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

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.

At your, you first get it done at your, well I did at my doctors by the nurse and yeah, you’d have to do different health checks, they would check your weight, your blood pressure, things like that and say you’d get it done either in your arm or in your bum or wherever there’s enough flesh for it because it’s quite a big needle and then you’re advised still not to have unprotected sex for a week after that and then, so they’d give you, and then when you get it done, they give you an a date for your next appointment which is usually; the injection lasts for twelve weeks but it’s usually at ten or eleven weeks your next date so that you’re, you’ve got enough time to arrange it without having a gap because then you have to do a pregnancy test and stuff if you have a gap, then you’re not, they assume you might not have been protected in that time so you have to overlap it and then when you go back, they do the same thing again, they do the different health checks, the blood pressure weight and stuff and just get the same thing done again.

I discussed it with my Mum and she thought it would be best as well to go on that because she knew that I didn’t take my pill and she didn’t want to be a Nan [laughs] with me that age so, yes she was fine with it as well.

And how did you feel in yourself when you started on the injection?

I was quite OK with it, I quite like, as I said, enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to have periods and stuff like that although sometimes you did get like a bit emotional and stuff when you would have been due to come on but you just didn’t have the period or the pains and
It did hurt actually for, it hurts the actual injection cos it’s quite a thick liquid and you can feel it being pushed in and then like if they overdo it, and cos I was so slim, I had to have it in my bum, in, cos that was there where there was enough fat, cos they didn’t like doing it in my arms cos I was so skinny. I did have it in my arms a couple of times and it really aches like for the next day, it’s really painful. It feels like someone’s just kicked you in your bum and something but other than that, I was fine with it.

OK so the actual injection hurt?

Yeah it actually hurts yeah and cos the liquid is thick. it’s a big needle and the liquid is thick so you can feel the liquid going in and then it’s, it’s painful afterwards like a bruise but more painful than a bruise actually. Yeah

And for how long does the pain last?

A day or a day and a half or two.

You started thinking about it after that incident with your sister?

Yeah, I started thinking about coming off the injection when my elder sister who had been on it for twelve, eleven/twelve years had started to having problems and she had low oestrogen levels which was due to the injection. I don’t know the ins and outs of it and then, so she had to come off of that and she had to get injections of oestrogen I think as far as I’m aware and then she had to go on the pill and then come off of it because she was trying for a baby but I think that she had to have the other injection before, like before she could, to enhance her chances of having a baby. I’m not too sure, that’s what I kind of put together in my head.

So, what were your worries at that time?

I was worried that because obviously you don’t have periods and you’re supposed to have one every month, that maybe it was doing something to my insides and I, maybe there would be a possibility that I couldn’t have children and cos I’d been on it from when I was very young and throughout my key developmental stages, I was quite worried about that and I was convinced that it was stopping my breasts growing. I don’t know whether it was because I was so skinny as well but that’s something that I was paranoid about and I also did put on weight after I’d come off of it and they did grow so I don’t know whether it’s linked or not, so.

No you don’t speak to the doctor to come off of it all, most of it is done through the nurse and she deals with the contraception and stuff like that.And there’s not really a big discussion or consultation around coming off of it. I was just set that I wanted to come off of it and I said, I want to come off it and start going on the pill and that was that I think. And so I didn’t get my next injection and got the pill and the right time to get it, you know, yeah.

OK, so you were having the injections every twelve weeks?

Yeah

OK. So by the date that you were supposed to have your next injection, you started your pill or you started before?

No, I no, I didn’t, I had a period and then started the pill.

OK

Yeah

And you had to use other form of contraception during that period?

No at that time I wasn’t sexually active, yeah.

OK but what did the nurse advice regarding protection?

The nurse advised that if I was to be sexually active to use condoms and yeah at that time they did advise about condoms because obviously contraception doesn’t protect you against different sexual infections and stuff. So I think around that time, I did have a conversation with my nurse about different contraception and stuff like that.

So how, how was the experience of getting your periods back? Were you sort of having painful periods or not?

At first when I first started to having periods, they was irregular, I couldn’t predict when they was going to come, sometimes there was spotting, sometimes there was heavy and then after about three months, they became more regular and then they wasn’t painful at first, I liked it, it was kind of a warming kind of comforting thing to have them and to have them regular and to think, a kind of a reassurance that, OK your reproductive system is in working order kind of

With using the injection as a contraceptive, I would just say make sure that you are comfortable within yourself and you’re doing it for you and you understand the risks. It does have different effects on different people so you can’t go by someone else’s experience to judge whether you want to but if you are to try it, I would say probably have the breaks and not for long periods of time because that’s when obviously the worser side effects are more likely to have an affect but I don’t think it’s a bad form of contraception, in moderation. And for younger women, I think that maybe they should think even more about it especially like how I was fourteen to, in the, like when you’re developing and things like that. I don’t know exactly scientifically if it does have this effect or that effect but just knowing generally that any substance that’s not supposed to be there when you’re developing or have an effect on your body.