Adam: My Story (Part 1)
Hi, I'm writing here to share my experience...
At 15 I was pretty sexually active – jack the lad, sleeping with girls without using protection, and thinking I was cool. It was almost something to boast about to my mates. I was certainly not worried about STIs such as Chlamydia – I didn’t really know anything about them!
Until one day, my friends started winding me up and saying I should get tested. To be honest, I didn’t really think much of it, I’d never had any symptoms so assumed I was immune to anything like that.
But as time passed, the more I was hearing about Chlamydia the more I started to worry. Especially when I heard that around 1 in 12 of my age group have it, and you could be infected but not show any symptoms!
I decided to visit a clinic, and luckily had a good friend to accompany me who was incredibly supportive throughout. I don’t remember much about entering the clinic other than seeing other youngsters in there giving me funny looks. I felt almost dirty being there.
I had a series of tests which at 15 was a horrible thing to go through, but the doctors and nurses were great throughout and made me feel at ease with myself. One of the tests was a urine test for Chlamydia, just got to the toilet and pee in a bottle, it was that simple.
When I got the results I was gutted – I’d tested positive for Chlamydia. I had everything explained to me, and the treatment was just a quick course of antibiotics.
I think it’s great that under 25s can access free postal tests for Chlamydia from the freetest.me service. Although it’s important to go for a full check up if you think you’re at risk, Chlamydia is really common and most of the time shows not symptoms so you wouldn’t even know you had it. If you think you should go to a clinic then go, but if you’re reading this and think you’re probably fine – well, there’s a chance you may not be – visit www.freetest.me and be sure.
My story doesn’t end here though, come back next month and I’ll continue...