You know me - I’m always curious, so when my friend Bonnie told me she thought she had an STI, she knew that I’d be down to support her and help her work out what to do.
What you should know fam, is that Bonnie is a boss babe! She ALWAYS goes for STI testing, at least twice a year. It’s what I love about her. She’s proud to know her STI status.
But, it had been a few months since her last test and she started to feel like something was a bit off. She was wondering if it could be an STI because she’d recently got a new man, and she admitted that they’d had sex without a condom a few times. Her discharge had started to increase, and it was starting to hurt when she peed.
We always tell each other everything, so when she told me what was up, I knew I had to tell her the truth. This was not a time for judgement, it was a time for action. It was time to get tested for STIs, and the sooner the better.
Off we went to the clinic together with our bags filled with things to do to beat the boredom of waiting in line - magazines, music, snacks - the works. Even though she gets tested all the time she was still a bit nervous, so I told her I’d also get tested with her so she wasn’t alone. It almost started to feel like a girls self-care day out.
We got in to see the clinic sister and told her what was up and that we wanted to get tested. I must admit, chomi, she did give us a bit of side eye, but she still explained what we needed to know, like the types of tests she thought we should do. She explained that some tests would involve blood tests, and others would involve taking a swab of our vaginal discharge with a swab. She was kind, and made sure that she explained each part of the process step by step. And me and Bonnie, we asked LOADS of questions.
Once the tests were done she told us that she’d call us with our results. We could see she was tempted to give us a lecture about safe sex, but I got in there first, saying we knew it was the right thing to always use a condom when having sex, and we’d make sure to do that from now on. She said it was safest not to have sex with anyone until we got our results back.
Yhuu, even though I hadn’t had sex for a while, I still felt a bit anxious about getting my results. I guess that’s normal. Bonnie was nervous too. Luckily only a few days passed before the nurse called each of us to give us our own results. Bonnie called me straight away and told me hers - it was an STI! The sister told her to come back and get a script for some medication to help her out and she went straight away to find out more. She also told me she had to have a tricky chat with her new man, but he did the right thing and also went to get tested.
I was proud of my friend Bonnie - she was brave in going to get tested and taking care of her sexual health. She’s a total queen!
It’s like I always say chomi - knowledge is power, and knowing your STI status is ALWAYS better than worrying about it.
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