How Often Should You Get Tested for STIs? The CDC’s Actual Schedule

There is an actual schedule, published by the CDC, and it is more specific than “get tested regularly.” Most men either do nothing or ask for a test that misses the sites they are most likely to be infected at.

What STI tests should everyone have at least once?

Two tests are recommended for essentially the whole adult population regardless of behaviour, and both are commonly skipped.

HIV. Once, for everyone aged 13 to 64, on an opt-out basis, meaning it should be offered as routine rather than requested. The USPSTF frames it as ages 15 to 65. This is a one-time baseline for people at low ongoing risk, and more often for anyone with continuing exposure.

Hepatitis C. At least once in a lifetime for all adults 18 and over. This one catches people by surprise because it is not primarily sexually transmitted, but it is common, frequently silent for decades, and now curable with a course of tablets.

Hepatitis B testing is recommended for anyone at increased risk, which includes men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people from regions of high endemicity, people on haemodialysis, and anyone immunocompromised or living with HIV.

How often should you get tested for STIs?

The clearest schedule in the guidelines is for men who have sex with men, and it is worth reproducing exactly.

“Higher risk” in the guidelines means multiple or anonymous partners, sex in conjunction with drug use, or partners who do either. It is a description of circumstances, not a judgement about them.

For heterosexual men there is no equivalent routine screening recommendation, and that is a genuine gap rather than an oversight. The USPSTF concluded that the evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of chlamydia and gonorrhea screening in men, because the trials that would settle it have not been done. Meanwhile the screening recommendation for women under 25 is annual and graded B.

The practical reading: if you are a heterosexual man with new or multiple partners, nobody is going to schedule this for you, and an annual test is a reasonable thing to ask for on your own initiative.

Related: All STI articles

Why is a urine test not enough?

This is the single most useful thing on this page.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea do not only infect the urethra. They infect the throat and the rectum, those infections are usually completely symptomless, and a urine test cannot detect them. It samples one site.

If oral or anal sex is part of your life, the swabs need to be taken from those sites specifically: a throat swab and a rectal swab, in addition to urine. In many settings you will not be offered them unless you say so, and in some you can self-collect them.

Pharyngeal gonorrhea matters beyond the individual case: the throat is thought to be an important reservoir for antimicrobial resistance, because the organism sits there alongside other bacteria and swaps genetic material with them.

What is not included in a standard STI panel?

Herpes. Blood testing for HSV is not part of routine screening for people without symptoms. The reason is not squeamishness. It is that a positive antibody result does not tell you where the infection is, when you acquired it, or whether you will transmit it, and false positives are a real problem. If you have a symptom, that gets swabbed. Screening asymptomatic people is not recommended.

HPV. There is no approved routine HPV test for men. What exists for men is prevention: the HPV vaccine, which the CDC describes as among the most effective methods of preventing transmission. Vaccination is the intervention, not testing.

So “I had the full panel and it was clear” generally means clear of chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV, and usually hepatitis. It is not a statement about herpes or HPV.

How long after exposure should you get tested?

Screening on a schedule and testing after a particular event are different problems. For the second, the window period governs.

Testing before the window has passed produces a negative that means nothing. If the exposure is recent and high risk, that is a same-day conversation about HIV post-exposure prophylaxis rather than a test, PEP has to start within 72 hours to work. For bacterial STIs there is a separate after-sex antibiotic, doxy-PEP, with its own limits.

Where should you get tested?

Public STI clinics and health department services are generally free or low cost, do this all day, and will not need persuading to swab a throat. Primary care can order the same tests but may not think to test extragenital sites unless asked.

Mail-in kits are legitimate for the common bacterial infections and are a reasonable option if the alternative is not testing at all. Check what sites the kit covers before buying. Many are urine-only, which brings you back to the problem above.

Whatever route you take, ask for the results in writing, and note which sites were sampled.

If something does come back positive, the treatment is usually straightforward and the harder part is the conversation, including the options that let a health department make it for you. And if your question is really about prevention rather than detection, what condoms do and do not cover is the more useful page.

This article is for information only and is not medical advice. It cannot account for your individual circumstances. Talk to a doctor about your own situation, particularly before starting or stopping any prescription medication.