If it goes wrong You have safe sex to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STIs. But what do you do if something goes wrong? How is that done, an STI test? If you don’t have symptoms, you can have an STI test two weeks after you had unsafe sex. If you do have symptoms, you don’t have to wait two weeks. Go to your doctor to be tested or look at www.sense.info for a testing location somewhere near you. The doctor or nurse will decide which STIs to test you for. Boys usually only have to urinate in a jar. For girls, a kind of cotton bud is used to remove some mucus from the cervix. You’ll get the results within a week. If you’re in a relationship and want to stop using condoms, you should both have an STI test first. And don’t forget about using reliable contraception, like the pill or an IUD. What is that, a morning after pill? If you’ve had unsafe sex and don’t want to get pregnant, you can take a morning after pill within 72 hours. The morning after pill is just one tablet. It contains a hormone that prevents a fertilised egg from implanting in the uterus. If the morning after pill is taken within 24 hours after unsafe sex, the risk of pregnancy is the lowest. After that, it is slightly less reliable. You can buy a morning after pill without a prescription at a drugstore or pharmacy. If you’ve taken a morning after pill, always do a pregnancy test when you should have had your period, just to be sure. If it was more than three but less than five days ago that you had safe sex, go to your doctor for another kind of emergency pill or an emergency IUD. LONG LIVE LOVE 35 What should I do? To: info@sense.info From: Dave001@gmail.com Subject: What should I do? Dear Sense, I have a problem. I’ve had unsafe sex. We didn’t use a condom. Now I’m scared I may have caught an STI or made my girlfriend pregnant. What should I do? ------------------------------------------------------Dear Dave, You should both be tested for STIs. The sooner you know, the better. An STI is then often easier to treat. Your doctor can do an STI test or you can go to the free Sense drop-in session at the GGD health centre. In your email you don’t say whether your girlfriend is on the pill or uses another contraceptive. If she doesn’t, she’s running the risk of an unwanted pregnancy. To prevent that, she may still be able to take a morning after pill. This is possible within 72 hours (three days) after the unsafe sex. You can buy a morning after pill at a drugstore or pharmacy. If the unsafe sex was between three and five days ago, she can go to the doctor for another kind of emergency pill or an emergency IUD. If it was more than five days ago, she can do a pregnancy test on the day that she should have had her period.
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