Sexual health
Testing you can do at home
A postal kit, an accredited laboratory, and — the part that actually matters — every result explained to you by a doctor rather than released as a report you have to interpret alone.
Fully online. Video consultation with Dr Qurbain, medication dispensed to your door, and no need to travel anywhere.
Want to know, without a waiting room?
If any of these sound familiar, this consultation was built for you.
You want it dealt with discreetly and quickly.
You want the right test for what actually happened, not a generic panel.
You want to understand window periods before you test, not after.
You want a person to explain the result, whatever it says.
This service does two things well and refers everything else. That is deliberate.
We provide asymptomatic screening, and treatment of uncomplicated genital chlamydia. Everything else goes to an NHS sexual health or GUM service — and that is the correct clinical outcome, not a shortcoming. Those services are free, open-access, self-referring, able to examine and swab you, able to give injectable treatment, and they run the statutory partner notification systems.
If you have symptoms — discharge, pain, ulcers, lumps, a rash — you need examining, and a video call cannot do it. We will say so plainly rather than treat you at the margins of safety.
How it works
Four steps, all from home
Sexual history, then the right test
Which sites to sample is decided by your actual exposures. Throat and rectal sampling are offered where they are indicated — a genital-only test in someone with other exposure sites is an inadequate screen, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Your kit, from an accredited laboratory
Validated self-sampling kits with clear written and visual instructions, posted to you and returned to an accredited lab. Chlamydia and gonorrhoea, HIV, and syphilis.
Window periods explained before you test
A negative test taken too soon is not reassurance. The window for your situation is explained and recorded, and if you test inside it you are given the repeat date in writing and actively recalled rather than left to remember.
Every result explained, by the doctor
Positive or negative, you get a consultation, not a bare report. A reactive HIV or syphilis result is telephoned the same working day — never by message or email alone — with immediate onward referral.
Window periods: how long after exposure a test can be trusted
A negative test taken too soon is not reassurance. The window that applies to you is explained and recorded before you test, and if you test inside it you are given the repeat date in writing and actively recalled.
What is included
Screening
- Chlamydia and gonorrhoea, by the most sensitive test type
- HIV and syphilis
- Sampling sites matched to your sexual history, including throat and rectal where indicated
- An accredited laboratory, with validated self-sampling kits
Treatment, within a narrow scope
- Uncomplicated genital chlamydia in a non-pregnant adult with no symptoms
- A single first-line antibiotic course, per the current national guideline
- Where that antibiotic is unsuitable — including in pregnancy — you are referred rather than given a second choice remotely
What comes with it
- Results explained by the doctor, with risk-reduction advice
- Retesting at three months advised, with the date given in writing
- Referral to a sexual health service for partner notification, which is a safety function and not an optional extra
- Your GP told of any positive result and any treatment given
The window period, and why it decides everything
A test only detects an infection once enough time has passed since exposure. Chlamydia and gonorrhoea need two weeks. Syphilis needs twelve weeks. For HIV, the window depends on the kind of test — and because this service uses a postal rapid or self-test kit, the window that applies to you is 90 days, not the shorter figure quoted for a laboratory assay. If you are testing sooner than that, the result does not rule infection out, you will be told so clearly, and you will be recalled.
Safeguarding, and sexual assault
Side effects, and what to do about them
Read
Every consultation includes a safeguarding screen, with you alone and unobserved. This is asked of everyone.
- Age and identity verified.
- Any non-consensual sexual activity, current or past.
- Sexual exploitation, trafficking, or exchange of sex for money, drugs or accommodation.
- Sexual or reproductive coercion by a partner.
- Concerns about a child or an adult at risk, and female genital mutilation.
- If you disclose a recent sexual assault, you are directed to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre the same day, told about forensic time limits and the availability of emergency HIV prevention and emergency contraception, and supported in getting there. This service does not attempt to manage it remotely.
What we refer, and why
Who this service cannot treat, and why
Read
This list is long on purpose. Each of these needs examination, injectable treatment, a test of cure, or specialist follow-up that a remote service cannot provide safely.
- Any symptoms at all — discharge, pain on passing urine, ulcers, lumps, rash, pelvic or testicular pain, bleeding. You need examining
- Gonorrhoea — treatment needs an injection, a test of cure and resistance surveillance. Never treated remotely; referred the same working day
- Syphilis — reactive results referred the same working day; staging and treatment are specialist
- HIV — a reactive or equivocal result is discussed the same working day and referred urgently to an HIV service. Never managed remotely
- Pelvic inflammatory disease, epididymo-orchitis, prostatitis, proctitis
- Throat or rectal infection needing a test of cure
- Pregnancy, or possible pregnancy
- Mycoplasma genitalium, trichomoniasis, repeat or persistent infection, treatment failure
- PEP and PrEP — not provided. PEP is time-critical: go to A&E or a sexual health service immediately, within 72 hours of exposure
- Preventive antibiotics after sex — not offered here; referred
- Hepatitis B or C management, and all vaccination
- Genital warts, herpes needing examination, or any lesion that needs looking at
- Anyone under 18
Testicular pain, severe pelvic pain with fever, or pain with a positive pregnancy test are emergencies — same-day assessment, because torsion, pelvic infection and ectopic pregnancy are all possible and all time-critical.
Followed up, not just tested
The full review and monitoring schedule
Read
Everyone gets a results consultation, whatever the result. Where chlamydia is treated, you are contacted at around two weeks to confirm you finished the course, followed the abstinence advice, have not developed symptoms, and that partner notification is in progress. Retesting is advised at three months, because reinfection is common, and the date is given to you in writing. Where a repeat test is needed because you tested inside the window, you are actively recalled.
What this service treats, and what it refers
Referral to an NHS sexual health or GUM service is the correct clinical outcome in most cases, not a shortcoming. Those services are free, open-access, self-referring, and able to examine you.
Our approach follows current national guidance. See the guidelines we work to.
Initial consultation
Your initial consultation is paid when you book, before the consultation, and is charged whether or not treatment is prescribed. A follow-up review is paid when it happens, and only if you or your doctor decide you need one.
Joining the waiting list is free. Medicine, if prescribed, is bought separately from the dispensing pharmacy and its cost is confirmed with you before you pay for each supply.
Video consultation, sexual history and risk assessment, the postal self-sampling kit and accredited laboratory testing, and a results consultation with the doctor whatever the result. Treatment, where it is within scope and prescribed, is dispensed separately by a registered pharmacy and priced before you pay.