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wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

So I'm your average person who has slept with people before, and I realized I really should get checked out for various things just in case.

I mean, better safe than sorry... or better knowing than not knowing. I mean, should I actually have something, I would hate to give it to someone without knowing it.

So I stopped by a hospital and asked for tests.
I'm from the US and normally any general clinic physician will conduct all blood tests and take tissue and swab samples for other tests, but when I dropped in for a clinical visit, the doctor only seemed to be aware of the general blood tests.

I really would like to get tissue/swab tests done for the MANY stds that can't be tested for by blood.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Could you give me any advice? My Japanese is of a reasonable level (just not medical topics) where I could get the message across if I knew the right vocab, so if someone knew how to ask the right way in Japanese, that would be great also.

Thanks for any help you can provide Smile

G Cthulhu · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: Medical Tests for STDs

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

"Tissue" tests involve biopsies. Do you really need such a thing for STDs?

Swab tests examine what's on the surface. Not exactly the prime location for an STD, wouldn't you agree?

Swab tests may also be used to examine interior surfaces of some body parts, but as mentioned above, blood tests are probably a better measure. What do you envision as the STD that is better checked with swabs over blood tests?

seklarwia · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:01 pm Post subject:

If I remember my sex ed classes right:
Things like the chlamydia bacteria are not blood-born, so urine samples are used to test for it (And if you are under 25 in the UK, you can pick up a self test kit free from any GUM clinic!).

I'm pretty sure that some of the more minor infections like thrush can only be tested for using swabs.

In the UK, a full screening normally takes a couple of hours to complete, so I doubt that drawing blood is all that is needed.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

In the large cities at least there are dedicated clinics that do STD testing- maybe you would be better off going to one of those.

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

Thanks for the response.
I'm probably just being a little paranoid, but I'll feel happier after.

Gonorrhea and Chlamydia for example are two tests that aren't done by blood. They can be done by urine (as seklarwia mentioned) or a swab test. There are a few others too I believe. Blood doesn't cover all bases.