“Hello. We’re from ASHA and are here to pee in a cup. Is now a good time?”
Earlier this month, as ASHA launched our STI Awareness Month activities, I wrote a short letter that cheekily called on more people to “pee in a cup” (primarily to test for chlamydia). I wanted to point out that – along with lack of health insurance – social barriers (like stigma and lack of awareness) keep many individuals from seeking the sexual health care they need.
Every day ASHA interacts with thousands of people seeking information and support around issues of sexual health. We’ve urged countless individuals to take the initiative and talk with their health care providers about sexual health. This isn’t easy and, for many patients and providers, can be downright embarrassing. We gently acknowledge all this when chatting with our clients, but our message remains the same: Anyone can be at risk for STIs. Be smart. Have the conversation. Get tested.
Great advice. And I’ve never followed any of it.
I know better but have never felt the personal need to have the same conversation with my health care provider – or most of the tests – that we routinely urge for others. What do my staff and I really know of the anxiety provoked by “peeing in a cup” if we’ve never done it? It was time to try it out for ourselves.
With my inner iPod seemingly stuck on a lecture entitled “what’s good for the goose…,” one of my ASHA senior staff members and I headed to a clinic where we each peed in a cup and gave up a little blood. Then we waited for our test results for chlamydia, HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, gonorrhea, and herpes simplex virus 1 and 2.
Here we were, two seasoned professionals who work in the field of sexual health every day, and the idea of getting tested was not without a bit of nervous giggling. What would the clinic staff think, having us tested for eight different infections? Would they silently (or perhaps not so silently) judge us? Also, STIs can be silent for months or years, and a person with either infection can be unaware for many years, potentially even decades … What if? What if?
Soon, our test results were available. The wait almost unhinged my ASHA buddy – a veteran who’s been in the field 12 years and has more than a clue about STIs and his relative risk – who both compulsively checked the site to see if his results were back and declared he was throwing away his PIN because he’d rather not know.
We did this to better understand what it’s like for those who follow our recommendations to get tested for STIs, and the process certainly educated us. As unnerving as testing can be even for people well versed in this area, this experience drove home how difficult it might be for someone who isn’t as savvy. ASHA and others working in public health put so much energy into providing resources for those diagnosed with STIs, and that’s a good thing. But it’s important not to ignore the “front end” piece of preparing people to get tested in the first place.
I did it. I peed in a cup! Have you? Stay healthy!
Sincerely,
Lynn B. Barclay
President and CEO
American Social Health Association (ASHA)
