When I fell pregnant with [daughter], well just before I fell pregnant, yeah I only slept with him once and I fell pregnant, I fell pregnant with [daughter] and he give me an STD which was PID and then it turned into Chlamydia and I told him about it and I said look you need to get checked out, and then at that point we didn’t know I was pregnant and I slept with him again, I slept with him twice, the once and then the time after.

The first time was when I conceived the second time was when he told me he had got cleaned up and I got it again and I was pregnant with [daughter] and I caught it again and when I found out I was pregnant I had to go to the clinic and they told me I had Chlamydia again and that my tubes were damaged and my chances of conceiving were 20% after.

(The accompanying video and audio clips are played by an actor)

I was working, and in the middle of the day I say, I can’t work anymore, and I went directly to the Emergency, and at the beginning they thought I had a urinary infection, and I told them I couldn’t have a urinary infection, so they told me to go to the Family Planning. And I went to the Family Planning and they told me that I had Chlamydia, and I mean after this, now, when I’m thinking of it, I mean it was Chlamydia only.

I mean in some way it was lucky because, you know, you take antibiotic for two weeks and that’s it, but it could be worse, I mean, it could be something else. It was ‘ and this make me understand that no, after the second time you are not safe, you know, you still need to wear condoms

How long did you have this pain before you went to the Emergency Department in the hospital?

I was waiting for five days because, I mean the pain is progressive, it’s like little by little you feel more and more and, you arrive at one point that you can’t walk anymore and I was bleeding. Yeah, I couldn’t walk anymore and after I felt the pain for five days and the fifth day I was bleeding like if I had my period, but the thing is I had my period one week before, so I thought something wrong is happening, that’s why I rushed to the Emergency.

No the practice I used to go to from where I lived down in [region] they used to be quite, not very warm and friendly. They used to be very in and out’ so they would measure my blood pressure, get me on the scales, do it then go. They weren’t very quick to give advice either. You had to ask questions. They would never be first to give you the advice and they never offered me any kind of testing. You had to ask for it yourself.

STI?

uh huh

Ok.

Because there’s I believe isn’t there at the moment anyone under a certain age is asked, should be asked, but I never was.

Ok. So did you ask for that?

Yes, yeah.

Ok how old were you when you asked?

By then I was 23.

Ok so they didn’t offer it before that?

No, never.

You went and asked for STI testing. And do you remember which test you had? Did you have a Chlamydia test?

Yes, yes I went for a Chlamydia test. No particular reasons, other than my friends were doing it and we sort of had a pact if they tried it I would. We had such horror stories of people who had no symptoms.

Ok so you had had sex without using a condom?

Yes, yeah.

So that was the main sort of reason?

Yeah. I’d only myself had, even now only had a couple of partners so it was never a concern for me at all. But there’s always that What if’ niggle so it’s. I would recommend anyone to do it. it’s not scary and it’s for the day and age we live in it’s important.

Can you tell me how many times have you had the test done?

Just the once.

Just the once, ok.

But that was last year. I’m still with the same partner now.

Ok was your partner tested also?

Yes, yes he was.

Ok. So and it was done here or where you used to live?

I actually went back to my old practice, yeah down in [region].

So you just had the Chlamydia?

Yes that’s right because this was actually at my doctor’s. I also asked them about, while I was there, I’d heard a lot of the radio adverts talking about people under a certain age should get checked now for cervical cancer [HPV virus which can cause cervical cancer]. And I asked them about it and she said, Oh you’re sort of over that age group now so don’t worry too much. And I thought that was a bit odd because I’m someone willing to just check it out and then she sort of
So they didn’t give it to you?

No [laugh]. I think they were probably busy that day or something. But they didn’t encourage it at all. They said that I wasn’t the market they were targeting at the moment to do it.

My Chlamydia test was very, very spur of the moment because I’d seen when I was around at college because I went to a 6th Form college there were people like saying, Come do the Chlamydia test now. And surrounded by all of those people at college I just didn’t want to like go into the bathrooms and pee in a tub and then give it to someone in front of everybody but…

So my Chlamydia test was very odd because I was sitting in a park with a few of my friends and two people actually approached us and were talking to the girls and said, Do any of you want to go get this Chlamydia test done?’ And me and two of my friends were just sitting there and we thought, well why not. We’re here and we want to make sure we don’t have Chlamydia so we basically just filled in some forms. Took the tub and went to the nearby pub that was around the corner and filled the tubs, came back and [ha] gave them it. And them literally the forms we filled in just gave like names, details, all of that stuff and then a couple of weeks later, about 3 weeks later I think it was I just got a text on my mobile. I got two texts saying I’m clear and the test was negative. So it was pretty easy experience to be honest.

Ok and who were these two people?

They were two of my college friends both the same age as me so I was 17 and they were 17 and 18. And we were all doing the same course together and just hanging out and yeah we just got approached and thought, why not.

But the people that approached all of you, who were they?

I don’t know. I assumed they worked for the NHS. They had little NHS badges and things like that so nurses I should think. Two women, yeah, two middle-aged women just came up and were speaking to us just saying, Do you want to get the Chlamydia test. it’s really easy. All you have to do is go to the local pub and go to the toilets and then come back in 10 minutes or less depending on how quick you are.

And at college could you explain a bit more about when people were doing it, did you have to go to the toilet and where everybody was peeing into these little cups and that was not something that you wanted to do?

No that was a lot more uncomfortable. Like in a pub because it’s like, it was really noisy at the time so and nobody knew what you were there to do so you just walked in as if you were going to the loo and then came out again. Well when you’re at college everybody knew that it was the week that the sexual health people were in and that it was the week that they were doing the Chlamydia testing. So if anybody saw you walk into a toilet like trying to hide something in your bag they’d know exactly why you were there.

Ok [laugh].

[Laugh] so it’s just things like people staring at you going, Oh god she’s gone for the Chlamydia test. Who’s she been sleeping with?’

I don’t think it’s helping de-stigmatise Chlamydia. No because it’s, there’s always going to be that stigma like. Well I think there’s always going to be a lot of stigma around sexual, sexually transmitted diseases and I think that just people going in to get tested that in itself is a stigma. So instead of like decreasing the stigma it’s just attracting it to the specific people who you know have gone to be tested.

So like that’s what I meant in college like among my friends it was fine because we were all pretty sure that we were Chlamydia free so we thought, why not we’ll go and get tested. But if someone in a larger environment if someone is known to have sex quite often then if they’re seen to do something like that it will link up in people’s minds and just. Even if they come back with a negative, with a negative test it still there, people have that association in their mind. She’s gone to get the Chlamydia test. She sleeps around.

I don’t know. I think. I’ve always been very open about sexually transmitted infections but I’ve always been pretty certain that I don’t have any. While if I was worried that I did have any kind of infection I probably wouldn’t be so open about it. I could, I think if I like was worried that I had something like Chlamydia or HIV or anything I would probably not want to talk about it and clam up. Just because of things like that stigma.

Ok so that is the main thing.

Do you think that the screening has reached, has been able to reach sort of young people that otherwise wouldn’t have thought about having a Chlamydia test?

Yeah I think when it comes, in terms of just things like how I was feeling, just why not, I’ll just go check. I think it’s a good idea simply because there’s so many people who might not know and if they do have it and then if they just think, why not I’ll go do the test. I think it’s because it’s so, because the testing is so open and like you can see quite a lot of it now. Like it’s there at the universities and the colleges. I think it’s because it’s so much easier to get it done more people will get it done just simply because they haven’t thought of it before. Well when they see the stalls or if they are approached in the park they’ll just go, why not I’ll get tested. And I think it’s a really good way just for. I don’t think people, a lot of the people who are worried about it. I think the people who are worried will find it easier to get themselves tested in a more private way as opposed to planning it and going to the clinic or the family planning centre. They can just do a test on the spot which I think is really good.

There is, in my GP, in my doctors there is free Chlamydia testing kits and so I took one of them, I took loads of them actually cos I was going to give them to my young people and I did the tests and sent it off, in the post, so you wee into the tube and fill out your information and send it off and they give you a reply by text but it’s a very discreet text.

Where did you send it to?

I think it’s the NHS but I’m not too sure what department it is, it’s Laboratory something, it says on it. But I didn’t actually wait for myresults and told my Clinic in a Box lady that, a previous partner of mine has been tested positive for Chlamydia, I think there’s a good chance I might have it and I would like to take the treatment as soon as possible and that’s part of, that’s one of the tick boxes, so to speak, to get treatment if a partner that you’ve been with has it, then you’re likely to have it so they’ll give you treatment even if you haven’t yet tested positive because it’s highly likely that you are.

So and in term of treatment what did it consist of?

The treatment is four, four tablets, I can’t remember what it’s called, I can’t remember what it’s called, there’s two different treatments for it that I know. There’s two different tablets that you can take and there’s four tablets, you take them all at once and you can’t be sexually active for seven days and then it’s cleared.

Well, they (GUM clinic)basically had a nurse who came to get me and sat me down in a room and told me what was going to happen and said did I if I didn’t want the blood test or anything like that I didn’t have to have it. If I had a male doctor for one of mine, and they said if you really don’t want a male doctor then you don’t have to have one but I was, I was okay with that. And then also they said because sometimes they have medical students come in and they said, Do you, would you be okay with one coming in or not I said, No

So they were very good at asking questions making sure you were okay with the people who were in the room. And then they basically just talked me through what was going to happen and then just the whole time just making, they were very good like making sure that I was okay throughout the whole time I was there, especially after my blood test. They were like, Do you want to sit down? Do you want a biscuit Because I got quite faint. And brought me milk and a biscuit, which I thought was quite, quite sweet. So yeah, I think they are very good up here.

Can you tell me what, were the reason that prompted you to have the test?

I was with a long term partner and we split up and I didn’t have any tests in between my ex-partner and my new partner so I was with my new partner and sexually active with him and my ex-partner rung me to say that he went for a check-up and he had Chlamydia and he doesn’t know how long he’s had it for cos we hadn’t got tested before (during the relationship)and so I should get myself checked out. And so I did and I tested positive for it so that means also I passed it to my new partner and he had to get treatment for it as well.

And how did you feel when you, when your ex-boyfriend called you and

I felt a bit sick when my ex-boyfriend told me about it. I felt really cringey, like I was dirty or something. I felt obviously upset because it, he said to, like it was because he had cheated on me, so and, not just once, so he wasn’t too sure who he’d caught it from. Because when we first got together we had both done the test and was fine, so I know that it was because he had cheated during our relationship that he had contracted it to me.

OK and who prompted that first test?

We both did. We bothyeah we both did. It was kind of, cos like I said, cos around them, these times and them times, it was very much a boost in being sexually aware and stuff like that so we both did.

My new boyfriend was quite upset. He got, had like different moods about it and be very annoyed and other points and cos obviously it wasn’t really my fault because I was in a long term relationship, I trusted him and he had given me it although whether I should have question, whether I should have trusted him is another matter because I was maybe a bit naïve but yeah so, he was kind of angry and then he obviously felt it for me because I had trusted this partner and he had cheated on me. But yeah he was quite upset, a bit disgusted, a bit angry, went fromchanged every now and again, yeah.

OK, so you didn’t do the Chlamydia testing with the new partner?

No

OK

No I didn’t, so I should have done and I would think that like people should get tests done even if they think they can trust their partner because I thought I could trust my boyfriend of four years and obviously I couldn’t even though at the time, I would like argue anyone that, Of course my boyfriend’s faithful to me, we love each other, we’re going to be together forever kind of thing but little did I know that he was cheating on me, so
I think that he felt, I don’t think he felt good about it because obviously I assume, I think he said the GP asks the same kind of questions about how you contracted it and stuff, so he had to tell them, Oh well, my girlfriend gave it to me and bla, bla so he didn’t feel too good about that and I think he felt quite embarrassed. He didn’t tell any of his friends

He didn’t?

No andyeah he didn’t feel good about it at all.

And did you talk about it with your friends or did you feel embarrassed?

I did talk about it with my friends because for me it was kind of like, Can you believe what he did, like, he actually gave me Chlamydia, he was cheating on me kind of yeah it was different with girls I think though because it was my ex-boyfriends fault as well and he, I did speak to my friends about it, so, yeah.

Did it affect your relationship with your new boy-friend?

It affected it for a while, yeah, cos he, depending on his moods, he would say, I can’t believe like you gave me Chlamydia it’s quite degrading as well, like to think, Oh no, I gave someone Chlamydia kind of thing butso it affect it for a while but obviously because of the circumstances and it, we got back together and I kind of trust my new boyfriend more than my old boyfriend although I shouldn’t have trusted him, so