
Joey Rivenbark, Analytics Editor
Joey Rivenbark
With flu season arriving, traffic to the Student Health Center is bound to go up, and, in addition to the crucial step of getting their flu vaccination, students should also consider scheduling an equally important appointment: a sexually transmitted disease test.
STDs don’t have a certain season quite like the flu does, and likewise they don’t receive the mainstream attention they deserve outside of organizations designed for health and sexual well-being. Tests can be viewed by many as possibly difficult and expensive, unnecessary and just embarrassing.
But the truth is that tests are none of these things. In fact, for college students, getting checked for an STD can be as free and easy as it is important and mature.
As far as on-campus options, students can schedule a regular appointment for an STD test with Student Health Services during the normal hours for both the General Medicine and Women’s Health clinics. Students can call Student Health Services about STD tests at 919-515-2563 to make an appointment. However, students may have to pay, as different insurance carriers may not fully cover these tests.
Free on-campus options do exist, though. NC State Student Health Services partners with Wake County Human Services to provide free and confidential testing on the first and third Thursdays of each month.
If for some reason that cannot work, Student Health Services also provides a list of six off-campus locations, with four of them offering free testing during predetermined hours and three of them allowing walk-in appointments.
In short, there are a number of options for students that are both logistically flexible and affordable. What’s more is that these tests are not difficult either. Multiple locations and prices speak to the feasibility of getting tested, but the actual process can be as simple as providing a urine or simple blood sample.
As for the needed frequency of such tests; it can be different for each person based on sexual activity, sexuality and other factors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do however provide an overview of testing recommendations based on such considerations on its website, as well as stating that all adults and adolescents should be tested for HIV at least once, regardless of sexual activity.
Getting checked on a regular basis can help to stop an infection before it impacts the person carrying it and before it impacts others. A disease’s impact can be quite substantial, too. Chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most reported STI’s in America both have the symptom of “burning urination” regardless of gender. These diseases only become more serious if left untreated.
The impact of infections spreading is only heightened for us at NC State when considering that nearly half of the new STDs diagnosed each year are from individuals ages 15 to 24. College students fall right into that age range, and thus run a high risk of getting an STD. As such, it is imperative for them to be appropriately sexually responsible by getting checked regularly.
While these statistics may seem frightening, scheduling an appointment doesn’t need to be so grave. Getting checked for an STD should be treated by students similarly to how check-ups with a doctor or dentist are treated: you may not know that anything is wrong, but you would need to know if something was.
The idea that these tests are embarrassing or unnecessary is unwise and immature, as it reduces a life-altering disease to something akin to an awkward conversation. Likewise, not getting tested as a college student with so many accessible and affordable options is equally misguided. On a campus where sexual activity is no stranger to the student body, we all have a responsibility to live as healthy and mature adults. The first step to doing that is getting checked for an STD.