Fewer Young People Being Tested for STIs

Sexual and reproductive health is incredibly important, and ignoring it could lead to serious and upsetting repercussions later in life, such as sterility. Although cases of STIs – Sexually Transmitted Infections – are rising, more young people are playing roulette with their health by not being tested.

Image Credit

Risky Behaviour

Figures indicate that up to half a million young people who should be tested for STIs are not getting checked. This is despite a 12 per cent rise in the rate of syphilis infections over the past year. For more on the rise of syphilis, see this report from The Telegraph.

Syphilis, if left untreated, will proceed to its tertiary phase, when it can invade the nerves and brain. Young people need to be doing more testing to avoid problems with their own health and to avoid a public health crisis.

Silent Danger

The number of people aged between 18 and 24 who are being tested for Chlamydia has decreased by around 25 per cent during the past five years. Chlamydia is the most common STI and is easily carried and passed on, demonstrated by the increase in cases to nearly 130,000 each year in England. Of those who are tested, around 10 per cent are infected with the condition, and there may be many more people carrying the infection. Chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and cause grave problems with fertility when undetected. Chlamydia can also cause serious problems for pregnant women, possibly triggering miscarriages or leading to the birth defects in the baby.

Image Credit

If you think you may have been exposed to a Chlamydia infection, which often has no symptoms, then Home STI kits could bring peace of mind. If you want to find out more about Home STI kits, it would be a good idea to consult experts in this field such as https://www.greenwichsexualhealth.org/chlamydia_screening/ for more help and advice.

The best way to prevent the transmission of STIs is to practise safe sex. However, accidents happen, and if you believe you have been exposed to an infection, the best thing to do is get tested and treated as soon as possible and tell any partners so that they can get tested too. Many STIs are quite easy to treat in their initial stages, but leaving them can cause irreversible damage and require more invasive treatment.