What to expect

When you visit a sexual health clinic, the public health nurse may discuss the risk factors with you, such as:

• Having sexual contact with people with a known STI
• Being sexually active and under 25 years
• Having a new sexual contact or having had multiple sexual contacts in the past year
• Being street involved and/or homeless
• Being a sex worker
• Having anonymous sexual contacts
• Being a victim of sexual assault/abuse
• Injection drug use
• Using other substances such as alcohol or chemicals (e.g., cocaine, Ecstasy)
• Having a previous STI
• Not using contraception or sole use of non-barrier contraception

If you report one or more of the above-mentioned risk factors, you will be offered:

• STI/blood-borne infection education and counselling specific to your personal needs, and testing
• Contraception / birth control counseling
• Birth control at a reduced cost and/or free of charge if you are experiencing financial challenges
• Pregnancy tests and comprehensive pregnancy counseling
• Post-abortion counseling and referral;
• Counseling, diagnosis, treatment, and management of STIs, including Pap test
• Counseling, testing, and referrals for blood-borne infections
• Vaccines at no cost according to provincial eligibility criteria
• Condoms at no cost
• If necessary, access to harm-reduction supplies through needle and syringe exchange programs – and potentially other harm-reduction counselling

If you require, a health care provider may discuss with you specifics of your situation and will provide counseling and referrals to other health care and social services.