The Better2Know Blog

Welcome to another instalment of Better2Know’s Patient Stories.

At Better2Know, we believe that sharing personal experiences can help break down the stigma many people feel around getting tested for STIs. We’ve gathered stories from people who have been tested to inspire and encourage others to take this important step for their sexual health.

Certain names and details in these stories have been altered.

Weight loss jabs are all the rage these days. Popular brands like Wegovy and Ozempic have been sweeping across America and Europe, giving many people who struggle with weight loss hope of achieving a healthy body weight.

But these jabs can produce drastic changes to your body. What changes will these medications make?

Better2Know has developed a comprehensive 12-month health monitoring program for anyone taking weight loss jabs. This program uses simple at-home blood tests to monitor key health markers during your weight loss journey.

Keep reading to find out more.

New data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reveals a concerning trend in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) transmission between 2023 and 2024.

While the data did contain some good news, like a decrease in Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea diagnoses, there was a noticeable uptick in Syphilis cases nationwide, with a stark rise in the number of cases found in heterosexual people, particularly heterosexual men.

Keep reading to find out more.

In a world first, England will be the first country in the world to vaccinate people for Gonorrhoea, one of the most common STIs in the world.

In a statement released on 21 May 2025, the NHS predicted that thousands of cases could be prevented over the next decade, saving millions of pounds in care costs.

Launching in August 2025, the vaccination program with focus on those who are most at risk. The vaccine will be delivered through sexual health clinics.

Eligible people will also be offered Mpox, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and HPV vaccines when getting their Gonorrhoea vaccine.

If you’re a man of middle age, you might be thinking about your risk of developing prostate cancer in the future.

But how do you know if you’ll get it?

This is the million-dollar question. Fortunately, a new low-cost genetic test may provide an answer.

Keep reading to find out more.

The UK has maintained a comprehensive and effective vaccine strategy to combat HPV for many years. However, recent evidence indicates that the uptake of this vaccine has slowed, raising questions about the country’s future response to cervical cancer.

But what’s going on? Keep reading to find out more.

It might be difficult to imagine two conditions more different than Herpes and Alzheimer’s. How could they have anything in common?

Well, it turns out that a mounting body of evidence shows a strong connection between these two diseases, and scientists are discovering more about it every day.

Keep reading to learn more.

We know that getting tested for an STI can be an important moment in anyone’s life. We’ve seen firsthand the positive changes that can come from receiving a diagnosis, and how people have taken action for their own health and the health of their loved ones as a result.

Climate change remains one of the most pressing challenges of the modern age. The continuous injection of carbon dioxide and other fossil fuels into our atmosphere threatens to degrade ecosystems, increase the number of extreme weather events, and destabilise access to all kinds of resources, like fresh water, food, arable land, and more.

Better2Know recognises the challenges climate change poses to our world. We’re therefore committing to a strategy that will achieving Net Zero emissions within our business by 2050.

One of the perennial challenges of STI testing remains the testing process itself. For lots of people, getting tested for STIs can be inconvenient and laced with stigma.  When faced with the prospect of having to pee into a cup, get blood drawn, and swab their genitals, many people would easily opt to roll the dice and not get tested at all.

But what if there was a small, inexpensive household item, something that many people use every day, that could tell you whether you have an STI?

That’s the idea behind a new study published in BMC Women’s Health. Researchers wanted to explore the effectiveness of using tampons to test for STIs that could seriously damage a woman’s health.

Keep reading to find out more.

This article first appeared on 11/03/2022. Last updated 04/04/2025.

Sexual hygiene plays a vital role in your overall health and well-being that often doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. It involves practices that help prevent infections, promote comfort, and support your reproductive health.

Let’s dive into the essentials of sexual hygiene and discover how it can contribute to a healthier, happier you.

New research from The New England Journal of Medicine has shed new light on how Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) spreads between people, and may up-end how health professionals categorise the infection.

So, what could this mean for you? Keep reading to find out.

This blog was first published on 10/06/2022. Last updated 14/03/2025.

Sex comes with risks. From unwanted pregnancies to STIs, having sex without taking proper precautions can feel like stepping onto a road without looking both ways. You might be OK, but would you do it?

So, it makes sense that people would have questions about the dangers of sex, and in particular about the infections that can seriously damage your health.

For decades now, HIV has been the STI bogeyman that has spooked so many people out of having sex. It makes sense that people who are worried about it would want to know how they can get it.

While most people know that you can get HIV from sex, oral sex seems to be a blind spot in most people’s knowledge.

Can HIV be transmitted through oral sex?

The answer is a bit complicated.  Keep reading to find out more.

This blog originally appeared on 15/01/2021. Last updated 07/03/2025.

Feeling itchy anywhere on your body is never pleasant, and when it happens down below, it can be particularly concerning.

If you’ve experienced vaginal itching after sex, you might immediately think it’s due to a sexually transmitted infection (STI). While this is a possibility, there can be many other causes.

So, what can cause an itchy vagina? Let’s explore some potential reasons.

If you’re worried about STIs, you probably want to get tested in a way that makes you feel most comfortable.

While Better2Know offers our patients a wide selection of sexual health clinics where they can get tested, we also see high demand for our home testing kits.

And we’ve noticed something that others have: many younger people prefer getting tested at home.

But why is this? Let’s dive in.

A report has painted a worrying picture of the infection rates of certain STIs on the European continent.

According to the latest data from the ECDC, released on February 10, 2025, the rates of bacterial infections like Gonorrhoea and Syphilis have increased once again across the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA).

In order to ramp up efforts to end the transmission of HIV in England, the UK Government announced on 11 February 2025 £1.5 million to fund further public health campaigns.

This additional funding is aimed at increasing testing rates, reducing stigma, tackling health disparities, and raising awareness of HIV and its effects.

The Government hopes to end all transmissions of the virus by 2030. It has also announced that it will extend the national HIV prevention programme – HIV Prevention England – by a year.

Terrance Higgins Trust and local partners will deliver this campaign – organisations that carry out important work to increase testing for people disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS.

When it comes to protecting your sexual health, one of your best allies is the trusty, reliable condom. This small piece of rubber is the best way for most people to enjoy the pleasures of sex without many of the risks involved.

But condoms aren’t perfect, and there are a lot of misconceptions out there about how to use them correctly. One of the most concerning misconceptions is that people can reuse condoms.

So, why is this a bad idea? Let’s get into it.

When most people think about getting an STI, do they think about getting it twice? Probably not. But it’s possible.

One STI we should consider carefully when discussing reinfection is HPV. While many people know what HPV is and how they can get it, many don’t contemplate the possibility of getting it a second time.

Is this something you should be concerned about? Keep reading to find out!

When we talk about sexual health, it can be difficult to separate myths from facts. Some pieces of common advice remain genuinely helpful over the years. Others, less so.

One common piece of advice that often circulates is the idea that peeing after sex can help prevent STIs. But how much truth is there to this claim? Can these pesky infections be purged by peeing?

Keep reading to find out!

New terms that describe age-old human behaviours seem to pop up online every day.

While most of these terms describe largely benign behaviours, like “ghosting” and “snowmanning”, some describe behaviours that are, in fact, troubling and dangerous.

“Stealthing” is a term that comes up often when talking about new sexual encounters. Is it something you need to worry about?

Let’s find out together.

The vast majority of public knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is based on the most common infections: Chlamydia, HIV, and Gonorrhoea.

Even with these infections, misconceptions can be widespread. Better2Know is often contacted by many patients who have been given incorrect or incomplete information about these infections, leading them to mistaken conclusions that may contribute to harming their health.

A less-common infection, Trichomonas, can be even more problematic in this regard. The lack of detailed public information aboutthis infection, can sow mistaken impressions about how it spreads.

In particular, Better2Know’s phone lines have come alight with questions recently about whether someone can get Trichomonas on their own – without any sexual activity.

Is this possible? Keep reading to find out

From “ghosting” and “breadcrumbing” to “love-bombing” and “cushioning,” ingenious internet denizens are hard at work categorising new behaviours people may encounter while dating online.

Although all these new terms may have arisen in the last few years, they describe actions that have long been common among courting couples. Labelling these behaviours can help us understand confusing situations better and give us tools for responding to them.

So, what’s “snowmanning”, and how is it related to STIs?

Keep reading to find out more.

Working out in the gym can seem a lot like sex. Your heart rate’s elevated, hormones are flying all over the place, and you’re probably a bit sweaty by the end of the session.

Lots of bodily fluids get thrown around in the gym. With all these fluids flying around, some people might wonder if it’s possible to get an STI, say, from using gym equipment.

Recent concerns have appeared on social media sites like TikTok surrounding the possibility of getting STIs like Chlamydia from their gym equipment and using items like towels left on certain surfaces. These concerns seemed to focus on how some people use gym equipment without having their genitals completely covered.

So, what’s going on here? Is it possible to get an STI from gym equipment?

Keep reading to find out more.

When you think of things you want to get for the holidays, most people picture a lovely scarf, a new gadget, or a gift card to a nice restaurant.

They tend not to think about getting an STI.

However, for many people over the holidays, this ends up being the case.

The rate of STI transmission tends to rise during the festive period, between early to mid-December and the first weeks of the new year. Holidays of all kinds can lead to an increased transmission of STIs, for a variety of reasons.

But why does this happen? Keep reading to find out.

For several years, chemsex has been on the radar of public health agencies in the UK and around the world.

While chemsex itself is nothing new, more modern iterations of the practice have given rise to certain behaviours that can put participants at risk.

But what are these behaviours, and why should you know about chemsex?

Keep reading to find out.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) drew attention in May to a stark rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in many parts of the world, with more than a million new cases being recorded each day.

The problem was deemed particularly bad in the US, which has one of the highest prevalences of STIs in the developed world. Since 2000, cases of Chlamydia have doubled, and cases of Gonorrhoea have increased by 40% in the same time frame. Most startlingly, Syphilis cases increased by 400%. These cases were largely recorded in young people aged 20 to 34.

The rise of dating apps during this time has only helped exacerbate this problem, and a new study has shown how this has happened.

Don’t leave your sexual health to chance. Get a comprehensive health STI check with Better2Know’s Platinum Screen.

How dating apps can help spread STIs

The internet has created all sorts of new ways to help people court and develop new romantic relationships over the last 25 years. While early versions of dating sites were deemed the preserve of the desperate and the lonely, that all changed with the widespread adoption of smartphones in the early 2010s and the dating applications that were developed soon after, like Tinder, Bumble, OKCupid, Grindr, and others. The average person suddenly had several channels to meet new people.

A new study published in Frontiers in Reproductive Health shows how the use of such apps can facilitate the spread of STIs.

The study

In 2022, Dr Jaquetta Reeves, assistant professor at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at the University of Texas in Arlington, and her colleagues used an anonymous online questionnaire to interview 122 young adult college students between 19 and 35 years old. The students were predominantly from northern Texas.

The students were asked if they had ever used a dating app and then invited to give information about their sexual behaviour. This information included their total number of sexual partners, how they used sexual health clinics on campus, any prior STIs, and whether they engaged in unprotected sex. They were also asked if they had met any sexual partners on dating apps, whether they were in a committed relationship, or if they were in open relationships or had “friends with benefits”.

Dating app use was more common among White (47%) than Black (12%) students, more common among men (64%) than women (33%), and more common among heterosexual people (86%) than those who identified as gay or bisexual (14%).

What did it show?

The study showed differences between students who used the apps and those who never used them:

• Those who admitted to having more than one sexual partner during the previous year were more than two times more likely to use an app for dating than those with only one partner.
• Participants who reported having sex in combination with alcohol were around 1.5 times more likely to use an app.
• Those whose first sexual encounter took place between the ages of 16 and 19 were 1.5 times more likely to use an app than those whose first sexual encounter came later.
• Students who had gotten STI testing at their campus clinic were almost 2 times more likely to use an app.
• Students who had tested positive for HIV were 33% more likely to use an app.

What does it mean?

Reeves and her colleagues concluded that there was a significant positive association between the use of dating apps and engagement in risky sexual behaviours among the students who used them. But which is the chicken, and which is the egg?

In all likelihood, the causality between risky sexual behaviours and dating app use likely flows both ways. It’s easy to find casual partners on dating apps, which can lead to risky behaviours like unprotected sex. On the other hand, people who are already engaging in risky sexual activities might use dating apps to find like-minded people.

Final thoughts

The conclusions drawn from Reeves are quite clear:

“The study highlights a significant association between dating app use and engagement in condomless sexual activity among college students. University health clinics play a critical role in providing sexual health services and can enhance their impact by expanding access to testing, contraception, and inclusive, sex-positive education. Future research should explore the long-term effects of dating app use on sexual health and evaluate the effectiveness of app-based interventions in promoting safer sexual practices.”

If you’re concerned about a recent sexual encounter you’ve had through a dating app, you can get tested with Better2Know. Browse our home test kits or book an appointment at a sexual health clinic by clicking the button below.

Get to know your sexual health with Better2Know.

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This article has been medically reviewed by Dr. Steve Chapman, 22/01/2025.

With World AIDS Day coming up on December 1, we thought we’d shine a light on the state of HIV in the world today and the progress being made fighting the infection, both in the UK and around the world.

Who hasn’t used ChatGPT? The popular large language model (LLM) has been the fastest-adopted application in the history of the internet, and hundreds of millions of people worldwide use it every day, along with AI models from its competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic. 

But what do people actually use these LLMs for? A question that becomes particularly relevant to us as Better2Know is whether people are using these LLMs to self-diagnose STIs.

It’s a fascinating topic. Read on to find out more.

Sexually active people need to be aware of another infection that could plague their sex lives.

While STIs tend to be caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites, a new pathogen has entered the arena.

What’s is this new infection? Let’s find out!