It happens. You’re at the Christmas office party. It’s 11 pm. You’ve just had 3 shots of Jagermeister. The DJ puts on George Michael’s Careless Whisper  and before you know it, you’re in the broom cupboard with Dave from IT / Sandra from accounts.  Then you spend a few weeks dealing with the awkwardness and avoiding people in corridors, spend a few more weeks thinking about Christmas presents, get through Christmas, get some Winter sun in January if you’re lucky, wonder about whether you’ll get a Valentine’s card in February… wait a minute. What happened to your check-up? No-one likes talking about STIs. “Boo! Party-pooper!” I hear you shouting. But I’m a party-pooper who cares about you.

Let’s say you picked something up. The likelihood is that it will be a simple bacterial infection or something like chlamydia or gonorrhoea which is easily treated. Problem is, if you leave it untreated, it will start to cause problems. And quite serious problems.

Even more serious infections can be sorted if caught early.

Don’t take chances. No-one is saying don’t have fun but please, try to be safe, and if you weren’t, get checked out. And do it quickly.