Make your health & Safety a priority
If you are sexually active, you should be tested regularly for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). STIs can be asymptomatic for months or even years after transmission. A person can unknowingly pass the infection to their sexual partner, and you can unknowingly contract one.
While an STI might not have immediate symptoms, it can still cause disease in an individual’s body.
Long-term complications of untreated STIs include:
- Pelvic pain
- Pregnancy complications
- Eye inflammation
- Arthritis
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Infertility
- Heart disease
- Certain cancers, such as HPV-associated cervical and rectal cancers
Protect your and your partner’s health by regularly testing for STIs.
STI Testing Before Abortion
Testing for STIs before an abortion is crucial to a woman’s reproductive health. Women that receive an abortion while infected with an STI like chlamydia or gonorrhea are more likely to develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) as a complication of their abortion.
PID occurs when bacteria from the vagina enter other areas of a woman’s reproductive system, like her uterus or fallopian tubes. Long-term complications from PID can include:
- Chronic pelvic pain
- Future ectopic pregnancy
- Future infertility
- Cysts in the reproductive tract
The Most Common STIs
Chlamydia and gonorrhea are the two most common types of bacterial STIs. The CDC recommends that women under 25 get tested yearly for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Women over 25 should also be tested annually if they have risk factors for STIs, like a new sexual partner or multiple partners.
Pregnant women also need to be tested whether they decide to continue or terminate their pregnancy.
If you test positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea, it is important for your health to receive treatment.