6 Ways To Avoid Getting an STD in the New Year

The number of sexually transmitted diseases has gone through the roof! The three most commonly reported STDs in America, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, are more prevalent  than ever before. So, what can you do to protect yourself and avoid getting an STD in the coming new year?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most sexually transmitted infections go undiagnosed and have no symptoms but can cause long-term consequences for your health. Fortunately, the vast majority of STIs are treatable and even curable… but medication can only work if you catch an infection early. The key is finding them in the first place. So let’s get started with six easy steps:

1. Don’t Have Sex

GULP! OK, umm, that just does not sound like fun so let’s scratch that and keep going…

2. Use Protection

Using condoms during sex is another obvious choice but while they can drastically reduce the risks of getting an infection, they do not eliminate it entirely. For one, condoms do not cover your entire body and some infections can pass through skin on skin contact, kissing, oral sex or other. Second, condoms are not invincible – they can slip, tear or leak. This means that while condoms are a great prevention tool they are not sufficient for your peace of mind on their own.

3.Test for STDs Between Partners and Know Your Status

The best protection against STDs is regular testing. But that means regular testing. As in more than once…  In fact, the CDC recommends that you get tested every three-to-six months.

The reasons you need to test and test often are many, but here are just a few of the highlights: Over half of U.S. adults have never been tested for anything other than HIV, which prevents them from getting much-needed treatment. As many as 80% of infections statistically do not show symptoms, so thinking you are in the clear does not mean you or your partner are safe.

Negative test results are too often incorrectly treated as a clean bill of health. Some STIs may take up to three months from exposure to be detectable through a test. Testing regularly and thoroughly is the only way to stay safe.

The process of going to a clinic or doctor for regular testing can be so overwhelming and inconvenient that many people opt to avoid testing altogether. Clinic visits can be embarrassing and uncomfortable as well as time-consuming. This unfortunately puts your health at risk… and everyone else too!

But what if we told you that you can now test at HOME? Yup!  With the myLAB Box service, you can get tested any time, any place, on your terms.

According to myLAB Box Co-Founder and CMO, Lora Ivanova: “The CDC statistics scream loud-and-clear that the traditional testing system doesn’t work. Sex is different today: a recent study says that people who use online dating apps are three times as likely to contract an STD. We’re having more risky, casual sex, but still not getting tested.”

“myLAB Box offers a proactive solution to these stats,” Ivanova continues. “We have developed a groundbreaking solution to the STD crisis in the United States – the first and only service to offer lab-certified at-home testing and treatment nationwide. Customers can order, test, get results and be treated without ever leaving home. If you receive positive results, myLAB Box offers a free phone consultation with a physician in your state, so you can be on your way to treatment with unprecedented ease and convenience. No one else offers this combination of convenience and medical expertise. It couldn’t be easier. It’s time to revolutionize the way we think about sexual healthcare.”

4. Ask Your Partners About Their Status

Testing afterwards is great, but better yet: find out before. Don’t just take it on faith that your partner is safe. Find out for sure. It may seem like a mood-killer, but there are ways to talk to you partner about testing while still keeping the mood sexy and fun.  You can even spice things up and bond with one another by testing together. We can’t think of better foreplay than that!

We recently joined forces with Glow to create an entire article about how to “pop the question” to your new partner. Take a look for some great ideas.

5. Use Caution With Online Dating

We’re huge fans of dating apps. Nowadays, more and more people are meeting each other through services like Tinder and Match. That’s great news for romance but it also comes at a price. Some research indicates that meeting a partner online makes one three times more likely to contract an STI.

But with casual sexual activity comes potentially risky behavior. We might not always have enough time to fully “verify” that our partners are free of STDs before getting between the sheets. So have fun, but definitely make sure you are tested afterwards! Safe is sexy!

6. Know How to Properly Take Care of Your Sexual Health

Any intimate activity – even kissing or oral sex – can expose you to an infection. It takes just a single encounter to transfer an infection to your partner.

Unlike any other STD testing solution, myLAB Box offers a comprehensive extragenital testing option that can fully check for any infections that might be lurking in places that traditional testing might miss.

Depending on your lifestyle, testing should adjust for maximum effectiveness.

In a monogamous relationship?  You should still be tested.  In a perfect world, we would all live happily ever after. Unfortunately, no one can ever truly know if his or her partner is being 100 percent faithful. We live in a world of rampant cheating.

Every adult must remain proactive and monitor their sexual health with the same commitment as their hygiene. We don’t stop showering when we get married, so we shouldn’t stop testing either…

Remember: Stay Sexy And Safe – Test Often!

Above all, the best way to make sure that you stay STD-free is to be tested.

myLAB Box offers at-home STD test packages for every lifestyle, with discreet packaging and free shipping, providing easy five-minute tests, lab-certified results, and free physician treatment consultations for those with positive results.

myLAB Box’s breakthrough at-home testing kits now give you the security of your very own clinic. If you would like to get tested in private for STIs such as chlamydia, gonorrhea — or even HIV — now is the time to order myLAB Box. With the benefit of telemedicine, you can even get a prescription without ever leaving the privacy of your home.

It’s the only real way to be absolutely sure you’re staying safe.