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Do you feel anxious about the idea of getting tested for sexually transmitted infections and diseases? Some of our readers certainly do. Some never had adequate sex-education and did not realize that sexual activity with a partner – and not just anal or vaginal intercourse – can pose STI risks in…

The health center at my university is pretty awesome. It provides free STI testing days throughout the year. Instead of making an appointment, students and non-students alike can just walk in, check in, and wait their turn, as it’s run on a first-come, first-served basis. This particular event was for rapid HIV testing, where HIV results are given within just 10-15 minutes. I visit my gynecologist annually, but I’ve never gone specifically to get tested for STIs/HIV. I attended this event curious about what the entire process was like.

This summer, I went to my clinic to see a general practitioner (GP) for an annual check-up. Officially I’m a certain GP’s patient, but I see the residents that she supervises whenever I go. When I made the appointment, I did not have any particular concerns, but I wanted to get a pap smear and STI testing. In the past, I have made some unsafe decisions, and I have also been in situations where a partner has not respected my condom-use wishes. Since then, I have had several clear results from pap smears and STI tests, but I have been going at least once a year as a precaution.

Both a love letter and a starter guide to the bare basics of how science works.

Ten years ago, I knew about using lube, about making first-time intercourse comfortable, and about pregnancy prevention options, but it seems I didn’t know much about sexually transmitted infections. My partner at the time — I’m still with him — offered to get tested for STIs before our first meeting in person. I turned him down. I think I must have decided that he didn’t have an STI. Someone told me once that I was more powerful than electricity. If that is true, which I highly doubt it is, I must be truly powerful indeed, to conduct blood and urine analyses over the phone or Internet, and with no scientific or medical training at that!

When I started having sex with girls, there was no one cheering, especially not encouraging me to have safer sex. But over the last few years, I’ve finally begun to feel confident with safer sex, and it’s improved my sex life a million percent. I wish I’d gotten comfortable with it sooner.

Interstitial cystitis (IC) and chronic prostatitis (CP) can cause pain with peeing. Learn how they can be diagnosed and treated so you can pee without pain.

When you’re growing up a bisexual guy, how can you come out or otherwise talk to your friends – be they straight or queer – about your sexuality?

Debates about “hooking up,” swinging from genuine concern to hysteria on both sides of political spectrum, have been raging throughout the 2000s. And this week, it’s seemed to bubble up to the surface again.