Have you ever had an STI check?

vicecreamsundae

Was chatting to a friend about this and it got me wondering whether there is a gender difference when it comes to getting STI checks.
From personal experience, my female friends are more likely to have gotten tested than my male friends, just wondering if that's a real trend or not. Also wondering if Irish people get tested regularly at all, or if they only go if they think something is up/already have symptoms. Quite shocked when I meet people who have been sexually active with numerous people for ten years plus, and never been tested!!
I've had a few checks, never had any symptoms and always gotten the all clear, but just do it out of respect/responsibility for any potential new partners, and peace of mind I guess.
Do tell!

orourkeda

Soft Tissue injuries are a pain

starbelgrade

When did STDs become STIs?

Cookie_Monster

I had one done, turned out it was a standard Impreza with the badge stuck on

TrustedApple

Ya I did there just after xmass got the all clear need to be be done after be ridding for 2 years

mgegan

I know a lad that had a few pints too many one night (not myself now.... I never had too many pints!!!) and he went home with a quare wan and one thing let to another which ended up with him having unprotected sex.... Talking to the lads about it the following night he discovered that this lady was sleeping around and him being a little innocent the lads told him that he would be better having himself checked out... He duly did but when he went in he brought a mate for moral support.... the mate is a bit of a gangster and when you man was filling out the form he got him to give the wrong name... in fact they gave the name of an intercounty footballer they were both friendly with.... they couldnt believe the crowd that was in the clinic.. Well when they handed in the form they got a ticket with a number on it and that was how people were called out... when it came to the lads name the mate told him not to go up when his number was called... it was called twice, then three times, then four times and in the end a very fustrated nurse shouted out the number.... she then went in to the office and returned with the form and shouted out the name on it.... your man sheepishly went in to the clinic for and examination which turned out all clear but they had a good laugh at the expense of their mate.......

krudler

Yup, its stupid not to occasionally, a lot of STI's have no symptoms. you pee in a cup and get some blood taken,thats it, horror stories of a guy having a metal thing scrape through the inside of his knob are greatly exaggerated.

sbsquarepants

I've been tested 3 times.
Clean as a whistle.
Good afternoon ladies.........:cool:

sbsquarepants

starbelgrade wrote: »

When did STDs become STIs?

Even the clap doesn't want to be mistaken for a politician!

mgegan

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I've been tested 3 times.
Clean as a whistle.
Good afternoon ladies.........:cool:

Great chat up line in the bar!!!!!

ScumLord

I'm pretty sure my hand doesn't have an std so I haven't bothered.

Tom Cruises Left Nut

starbelgrade wrote: »

When did STDs become STIs?

Since working in the telcoms business became a nightmare:

Me: Hi

Customer: Hi

Me: What is your STD

Customer %^*%*%*^%*^%^*%*

Me:

LEH

Female and never been tested, only one parter and both me and boyfriend were virgins when we got together. Keep meaning to get around to it, I trust my boyfriend implicitly but never say never!

sbsquarepants

mgegan wrote: »

Great chat up line in the bar!!!!!

Meh, to be honest it's had limited success:D

darragh16

Yeah, the oul cocktail umberella jammed right down there...

krudler

krudler wrote: »

Yup, its stupid not to occasionally, a lot of STI's have no symptoms. you pee in a cup and get some blood taken,thats it, horror stories of a guy having a metal thing scrape through the inside of his knob are greatly exaggerated.

Ahh no they are not exaggerated. If you want to be tested for everything a metal scraping of the knob will have to be done.

Asphyxia

I was checked before it was no big deal..I knew it would come back clear but it's better to be safe than sorry

fabbydabby

Yeah I got one after my last GF who I learned not long into the relationship was something of a 'Raleigh Activator' in her home town. No upside down cocktail parasols but I got a cotton woll bud down the P-hole. It was grand.

Got the all clear too. Still scared getting the results though. Imagine if it turned out you had The Grand Applause or something?

Quite a large proportion of sexually active adults have one or more strains of HPV - it's so common they don't even test for it lots of the time. This can cause cervical cancer in women and genital warts in both sexes. Your head would be wrecked.

who the fug

Slightly off topic

If you do test positive for one, and in later life have to do a medical, go to another doctor.

As the quack may be honor bound to put it down on the medical, ashe knows your medical history

_feedback_

I'd say in a lot of small towns in Ireland. If people knew you went for a check, you'd become an outcast.

"Look, there's yer man that got checked for the aids"

vicecreamsundae

fabbydabby wrote: »

Quite a large proportion of sexually active adults have one or more strains of HPV - it's so common they don't even test for it lots of the time. This can cause cervical cancer in women and genital warts in both sexes. Your head would be wrecked.

This is true, but as far as I know there is no test for HPV itself, so it can't really be diagnosed unless one does end up developing warts or gets an irregular pap test. It really is a balls, because using condoms doesn't really help as it can be passed super easily from touching.

And yes, almost everyone who is sexually have it has one strain or another, most are just naturally immune, if my understanding is correct.

There is the Gardasil vaccine and others, which greatly helps protect against the strains of HPV which cause cervical cancer AND warts, and ideally men and women should get it, but it's between 300-500 euros as far as I know, so not really top of the shopping list for most people. Great that it's being introduced to girls in secondary schools for free now. Mary Harney did something right, eventually!

Gummy Panda

But i like to spread my pestilence

vicecreamsundae

elviscostello wrote: »

I'd say in a lot of small towns in Ireland. If people knew you went for a check, you'd become an outcast.

"Look, there's yer man that got checked for the aids"

Yeah, I'd say in come communities there is a bit of stigma around getting checked, but then again, you wouldn't HAVE to tell people you got checked.

I think it's important to talk about getting checks so people know it IS normal, though. that's the only way to get rid of sitgma like that.

common sense brigade

My husband and I both went and had an STI check before we got married. We had both taken risks in the past and felt it was the responsible thing to do before we had children. Luckily we were fine.

I'm going to get one in a few weeks.... I'm being a drunken idiot these days and having unprotected sex all over the shop.
Really been on my mind lately to have it done.

inb4 judgement.

Novella

Yeah, I have. It's funny, I mentioned it to my friend who is a fourth year nursing student and her attitude was something along the lines of, "Ew, only prostitutes need STI checks!". I don't understand how she is practically a qualified health professional and still has ideas in her head that the only people who'll have an STI are prostitutes etc. I think it's better to be safe than sorry.

Lumen

common sense brigade wrote: »

My husband and I both went and had an STI check before we got married. We had both taken risks in the past and felt it was the responsible thing to do before we had children. Luckily we were fine.

I knew it wouldn't be long before the common sense brigade turned up.

common sense brigade

knew it wouldn't be long before the common sense brigade turned up.

wow Lumen your sure witty. Do you feel big now? Insulting people. well done.

krudler

Deleted User wrote: »

Ahh no they are not exaggerated. If you want to be tested for everything a metal scraping of the knob will have to be done.

no you dont, I even asked the doctor who tested me and she laughed about it, citing it as the main reason people dont want them done. urine and blood and a cotton swab (which they dont always use anymore either) and thats it.

krudler

common sense brigade wrote: »

wow Lumen your sure witty. Do you feel big now? Insulting people. well done.

Its a witty play on your username, take your time.

common sense brigade

Ahh no they are not exaggerated. If you want to be tested for everything a metal scraping of the knob will have to be done

Its a cotton swab and painless

common sense brigade

Its a witty play on your username, take your time.

Just because you claim something is witty doesnt make it so.

ibarelycare

common sense brigade wrote: »

wow Lumen your sure witty. Do you feel big now? Insulting people. well done.

Where was the insult?

mud

Yeah, I've been checked. Had an awful experience really . . . had some symptoms, myself and the new bf decided to get checked, I got called into the room afterwards with the doc. She said there was 'something there' alright. I nearly passed out, was begging her to tell me. She mumbled something about CHLAMYDIA. Made me and the bf take super-strong anti-biotics there in front of her and told us to come back in a week when the results were back.

Spent one of the worst weeks of my life thinking I had chlamydia, had ****ed up my chances of having children and would have to make the calls of shame to exes to make sure they got checked.

Landed back in to the sti clinic the following week to be told that I never had chlamydia, just a urinary tract infection, I went a bit spare because imo the doc should never have said the C word to me until she was sure, and wtf was with giving us a massive dose of strong antibiotics when the infection was never there?

Obviously was totally relieved but was totally worn out from it too.

Gummy Panda

common sense brigade wrote: »

Just because you claim something is witty doesnt make it so.

I thought it was witty

krudler

common sense brigade wrote: »

Just because you claim something is witty doesnt make it so.

ok have a look at your name, now read Lumens post.

now back at your name.

back to Lumens post.

your name again, then Lumens post.

Is it sinking in yet?

again, take your time.

Lumen

Sense of humour failure ahead, hard to starboard!

Anyway, a fundamental problem with STI testing is that it doesn't protect you from getting an STI, it protects other people, so the people who volunteer for checks tend to be those who are responsible anyway, i.e. low-risk.

So arguably it is more important that you pressure your partner to have checks than to get a check done yourself.

I have heard it said that you should always do it anonymously and never subsequently admit to having it done (administratively speaking) as it can affect insurance premiums. I don't know how it works in Ireland.

df1985

riddled!


had two checks, nothing to report!

_feedback_

Lads, less of the bickering. Bit of common sense please.

common sense brigade

ok have a look at your name, now read Lumens post.

now back at your name.

back to Lumens post.

your name again, then Lumens post.

Is it sinking in yet?

again, take your time

Sorry Krudler i didnt realise you and Lumen were dating. hopefully you take the humour in that.

Gummy Panda

common sense brigade wrote: »

Sorry Krudler i didnt realise you and Lumen were dating. hopefully you take the humour in that.

Well they have to get their STD check first before things get serious

Jumpy

Lumen wrote: »

I knew it wouldn't be long before the common sense brigade turned up.

They certainly arent the humour brigade though are they?

krudler

common sense brigade wrote: »

Sorry Krudler i didnt realise you and Lumen were dating. hopefully you take the humour in that.

we were but he cheated on me.

btw Lumen I want my Sade cd's back.

mud

df1985 wrote: »

riddled!


had two checks, nothing to report!

Ha ha, I just remembered being so nervous in the clinic that everytime someone's named was called I was saying 'riddled' to myself and bursting laughing. Wasn't so funny after being called in to the office though

On a different note, someone (girl) I used to be friends with, refused to have an std test out of embarassment. She has had a lot of unprotected sex but is too embarassed to let a professional check her over. How does that work?

Lumen

mud wrote: »

On a different note, someone (girl) I used to be friends with, refused to have an std test out of embarassment. She has had a lot of unprotected sex but is too embarassed to let a professional check her over. How does that work?

Simple correlation - easily embarrassed people are likely not to insist on protected sex.

common sense brigade

common sense brigade wrote: »

Its a cotton swab and painless

That was not my experience last year. Maybe it differs from dr to dr.

krudler

mud wrote: »

Ha ha, I just remembered being so nervous in the clinic that everytime someone's named was called I was saying 'riddled' to myself and bursting laughing. Wasn't so funny after being called in to the office though

On a different note, someone (girl) I used to be friends with, refused to have an std test out of embarassment. She has had a lot of unprotected sex but is too embarassed to let a professional check her over. How does that work?

I know a girl that actually doesnt know how many men shes slept with, she knows its 150+ and most of them are one night stands, some with no protection, as shes too shy to buy condoms.

seriously, wtf.

Bottle_of_Smoke

mud wrote: »

Yeah, I've been checked. Had an awful experience really . . . had some symptoms, myself and the new bf decided to get checked, I got called into the room afterwards with the doc. She said there was 'something there' alright. I nearly passed out, was begging her to tell me. She mumbled something about CHLAMYDIA. Made me and the bf take super-strong anti-biotics there in front of her and told us to come back in a week when the results were back.

Spent one of the worst weeks of my life thinking I had chlamydia, had ****ed up my chances of having children and would have to make the calls of shame to exes to make sure they got checked.

Landed back in to the sti clinic the following week to be told that I never had chlamydia, just a urinary tract infection, I went a bit spare because imo the doc should never have said the C word to me until she was sure, and wtf was with giving us a massive dose of strong antibiotics when the infection was never there?

Obviously was totally relieved but was totally worn out from it too.

I don't see anything wrong with what the doctors did there. Its only a tiny percentage of people who get chlamydia become infertile. The anti-biotic didn't do you any real harm so given your symptoms it was the right thing to do.

Your urinary tract infection could have been caused by bacteria transmitted sexually. Non-specific urithritis I think is the term used. Though could have been caused by something non-sexual too.

People need to realise most STIs aren't a big deal, no one intends to get one so there shouldn't be any shame in calling your exes

Bottle_of_Smoke

krudler wrote: »

I know a girl that actually doesnt know how many men shes slept with, she knows its 150+ and most of them are one night stands, some with no protection, as shes too shy to buy condoms.

seriously, wtf.

Yeah those condom machines are so judgemental. What a tool.

mud

Lumen wrote: »

Simple correlation - easily embarrassed people are likely not to insist on protected sex.

She 'doesn't like' condoms. Risky eejit that she is!

Deleted User wrote: »

That was not my experience last year. Maybe it differs from dr to dr.

My bf was the same . . . cocktail umbrella up the jap's eye. Didn't take long but was painful while it was happening.

Gummy Panda

krudler wrote: »

I know a girl that actually doesnt know how many men shes slept with, she knows its 150+ and most of them are one night stands, some with no protection, as shes too shy to buy condoms.

seriously, wtf.

wait a minute... she is too shy to get condoms but isn't too shy to whip her clothes off and do the horizontal tango with random guys?