Have you got a rash in your gash? A lesion in your region? A bump on your rump? A stinging on your ding-a-ling? Strange discharge from Mr. Large? Your urine got ya burnin’? Seeing red on the head?
Well. I spent a good half an hour on the civic holiday rhyming gross things with body bits. What’d you do? (If the answer is, hooked up with someone and now I’m worried that I have an STI, then READ ON!)
If you think you might have a sexual transmitted illness, and the problem is visual, you can send a picture to a team of doctors using the STD Triage app and they will help diagnose it! The process is anonymously sent to a licensed dermatologist and users will receive a response within 24 hours. This is great if you are unable to make it to a clinic and have been Web-MDing “gonorrhea” for the last hour and are now sure you have it. But, as the site suggests, you should always get a check up done just in case.
So before you do anything too RASH (like telling your parents you have syphilis when you actually just have a canker sore making for a really, really awkward explanation of why you think you might have syphilis) (just saying, this can really happen, to anyone) you can send a quick pic using the app, and hope to get some relief!
The good news is that 70% of submitted cases aren’t STDs at all, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned. Did you talk to your partner about their STD status? Have you been checked recently? Did you use proper protection? You can check out this STD Risk Calculator and these other STD related apps that can help confirm your partners “all good under the hood” status. But make sure you always ASK & WRAP in the future!
And just in case, here is a list of all the Sexual Health Clinics in Toronto!