Answered Questions

For more information on a variety of sexually transmitted infections please visit STIs at a Glance or for info about transmission risk check out Know your Chances.

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Health Nurse

As stated on the Get Checked Online website in the “What can I test for?” section only Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis C tests are offered.  If you would like to get tested for other kinds of STIs, you will need to visit a clinic or see your doctor.  If you are having any symptoms that are concerning you I would recommend that you to get them checked by a care provider such as a doctor or nurse at a walk-in clinic

Have a look at our Clinic Finder to locate a sexual health clinic in your area.

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Health Nurse

BV is not a sexually transmitted infection (STI) but rather an imbalance of the healthy bacteria that normally lives in the vagina. When these bacteria get out of balance, symptoms can occur. These symptoms are commonly described as a fishy odor and an increased amount of watery, thin vaginal discharge (You didn’t specify in your question, but I am assuming that you are a person with a vagina. If I have gotten that wrong, please forgive the assumption).

BV can be very easily treated with a 1-week course of an antibiotic called metronidazole. You can visit any walk-in clinic or sexual health clinic for assessment, diagnosis and treatment. I would recommend a full STI screen for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea as well as testing for BV as sometimes STIs can also cause these symptoms.

Have a look at our page on Bacterial Vaginosis for more information. To help locate a sexual health clinic in your area, you can use our Clinic Finder.

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Health Nurse

BC Women’s Hospital CARE Program

Everywoman’s Health Centre

Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic

Willow Clinic

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Health Nurse

I don’t know what the discharge might have been, but it can be common to have some irritation to the urethra after having sex. During intercourse there are lots of microbes (non-harmful, normal healthy bacteria) that can be passed between partners. While these microbes don’t necessarily cause an infection they can get up into the urethra and cause some irritation. Staying well hydrated, urinating frequently (especially right after sex) and drinking cranberry juice or taking some cranberry supplements can help with this discomfort.

Finally, yes some STIs could be passed from your finger’s to a male partner’s genitals, if your fingers had been touching your own genitals first and there is an infection already present. The most common things would be infections passed through skin to skin contact such as HPV, herpes or even syphilis. So for example, if a person has an active herpes outbreak on their genitals and touches the sores, then immediately touches their partner’s genitals, it would be possible to pass that infection to the partner.

You might find our STIs at a Glance chart helpful as it gives a quick overview of how different infections are passed.

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Health Nurse

If you have sex with an ongoing partner that has not been treated for the infection, you will likely get it back again.

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Health Nurse

Keep in mind, however, that while herpes is easily spread (which is why it’s so very common!) it is only being passed when the virus is active. Typically this means that it’s only spreading when the symptoms of blisters or lesions are present on the skin. When the blisters heal, the virus goes to “sleep” on the nerve pathway and is not being passed until it wakes up again. The frequency of when the virus “wakes up” and spreads from person to person varies. Some people only ever get one outbreak in their lifetime, while other people might have 2 or 3 outbreaks per year.

If you’re interested in reading more about herpes and the virus that causes it, have a look at our Herpes: Patient’s Guide.

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Health Nurse

Check out our Flavoured Condoms page on Smart Sex Resource for more details.

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Health Nurse

As such, it is unlikely that if you repeat the test that it will be negative. In fact, we often discourage people from testing for herpes using the blood test since it provides very little clinical information and often causes quite a lot of anxiety about a virus that is generally considered to be pretty harmless.

You might find our Herpes: Patient’s Guide helpful for more information.

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Health Nurse

For this reason it is important that you get any STIs treated appropriately and that any ongoing partners also get tested and take the treatment right away to avoid the infection going back and forth between the two of you.

At this point, the person you had sex with after you took the medication, should get treatment for the STI and you both should wait until seven days after treatment before having sex.

Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse