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Confidential information and advice on sexual health
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Find the nearest to meArriving at a SWISH Clinic
When you arrive at any of our SWISH clinics, please go to the reception desk where a member of our team will be able to help you.
If you have a booked an appointment please arrive 10 minutes before your appointment time. Please note that if you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your appointment, you may not be seen.
Our reception staff will ask you to complete some registration details and will then direct you to a waiting area.
You may notice that some patients arriving after you, are called in before you. This is because we run different clinics. In most clinics we have general waiting rooms with both male and female services running together which may be new to you.
Waiting times at the clinic
We try and keep waiting times to a minimum, but sometimes appointments do overrun.
If you’re coming to our SWISH Service for a full sexual health check-up, please allow one hour for your visit.
Consultation and Treatment
When you are called for your appointment, you will be seen by a doctor or a nurse. A chaperone may also be present.
On occasions, you may be asked if you’d mind if a medical student or other trainees could be present for your consultation. If you feel uncomfortable about this, please do let us know as it is perfectly fine to say you'd rather not have them present.
You’ll be asked some further questions about your current problem, your general health and sexual history, including your sexual orientation.
If you are being tested for a sexually transmitted infection (STI)
The doctor or nurse will talk with you about your concerns/symptoms and ask about any sex you have had. It’s important to be honest about this, so that you get the test(s) and treatment you need. The test could include taking swabs and/or blood tests, and giving a urine sample. It’s essential that male patients haven’t passed urine (peed) for at least 1 hour before the appointment
STIs will take time to show on a test, so please consider the information below. If a test is done too early, it will not be accurate. It may be better to wait to take the test if you don’t have symptoms.
- It can take two weeks after sex, for Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea to show up on a test
- An HIV test is highly accurate 4 weeks after sex and 100% accurate 8 weeks after sex
- Syphilis can take up to at least 12 weeks to show infection after sex
Receiving test results
At some clinic we have microscopy that can help a diagnosis on the day of your visit, but this is not available at every clinic or other factors may affect this being offered on the day, in this instance all appropriate tests will be sent to the Lab
Results are usually ready in 7-10 days, and will be sent to you via a text message (or you can telephone the clinic if you do not want to receive a text)
If you tested positive for an infection
If your test was positive for any infection, you can return to the clinic for free treatment. In order to reduce the chance of complications, it's important your infection is treated as soon as possible.
Our health advisors and nurses will provide you with information about the infection, and its complications if left untreated.
Any sexual partner(s) you’ve had in the past three months will also need to be tested and treated for the infection. Treating your partner(s) will reduce the spread of the infection and development of its complications.
Our staff can help you to inform your partners in a timely manner without compromising your confidentiality. Contacting sexual partners to notify them of an STI is called contact tracing.
