STI Quick Test Clinic is happening next week on Tuesday, November 19. Learning more about STIs and the testing process can be empowering and informative! Listen to this quick audio blog, and feel free to drop by the clinic in Student Wellness Services (SWS) for an STI test for Gonorrhea and Chlamydia . Testing hours are from 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm on Tuesday, November 19. Anyone who has unprotected sex is at risk of STIs with certain additional sexual behaviours increasing risk —take steps to protect yourself and others! Plus there are some awesome incentives (think gift card raffle and snacks)!
PLEASE NOTE: Students must be asymptomatic (i.e., have no symptoms) and have no know exposures to Chlamydia or Gonorrhea to be eligible for testing at this STI Quick Test Clinic. If you do have symptoms or a partner has told you they have Chlamydia or Gonorrhea, please call SWS to book an appointment.
INTRODUCTION
“We're back for part two with Suzanne Poldon, a clinical practice leader and registered nurse at the Student Wellness Clinic here at Queens. She has a background in sexual health, sexual violence prevention and response, as well as immunization. Now we'll be focusing on questions students have about STIs and STI testing.”
COMMON STI's + TREATMENT (ON CAMPUS)
Q: “Let's get right into it. First of all, what are some common STIs in the student population and what are some treatment options available for students to address and treat these STIs?”
A: “So at Queen's, we certainly see a lot of chlamydia, that is by far the most common STI that we see, and that is reflected in the population level data, especially in this age population.
Chlamydia is a bacterial STI, which means it can very easily be treated with antibiotics, and we actually have those in house at Student Wellness, so it's very quick and easy to get treated for chlamydia. Otherwise, we do see a fair amount of gonorrhea, which is actually showing some antibiotic resistance, but we also can treat with antibiotics, just a little bit more antibiotics.
There is also an upward trend in syphilis locally. Although less in our age group, we are seeing a little bit more of syphilis. Again, this is bacterial, so can be treated with
antibiotics as well. Although the treatment course can be a little bit longer, several doses as opposed to just one.
Otherwise at Student Wellness, we do see quite a few lesions, so students coming in concerned about a wart or a lesion in their genital area. This can often be herpes or sometimes HPV. These are viruses, so we can't completely get rid of them in the body, but we can treat the warts or lesions itself, and also sometimes submit for further testing to make sure that you get a definitive diagnosis.”
Q: “Yeah, thank you for that deep dive. How frequently should students consider getting tested for STIs?”
A: “So this answer really depends. It's hard to give a sort of specific example because it really depends on the person. Generally, it's really great to get tested at least once a year and that would include a full panel of STI testing, which would be chlamydia and gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV. So that would likely be either a urine test or a swab and a blood test. But if you do have frequent partners, it may be a good idea to get tested more frequently, especially if you're not using protection.
But at the same time, it is possible to get tested too frequently, specifically when it comes to some of the bloodborne STIs like HIV and syphilis, it can take some time for these to show up in our body. So you typically don't want to get tested more often than every three months for these.”
COMMON STI testing Misconceptions
Q: “Are there any common misconceptions about STI testing that you encounter, and how do you address them?”
A: “Yeah, so I think certainly there's a lot of fear about STIs, fear and shame, really, but they are normal, a normal part of life, unfortunately, especially if you're sexually active and even more so if you're not using protection reliably. And as I've mentioned in a few of my other answers, they are very treatable. So most of them are treatable with antibiotics, which means we can completely eradicate them from the body. Even the
viruses. While we can't completely get rid of them, they are very treatable, especially when it comes to HIV. The treatments for HIV have come a very, very long way. And people can live long, healthy lives with HIV.
A second common misconception is that STI testing is very invasive. I think a lot of students have a lot of fear about STI testing thinking that they have to get an internal pelvic exam. But there are lots of other options available for many of the STI as we can test using just a urine test. Or sometimes if you'd like to do the swab yourself, that's an option. You can also deny an internal exam if you don't want to do that. So hopefully that dissuades some of the fear that some students have.
Also, another misconception is that everyone with an STI will have symptoms. The opposite is true. In fact, most people don't have symptoms when they have an STI. So that's why it's really important to get regular testing.”
TREATMENT Tips & Advice
Q: “Yeah, so a lot of students are hesitant to get tested, probably because of some of these misconceptions. What are some pieces of advice you would give to students who are nervous or anxious about getting tested?”
A: “So a few things. Keep in mind that at Student Wellness, we do this every single day. We're very, very used to it. We are not going to judge you at all. Rather, we are here to give you evidence-informed counseling to keep yourself healthy.
Also, it's very painless. As I mentioned before, we don't have to do an internal exam. A lot of the time we can test with just a urine sample, and if you are averse to blood work, again, we do this every day. We're very used to students who don't like having their blood taken, and you don't have to have that done every time, although we do recommend it at least once a year.
We also won't ask you lots of questions if you don't want. So we do have an option called an STI quick test, which we actually don't ask you any questions at all. So if you don't really want to speak about your sexual encounters in great detail, you can come to us for a quick test. And also, there are lots of options, so as I mentioned, lots of ways to get tested, but also lots of options for treatment.
We do try to make it really accessible, especially by having treatments right in house, you don't even have to go to a pharmacy for that. A lot of students do have fears about their family finding out. For example, if you are on your parents health insurance, and you're worried about them seeing that you're buying treatment for an STI, you don't need to worry about that at Student Wellness because we provide it to you for free and you don't need to go to the pharmacy at all.
Q: “Amazing. Thank you once again for joining us and sharing your wealth of knowledge. We really appreciate it.”
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