Free online sexual health screening for under 25s
People under the age of 25 living in South Tyneside and Gateshead can now request a free pack online to screen for common sexually transmitted infections.
South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust’s sexual health team has introduced the new service to increase opportunities for screening in the community for Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea.
The discreetly packaged kit arrives in the post and a freepost package to return the sample is included. People can choose to have the results by phone or text message.
Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with sexually active young people at highest risk. The consequences of an undiagnosed or untreated infection can include pelvic inflammatory disease in women and testicular damage in men. This can lead to longer term impacts on sexual and reproductive health, including risks
to fertility.
Screening is very important to support early detection, treatment of infection and to reduce onward transmission to sexual partners. Many men and women won’t experience any obvious symptoms of STIs, which means the condition can go undetected for some time.
South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust’s Medical Director Dr Shaz Wahid said: “It is important for all sexually active people to access regular screening for STIs but Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea are particularly common in the under 25 age range. Our aim in introducing online access to testing is to increase the options available to make it as easy as possible for people to
be tested.”
The online access to screening, which is only available to 16 to 25-year-olds, is at https://www.stft.nhs.uk/service/sexual-health-services/request-for-chlamydia-and-gonorrhoea-screening-pack
If you are not in this age group and would like to be screened, you should contact your GP
or your local sexual health service. For Gateshead, call 0191 2831575 and for South Tyneside
call 0191 2832525. For details of the other services they provide, such as contraception, go to http://www.stft.nhs.uk/service/sexual-health-services