General questions

The clinic tested me for four things and I assumed it was everything

Got my results back, all negative, felt enormous relief. Then I looked at the paperwork properly and it lists four infections. I had assumed a screen meant everything.

Is that normal, and what was missing?

ninth_street 2 months ago

NoteMember experience, not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections and only a test can tell them apart.

3 replies

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

second_tuesday 2 months ago

Completely normal, and it catches nearly everyone out. A standard screen in most places covers chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and syphilis. That is the default set.

What is usually not included unless you ask or unless you have symptoms: herpes, HPV outside of cervical screening, trichomoniasis in some services, and hepatitis depending on where you are.

salt_marsh 2 months ago

The omissions are mostly deliberate rather than an oversight. Blood testing everyone for herpes, for instance, produces a lot of ambiguous results and very little that changes what anyone does, which is why most guidelines advise against it as routine screening.

greytide 2 months ago

Worth ringing and asking what sites they sampled as well as what infections they looked for. Four infections from a urine sample only is a different result from four infections across three sites.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.