Testing
When you attend and sexual health clinic, the staff will take samples in one of the following ways:
- A blood sample will be taken from your arm. This is not a test for HIV, but a test for syphilis done to everyone seen by GUM clinics.
- You’ll usually be offered an HIV test. You don’t have to but it’s always a good idea to say yes. If you’re anxious about it clinic staff can talk to you about the benefits of testing, whatever your result might be. Avoiding testing puts you at risk of having HIV without realising. You might infect someone without knowing. You also won’t benefit from HIV treatment.
- If someone leaves testing until they fall ill it can be too late for the drugs to work. Each year hundreds of people die of HIV because they didn’t find out soon enough and went untreated for so long.
- Some clinics might want to test you for hepatitis too.
A swab will also be taken from your mouth to check for infections like gonorrhoea.
A swab might be taken from your urethra. This may be uncomfortable for a second. Some clinics use swabs only if you have a discharge – if you don’t, some clinics will just test a sample of your piss instead.
If you’re being checked for infections in your arse, a swab will be taken from there. For this
- You lie on the bed on your side with your knees up against your chest.
- Wearing rubber gloves the doctor or nurse will put some lubricating jelly around your arse hole to make taking the swab easier.
- Then a swab or tube (a proctoscope) will be put into your arse to take a sample.
You will also be asked for a sample of your piss. When you piss you wash signs of infection away so they cannot do this test if you’ve pissed within the last two to four hours. You’ll be left to piss into one or two glass containers, having been told how much to piss into each one.
This article was last reviewed on: 21/10/11
Date due for next review: 21/10/13
