STI's and me!

I tested positive for my first STI today!  Thankfully it was good ol' gonorrhea.  I wanted to share with you my experience as perhaps some of you may find it useful in your life.

*this was the funniest photo i could find for gonorrhea.

The big takeaways:

When you set up a good foundation of transparency and testing, telling people you have been sexually active with when something comes up becomes actually really not that big of a deal!

Getting regular testing ( I recommend every three months) makes it easy to keep track of things and keep up to date so that safer sex conversations with people are simple and straightforward.


The nitty gritty:

I've had symptoms similar to what I was experiencing this weekend once before, (it ended up being urethritis or essentially a male UTI as all my results when i got tested came back negative), so I wasn't too worried when I noticed something was different.  And thank god my only two encounters have been relatively mundane.  What my symptoms were, was that I noticed a sensation similar to pre-ejaculate coming out of the tip of penis, except I was not aroused or erect.  And when I checked, instead of it being a clear fluid, it was yellowish and opaque.  No pain, no sickness, nothing besides feeling like I hadn't quite finished peeing and still had a little left that wanted to come out.
For the record, a common cold has much more uncomfortable symptoms.  Granted the stigmas around sti's make our minds think we are better off dead than finding out we have an sti.  Take my word, life is still worth living even with sti's!


What happens:

• I notice symptoms.
• I go to my local clinic. 
• I tell them I am experiencing symptoms.
• I get tested for STIs and then see the doctor.
• The doctor talks with me then says he is going to treat me for gonorrhea and syphilis.
• The nurse comes in and gives me 4 small pills and also a shot in the butt cheek, which gets sore like a charlie horse and then that's it!
• I waited for the results, and found out I tested positive for gonorrhea rectally and negative for HIV and chlamydia.  I haven't received the oral or urine results yet.
• Then I call all partners I have been active with since my last tests results and share with them what I found out.
• After about 3 days since treatment my symptoms are almost all gone.  The fluid is now clear and very minimal.

The finale:

I am continually learning that our minds like to make a lot bigger deal out of things than they really are.  It is typically the unknown and fear that makes things seem so scary.

The antidote?  Being curious!  Asking questions, and learning about things typically reveals that things are a whole lot less scary than our minds had originally thought they were.

Want to know more about STI's and testing?  I made a site which you might find useful!

Lastly, if you see that I am misinformed or you have suggestions on how I can make this information better, please let me know.