If you're sexually active, particularly with multiple partners, you've probably heard the following advice many times: Use protection and make sure you get tested.
This is important because a person can have a sexually transmitted disease without knowing it. In many cases, no signs or symptoms occur. In fact, that's why many experts prefer the term sexually transmitted infections (STIs), because you can have the infection without disease symptoms.
But what types of STI testing do you need? And how often should you be screened? The answers depend on your age, your sexual behaviors and other risk factors.
Don't assume that you're receiving STI testing every time you have a gynecologic exam or Pap test. If you think you need STI testing, request it from your doctor. Talk to your doctor about your concerns and what tests you'd like or need.
Here are some guidelines for STI testing for specific sexually transmitted infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages HIV testing, at least once, as a routine part of medical care if you're an adolescent or adult between the ages of 15 and 65. Younger teens should be tested if they have a high risk of an STI. The CDC advises yearly HIV testing if you are at high risk of infection.
Hepatitis C screening is recommended for everyone born between 1945 and 1965. The incidence of hepatitis C is high in this age group, and the disease often has no symptoms until it's advanced. Vaccines are available for both hepatitis A and B if screening shows you haven't been exposed to these viruses.
No good screening test exists for herpes, a viral infection that can be transmitted even when a person doesn't have symptoms. Your doctor may take a tissue scraping or culture of blisters or early ulcers, if you have them, for examination in a laboratory. But a negative test doesn't rule out herpes as a cause for genital ulcerations.