As you all know, I’m a huge advocate for taking control of your sexual health. I know I’ve mentioned in past posts that I schedule routine STI screenings.

Today I went for my January Screening!

Here’s a friendly reminder that it’s January! Go get tested!

I go every 4 months in January, May, and September, even when I haven’t added any new partners.

Why Test Regularly for STIs as a Non-Monogamous Person?

1. Some STI’s/STD’s take time to present a positive result
   • Maybe I haven’t added new partners since my last test in September, but what if I had been exposed to an STI prior to my September screening and wasn’t shedding enough of it to display a positive result?
2. I owe it to my partners (both current and future) and my entire polycule network to be aware of my STI status
   • Living non-monogamously requires an extreme amount of trust, knowing the wide network of people that could potentially be affected downstream.
3. STI’s are treatable, if not fully curable
   • If you do happen to be positive for an STI, there are a wide array of treatments and cures available, however, you can only start working towards a treatment/cure if you’re aware of a positive result. The longer you take to find out, the longer you delay treatment.
   • Having a routine testing schedule ensures that you’re only ever going so long between tests, which ensures fastest possible detection and course of action should something arise.

I schedule screenings at my gynecologist’s office. I’m very open about my non-monogamous status and the nurse who does the screenings is always happy to see me. Today as I was leaving she said “see ya in four months!”.

Many insurance plans cover “preventative testing” at 100%, the thing is making sure that your provider bills it as “preventative”. Whenever I call to schedule my appointment, I always word it that “I’m calling to schedule my routine preventative STI screening” and I’ve never had an issue with billing. My STI tests have always been covered 100%.

For those of you without insurance, I’ve heard from friends that both Planned Parenthood and CVS offer affordable testing, with Planned Parenthood being cheaper than CVS. There are also a few online STI testing sites, but it was over $100 the last time I checked.

I’m a huge believer that STIs are way too stigmatized. If you get a positive result, it’s not the end of the world. You aren’t unclean. You don’t deserve to be shamed. Like any other infection or illness, the key thing is to begin treatment and alert partners of potential exposure, so that they, too, can begin treatment if necessary.

Finally, in case you haven’t yet changed your verbiage for testing, you’re either negative or positive. “Clean” IS NOT an acceptable synonym for “STI negative” because it perpetuates negative stigma. Let’s do better in 2023.

Discussion Questions:

• If you’re non-monogamous, when was the last time you’ve been tested? What’s your testing routine?
• If you’re monogamous, when was the last time you’ve had a full-panel STI screening?
  • Back when I was “monogamous” before I got married, I had sex with more than one person from the time I was sexually active to the time I met my husband. Back then, I’ll admit that I didn’t ask new partners what their “testing status” was. Heck, I didn’t even get tested. I used barriers with partners and assumed that I was protected from STIs. Knowing what I know now, I’m shocked I was never positive for an STI.
  • Even if you’re monogamous, have you had sex with more than one person in your life? Has your partner had sex with other partners before you? It’s never a bad idea to get tested to know your status for sure.