STD TESTING CENTERS
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Frequently asked questions about STD testing
- How do I get tested for herpes?
- * During an outbreak:
Your healthcare provider will look at the sores and see if they seem typical of a herpes outbreak. If they are, your provider may swab the sores to see if they contain virus. However, this swab test is not always accurate and has a high risk of false negatives. An outbreak that looks like herpes, but that comes back with a negative test for virus, may still be a herpes infection. Testing a swab for virus is most useful in the first 48 hours of a first outbreak. After that, and during recurrent outbreaks, it becomes much less accurate.
Herpes outbreaks usually appear as one or more blisters that then break open to become sores.
* Not during an outbreak:
Although there are commercial blood tests for herpes that looks for antibodies against HSV1 and HSV2, they do not always give conclusive results. There are type-specific blood tests that are more accurate, but these may be more difficult to find. An excellent overview of Herpes testing, that links to a review of current blood tests, can be found here.
- Should I get an HIV test?
- The following are behaviors that increase your chances of getting HIV. If you answer yes to any of them, you should definitely get an HIV test. If you continue with any of these behaviors, you should be tested every year. Talk to a health care provider about an HIV testing schedule that is right for you.
* Have you injected drugs or steroids or shared equipment (such as needles, syringes, works) with others?
* Have you had unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with men who have sex with men, multiple partners, or anonymous partners?
* Have you exchanged sex for drugs or money?
* Have you been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis, tuberculosis (TB), or a sexually transmitted disease (STD), like syphilis?
* Have you had unprotected sex with someone who could answer yes to any of the above questions?
- How long should I wait to get tested for HIV after possible exposure?
- Most HIV tests are antibody tests that measure the antibodies your body makes against HIV. It can take some time for the immune system to produce enough antibodies for the antibody test to detect and this time period can vary from person to person. This time period is commonly referred to as the "window period". Most people will develop detectable antibodies within 2 to 8 weeks (the average is 25 days). Even so, there is a chance that some individuals will take longer to develop detectable antibodies. Therefore, if the initial negative HIV test was conducted within the first 3 months after possible exposure, repeat testing should be considered >3 months after the exposure occurred to account for the possibility of a false-negative result. Ninety seven percent will develop antibodies in the first 3 months following the time of their infection. In very rare cases, it can take up to 6 months to develop antibodies to HIV.
Another type of test is an RNA test, which detects the HIV virus directly. The time between HIV infection and RNA detection is 9–11 days. These tests, which are more costly and used less often than antibody tests, are used in some parts of the United States.
For information on HIV testing, you can talk to your health care provider or you can find the location of the HIV testing site nearest to you by calling CDC-INFO 24 Hours/Day at1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636), 1-888-232-6348 (TTY), in English, en Español. Both of these resources are confidential.
- How do HIV tests work?
- Once HIV enters the body, the immune system starts to produce antibodies – (chemicals that are part of the immune system that recognize invaders like bacteria and viruses and mobilize the body's attempt to fight infection). In the case of HIV, these antibodies cannot fight off the infection, but their presence is used to tell whether a person has HIV in his or her body. In other words, most HIV tests look for the HIV antibodies rather than looking for HIV itself. There are tests that look for HIV's genetic material directly, but these are not in widespread use.
The most common HIV tests use blood to detect HIV infection. Tests using saliva or urine are also available. Some tests take a few days for results, but rapid HIV tests can give results in about 20 minutes. All positive HIV tests must be followed up by another test to confirm the positive result. Results of this confirmatory test can take a few days to a few weeks.
- How do I get tested for Human Papilloma Virus/HPV?
- * For women: A swab from your cervix can be tested for HPV DNA, although this is not normally done unless you have an abnormal Pap smear. An HPV test can be useful in determining whether a borderline abnormal Pap smear is likely to be pre-cancerous. However, since most HPV infections resolve on their own without causing disease, and up to 40% of young women are infected with the virus at any given time, very few doctors advocate routine screening. Instead, yearly Pap smears are suggested to avoid the consequences of the virus.
* For men: There is no HPV test currently available Recently, the FDA approved an HPV vaccine that protects against 4 of the most common types of the virus – the two strains that cause 70% of cervical cancers and the two that cause 90% of genital warts. It is currently available only for women 9–26 years of age, although it is being tested in older women and men.