyno?

A woman can be a virgin and still have HPV since it is contracted through skin to skin (genital to genital, a bit of dry humping could pass it on) contact.

I have a yearly STD test no matter how trustworthy the man I am dating is. It just makes sense. You can pick up Hepatitis B at the gym…!!

loveitlala
wrote on April 21 2009 @ 12:21 pm: [report]

You can pick up hep b at the gym…. sigh. NO.

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