Is your new partner at risk from an STD?

If you have a new partner and cannot be sure about whether they may have been in contact with an STD, it makes sense to be tested for STI’s at one of the many private STD testing clinics that are to be found across London and other major cities in the UK. You can ask them to be tested for gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HIV, syphilis and hepatitis, but negative tests for these may mean the infection is just in too early of a stage to detect.

The ever present danger of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) or herpes are viruses that are difficult to test, with herpes there are no good screening tests and with HPV the testing is limited, in fact in men, unless they have visible warts it is not possible to test them. For women the recommendation is that they not be tested before the age of thirty.

As a general rule, with new partners and someone who is not known to you, condoms should be used as these will help to protect you from STI’s but if they do not cover the whole of the skin there is still a chance that the skin that might contain an HPV or herpes virus, so the condoms may reduce, but not eliminate, the chance of such a virus being transmitted to you. If you are sexually active and especially with a number of partners, it makes sense to have regular STD tests carried out at your local private clinic, all in complete confidence.