'NOTHING is going to embarrass me,' said Dr Gillian Mccutcheon. 'At the end of the day I don't remember any of it. I don't notice things like unshaved legs, and I don't know anyone else who does.'
She said that while it is understandable that a person would be shy about going to see someone about an intimate complaint, there is no need to worry.
Also, there are some issues that may not even be related to sex and could be something as simple as a fungal or bacterial infection rather than an STI. You are better off getting checked out to avoid panicking unnecessarily.
Young women who haven't had any children, older ladies who haven't been sexually active in some time and even shy girls of any age can avoid getting the help they need due to nerves. Gillian assures anyone with concerns that any doctor will put them at ease and deal with them in a professional manner.
'The biggest decision is making the appointment,' she said. 'Once they get here people are absolutely fine.'
The fact is that there are STIS out there, and they don't discriminate in terms of age, gender or background. Many of them have no symptoms but can affect things like fertility.
'They can all be treated,' said Gillian, who said that she will often see young women who have come to the end of a relationship and are starting another, and may suspect that their former partner was not faithful.
'When you sleep with someone you sleep with all the people they have been with,' she said. 'So a person may have had just one sexual partner and contract an STI.'
She will take a sexual history from anyone who is screened, including the amount of sexual partners they have had, before testing for
chlamydia, gonorrhoea, hepatitis, HIV, syphilis and more.
Even HIV can be managed, as well as herpes – which is an STI that can never be fully cured but rather 'lived with' for life. In such cases if a woman is planning on getting pregnant, it is better if her medical team knows about any STIS so that the situation can be managed at the birth.
Chlamydia can cause infertility, but is easily treated with one dose of antibiotic.
'The only way to prevent these is condom use,' said Dr Mccutcheon. 'It can't be said enough. We can't expect people to abstain, it's not realistic. Unless you are in a long-term relationship with someone you absolutely trust, use a condom.'
