STD testing

Have you ever done an HIV test? I hope so. I think all sexually active people should take them. However, they like to raise my insurance rates whenever I take them- maybe that was just a coincidence, but I put nothing past those horrible insurance companies! - so because of that I have started taking them anonymously.

I wonder how often men take STD tests? I'm not sure why I am so skeptical but I picture men only going in to get checked out if they are displaying outward symptoms.

Some really clever people got together and decided that to get a prescription filled for birth control, women have to come in yearly for a pap smear/ exam. Though it is annoying at the time, I think it is a brilliant idea. Because admit it, if we didn't have to do it yearly, you would just keep putting off and putting off doing the exam.

At the exam they do a manual exam as well as take some tissue samples that then get sent off to be examined. If it comes back "normal" you are all good. If it comes back "abnormal" they do more tests. Though I was displaying no outward symptoms, I once tested abnormal and it turned out that I had pre-cancerous cells that they thankfully caught and destroyed. Had I waited til I showed outward symptoms, it would have been possibly too late to treat it or at the very least would have involved a lot more invasive procedure to take care of it.

So I am thankful for my annual exams. What I learned though, surprised me. Those annual exams don't actually test for STDs. Say what?!? I suppose if you had an STD it might make you show up as abnormal but that's not a guarantee. You have to specifically ask to be tested for STDs. For some of the tests they just scrap off some extra tissue samples. For the syphilis and HIV test they need to draw blood.

So I did that a few weeks ago.

I had no reason to believe I had a STD but I figured it is always better to be on the safe side.

I took the tests...

...and then I had to wait...

...and wait...

...and wait.

And let me tell you something... even though you KNOW that there is no way that you have HIV, there is something about taking the test and having to wait for the results that makes you really paranoid and nervous! There are few things as nerve-racking as waiting for those results!

They told me that they would call me in two weeks if there was a problem and that if I didn't hear from them that it was all good.

Paranoid as I am, I had to call and just make sure that the results were negative. They were. And now I can breathe easy again.