How often do YOU get tested?

[newalaan2]

On my last visit to Thailand in Jan/Feb this year I met up with some current and former board members. One gentleman, a previous contributor here, now a regular on another gay Thailand forum had an unfortunate run-in with a Sexually Transmitted Infection which has turned into a challenge to overcome. He told me about his problem back in February just during a casual conversation about bar boys and how you can know if their bar insists on regular testing, but seemed happy to offload some things which had become bottled-up. He is comfortable about my posting about it as he would like to think his experience may help another avoid his predicament. His problem is known to one or two expats, just to assure them if they read here that he has asked me to make this post.

He is a regular visitor but stays 4 months at a time, with 4 months back home and in his time in Pattaya has regular liaisons mostly with lads for repeats and doesn't have many new boys. He admits that he doesn't get tested regularly for STi's despite having many different sexual partners. Anyway, he was infected during a trip and developed very, very minor symptoms which could, and were, put down to other things. However some persisted and when back in England he got tested for HIV/STi's with the result he was positive for syphilis. He only stays in Pattaya when in Thailand so he is certain that is where he picked up the infection. If this infection is picked up quickly from the primary symptoms apparently a couple of Penicillin jabs sees it off. Unfortunately because his symptoms were so mild and not specific, he missed the primary opportunity to have it detected and it continued on to a secondary stage where it can either lay dormant in the body or continue to infect you, which it did to him. By all accounts syphilis is a nasty infection which if untreated can affect eyes, nervous system, leading to neurological problems as well other more serious long term problems which he is starting to experience now.

He underwent 2 weeks of intense large volume penicillin-based treatments in England, but it has already affected his eyesight and nervous system, not yet very seriously but some damage already. He cannot pinpoint which of the boys was the source, but he advised the ones he knew to get tested urgently. He doesn't engage in very risky practices, but his consultant advised that when syphilis is at the primary stage of infection it is very highly infectious when body to body contact is made with any 'sores'. His consultant advised that if contact is made with an infectious person at this stage it is very easy to contract, much more so than say....HIV. His main symptom (in hindsight) was a slight 'itch' at the primary stage and easily missed, only way to know for sure if you have been infected is by getting tested regularly for all common STi's/HIV.

Even though I have had a boyfriend in Thailand for several years I still get tested fairly regularly, as I do enjoy oil massages and although never full sex there are happy endings now and again in which there is sexual contact. I get tested back in UK after a trip (not after every trip. but probably should!) it's free and there are plenty of walk-in clinics for testing in most cities. Quick blood test, takes about 15 mins as there is always a partner/sexual history form to fill in. Results in a few days, or you can ask for instant-result HIV test if you are sure of timelines.

So the question is.....how often do you get tested?

It is a subject rarely discussed on the forums but must be an important and relevant subject given the amount of partners many guys have when in Pattaya for a once/twice a year holiday/visits. I would imagine expats who have regular sexual liaisons would also have a regular testing regime. Probably many want to enjoy their Thailand visits and post mostly positive and fun to look forward to contributions, but I thought it worth posting this cautionary tale as it had a possibly serious outcome, all for the sake of not bothering to or not thinking about getting tested regularly.

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[TravellerDave]

I always go to Pattaya Memorial Hospital in Pattaya during my regular visits for tests.
Im a typical gay sex monger having multiple sex partners whilst there. Afew years ago I did have occasional unprotected anal sex both top and bottom. I got away with it and my tests have always been negative. Not now.
I do have oral sex sans condom and like boys to cum in my mouth. Afterwards I rinse with Listerine but wonder if this does any good. Im never clear what risks I am running.

[Manforallseasons]

I do have oral sex sans condom and like boys to cum in my mouth. Afterwards I rinse with Listerine but wonder if this does any good. Im never clear what risks I am running.

Thank you for sharing that.

[Manforallseasons]

newalaan since you and your boyfriend are not mutually exclusive as you live apart most of the time I hope you ask him to be tested as well If not for his sake at least for yours.

[anonone]

Nice post, newalaan.

I am guilty of not being tested as often as I probably should. Time to make some time on the calendar.

[Nirish guy]

Great post and something that considering the amount of fucking that goes on by some on the board is never talked about quite enough and just seems to get brushed under the carpet somewhat as opposed to being treated as what could almost by just a mere normal holiday injury claim by some lol.

I do try to ensure I get tested fairly regularly both because on trips and at home activity, usually at least 3 times a year or so ( or maybe 4 times if I've been pushing it) on average, this usually falls a few weeks before a trip and then about 3 or 4 months after ( which of course is the optimum time re the whole HIV side of things and don't be tempted to go and get your HIV test the week after you get home and think "great I'm fine" when you get an all clear as HIV can of course take up to 3 months to show on a test after infection. So to be able to say "yep, I'm definitely all clear" after a trip ( but that won't of course relate to any sex you've then had in those previous 3 months) it's best to wait - unless of course you think you've been exposed to something where in that case get right down to your local GUM clinic, Doctors or hospital and get PEP tablet treatment urgently if you need it and definitely within the maximum 72 hour time window that exists for that to be effective !

Thankfully over all my trips I've only had three "incidents", one was many years ago in babylon Sauna, where after a hearty fuck my condom had burst and when I asked the guy about his status he just looked at me and sort of laughed and walked away, thankfully I was flying home later that day anyway and based on his reaction I literally went straight from the airport to my local hospital GUM clinic and they gave me PEP and all was fine, I'll never know if the guy even had HIV or not of course but something just didn't feel right and it was of course better to be safe than sorry. I also had a scare a few years later when I guy I'd been fucking and doing all sorts with very up close and personal stuff with (but never unsafely) admitted after a particularly heavy session ( being blunt with cum everywhere etc) that he actually had HIV and had had it all the while we'd been fucking over those years doing all sorts of stuff. Now to be honest then I was less clued up about HIV transmission than i might be now perhaps and so down more to my own ignorance at the time I freaked out a little, but thankfully both after getting tested both in BKK Hospital and back at home ( yes I over reacted a little as in hind sight the "actual" risk was quite low), but it was still there and it really hit it home to me that no matter WHO you're with or for how long you should never just "assume" ( or even trust when n being told) that they are in fact negative and thankfully my condom use for those years saved my bacon and now I simply have sex with all my partners on the basis that they ARE in fact positive and take it from there which makes like a lot easier.

Likewise it should be noted that all the condom use over the years has also no doubt saved me from picking up god knows what other STI's, as HIV is of course not the only STI kicking around out there now unfortunately and theres a host of other nasties just waiting to catch us all out just that one time we might think "ah fuck it, I'm sure it'll be fine, sure I've known this guy for years now" ( but you haven't of course known who he was fucking last night before you arrived).

Actually on that point and for the sake of transparency and again to make it a subject we should cry away from or be embarrassed about and to make it the open and discussable subject as it always should be for us here, I'll can also tell you than after my last trip there I actually came home with a mild touch of Chlamydia from someone kind soul it seems ! I say mild as I hardly even noticed it and even the first test came back negative at the start and it was only after a little stinging when I pee'd and another test that it flagged it up and even then the Doc and I both thought it was just a reaction to cream he'd given me for a different minor skin infection I'd had ( a non sexual I should add).

I'm guessing I probably picked it up in Bali actually perhaps but I can't be sure as I was both there and in Pattaya in the same two week period and had been "busy" on both places, but it certainly gave me some explaining to do to my BF here when I got home, where of course I instantly tried my best to blame it all entirely on him for him no doubt being out screwing all around him while I was away ( as you do :-) but I was screwed when his test came back clear ! OOOPS ! . But thankfully it ended up as no big deal ( well except to said BF ) and it was I'm guessing probably just a result of an unlucky suck or a finger in the wrong hole ( quite literally it seems!) and one quick one week course of antibiotics and that was it all cleared up - but again it did just remind me that even thought that's the first "actual" infection I've caught in well over 20 plus years (Gonorrhoea when I was 18 - what can I say I was an early starter ) if did remind me that whilst it was "only" Chlamydia' ( this time) it could just as easily have been anything else and so the need for both safe sex and regular testing is still paramount, especially when you're undertaking the activities that some of us here might be engaging in.

Right, that's my walk of shame over lol - and if I'm the only one on the board who in over 20 plus years has ever caught anything then so be it and you're all lucky guys ( but I don't believe a word of it !) : lol

So, the simple message is wrap up and get tested regularly as you just don't know WHAT unexpected and unwrapped holiday gifts you could end bringing home for your loved ones !

[aot871]

Where is a quick and easy place to get tested in pattaya , and no trouble beliving in the results , , this is Thailand after all, What should the cost be ?

[Manforallseasons]

As a side note when was the last time you had a hepititis B inoculation and a booster.....there still is no cure and the L.O.S. Is high on the list.

Danger ! - Hepatitis B | Bumrungrad hospital | Bangkok Thailand
https://www.bumrungrad.com/.../hepatiti ... ns-in-th...
The hepatitis B virus has been around for generations, but it receives ... While hepatitis A is the most prevalent, it goes away on its own and does not ... Thailand has one of the highest rates of infection; nine million Thais have the HBV virus.

[goji]

As a side note when was the last time you had a hepititis B inoculation and a booster.....there still is no cure and the L.O.S. Is high on the list.

Thank you for the warning. They seem to recommend boosters every 5 years & I was last done about 8 years ago.

[christianpfc]

That would be a subject for a poll.

I got tested twice since I started to be sexually active in 2009. Time to get tested again soon, and more often.

I had pubic lice around Feb 2011, very easy to treat with a shave and some special shampoo from pharmacy. These lice can't survive more than 24 hours away from their host, I wonder why they haven't died out yet when treatment is so easy. I took me a week to realize what's going on, so I couldn't assign it to a particular boy.