We Both Got Tested

It had been a year since I'd been tested for STDs. Honestly, I just didn’t think I needed to get tested more often than that. In that year I had two sexual partners, and we didn’t use protection. Then, I met a girl, and we became friends. Things started to heat up between us romantically, and she asked me when I had last been tested. I told her how long it had been, and she requested that we both go get tested. We decided to share our results with one another too. She told me of a place where I could go and get tested for free without an appointment.

I went to the testing site the next day that I had off work. I waited about 10 minutes to be seen. I was taken into a private room, where all the testing was done. The tester explained to me what PrEP and nPEP were, which was cool because I had never heard of them before. You take PrEP as a way to prevent contracting HIV. I am going to think about getting on it. If you have a sexual encounter where you think you may have been exposed to HIV, then you take nPEP.

The testing part itself was pretty painless. Needles don’t scare me. It honestly felt wonderful that I did the right thing by getting tested. They called me a week later with my results. Everything came back non-reactive, and I was happy. I let my friend know, and she shared that her results were non-reactive too. It really made me feel good that we could move forward with our relationship knowing we both got tested. From now on, I think it’s a good idea to get tested with new sexual partners. This experience gives me the confidence to have these types of conversations moving forward.