Are you afraid you might have contracted an STD? Are you looking for some privacy when it comes to getting medical treatment? Are you wondering where you should go to get yourself tested?
The answer to those questions can be found in the form of an urgent care center. Urgent care centers are a type of walk-in clinic that bridges the gap between the emergency room and a full-on walk-in clinic. These days, any of your local urgent care locations offer treatments for a wide variety of common, everyday non-life-threatening ailments including fevers, colds, sprains, strains, sports injuries, back pain, dizziness and other things.
That list also includes STD testing. If you’re sexually active and you’re afraid you’ve contracted an STD, you’re probably worried, scared and wondering what comes next. Above all, you’re probably looking for a way to get a diagnosis with some degree of privacy. Urgent care locations can offer just that. Rather than having to visit an STD testing center, urgent care locations offer confidential testing for HIV, genital herpes, syphilis, hepatitis, gonorrhea and chlamydia among other things.
A trip to any of your local urgent care locations can give you the medical testing and treatment you need for a very serious and private medical issue. More than three million people visit urgent care locations all over the United States each week and they reap many benefits that visiting an urgent care offers. By going to an urgent care for STD testing, you’ll get:
- Discreet treatment: Let’s face it, if you think you’ve contracted an STD, you’re probably looking to avoid attention. At urgent care locations, you’ll get the treatment you need while saving yourself any potential embarrassment from your situation.
- Same-day treatment: If you’re noticing changes in your body as a result of an STD, you’re probably looking for a place that offers immediate medical treatment. You’ll get just that at local urgent care locations. You’ll be able to get treatment from experienced doctors, who will be able to offer you plenty of treatment options.
- Online booking: Rather than having to make a trek into a doctor’s office to book an appointment or wait on hold on the phone, you can book an appointment for STD online.
If you took a sexual education class in middle school or high school, you know just how important sexual health is and how serious STDs are. The statistics don’t lie:
- Half the people who contract STD are between 15-24
- Of that age range, only 12% of people get STD testing during a given year
- Nearly 20 million STDs occur annually
- 50% of sexually active people will contract an STD by 25
Visiting an urgent care for STD testing can be one of the best decisions you can make for your health. It’s discreet, you can receive same-day treatment and you can book appointments online. If you’re visiting an urgent care for testing, be sure to check with your insurance company to see whether it’s fully or partially covered. If it is covered, you’ll just have to pay the amount of your co-pay. If it’s not, you’ll be on the hook for the whole bill, but you’ll end up still paying less than if you went somewhere else.