STD drama and a clinic in London?

May 8, 2009 3:08 PM

My boyfriend's gonorrhea throat swab came back "equivocal/inconclusive." He's been retested, but results will take two weeks. Meanwhile, I'm arriving to visit him in two weeks and ... we would like to be intimate. Help!

He's in London. I'm in the States. I'm going to visit him in two weeks. I'm not worried about unfaithfulness; that's not the issue at all. (We haven't been dating for very long and he got the test just before we got together. They took a REALLY long time to get back to him with this result.)

Normally, they would just give him penicillin to swallow and be done with it. But he's allergic to penicillin. The doctor said that they could give him a shot instead, but that he wouldn't give him the shot without an actual positive result.

So basically I'll be arriving the day he gets his test result. If it turns out to be negative, that's fine.

If it's positive, then he'll have to get the shot. How long would it take for that shot to clear things up so that we're good to go again?

It would also be great if we could find a clinic in London that would do same-day or at least fairly quick results for a gonorrhea throat swab. That way he could find out early next week whether or not he has it and be all cleared up by the time I arrive.

(And, yes, I'll be getting tested again too, but the clinic I go to has same-day results. So it's not a big deal.)

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (7 comments total)

That wait is not surprising with NHS. Time to ditch the NHS and go private. Off to Harley Street you go! This walk-in clinic is £85 for the appt and £75 for the 24 hour gonorrhea test. Pricey, yes. Do you want to have sex? Yes. For these sorts of things and fast results and people actually paying attention to you, go private. (From someone who lived in London for years.)
posted by meerkatty at 3:17 PM on May 8

Hands are healing things sometimes when the situation merits
posted by Freedomboy at 3:18 PM on May 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

Pardon my noesyness, but do you know why they suspect gonorrhea and not strept, thrush, herpes or any of the many other things which typically show up in throats?

In my experience, many doctors will try to treat a serious bacterial infection as quickly as possible, even before a culture comes back. When I had a sore throat, and my doctor strongly suspected strept (from the odor) and prescribed antibiotics to take before the culture came back (it came back positive for strept). When my friend had a sore throat, the physician at the local STD clinic suspected gonorrhea and gave him a Z-pack (Azithromycin) to take while they ran a culture. In the end it turned out that he had the flu, and not something bacterial.
posted by ladypants at 3:40 PM on May 8

Dental dams? Unsexy, but maybe less frustrating than no sex. Or gonorrhea.
posted by hattifattener at 3:43 PM on May 8

Do they suspect that he has it in his genitals, also? If not, you guys could always be intimate sans mouth contact. No kissing, etc. Not as romantic, but better than nothing.
posted by ishotjr at 5:34 PM on May 8

Genders would be helpful here. I'm in no doubt your boyfriend is a boy. And you are...?
posted by DarlingBri at 8:47 PM on May 8

Lateral thinking: Gonorrhea is curable! You could intentionally get it from him (if it even turns out he has it), and then get treated!
posted by trevyn at 11:54 PM on May 8