Diagnostiki Athinon's Sexual Transmitted Disease Profile (CheckUp A5) includes molecular tests for 6 important microorganisms: Chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis), Gonococcus (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), Mycoplasma (Mycoplasma hominis), Ureaplasma (Ureaplasma urealyticum & Ureaplasma parvum), and Trichomonads (Trichomonas vaginalis).
Many patients do not receive immediately the appropriate treatment for sexually transmitted diseases because many of them have no symptoms or have quite a few non-specific symptoms, which makes them difficult to identify. The stigma surrounding STDs also discourages many people from being tested, but laboratory screening is the only way to clearly identify these diseases. If left untreated, they can cause serious health problems, such as infertility and damage to internal organs.
Who should be tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases?
Screening for Sexually Transmitted Diseases is important for:
- People who fear they may have been exposed to one or more of the diseases tested by this test profile
- People whose partner has been diagnosed with one of these diseases and wants to check their own condition
- People who have symptoms compatible with a sexually transmitted disease
How safe is the urine sample for the Sexually Transmitted Diseases test?
In the past, the procedure to check Sexually Transmitted Diseases was very inconvenient for patients (and doctors). Men suspected of having chlamydia or gonorrhea should have a urethral smear by a swab inserted into the urethra. The women had to undergo a gynecological examination and a sample was taken from the cervix. Now, these diseases and some others can be detected much more easily and very reliably from a urine sample in both sexes.
In addition, the samples taken directly from the cervix or urethra had to be cultured to diagnose chlamydial and gonococcal infections, while newer molecular techniques (PCR / LCR) only test for bacterial DNA. This type of test is sensitive even to very small amounts of bacterial DNA and does not require the microorganisms in the sample to be alive in order to detect them. Therefore, they can also analyze urine samples and not just urethral or cervical smears.
Questions about the effectiveness of tests for sexually transmitted diseases in a urine sample usually focus on women because the most common area of infection in women (cervix) is not in the pathway where urine passes out of the body.
A 2015 study that looked at other studies on the effectiveness of using different types of samples to detect chlamydia and gonorrhea found that:
- For chlamydia test in women, sensitivity and specificity were 87% and 99% for urine samples compared to cervical samples
- For chlamydia test in men, the sensitivity and specificity were 88% and 99% for urine samples compared to urethral samples
- For gonorrhea test in women, the sensitivity and specificity were 79% and 99% for urine samples compared to cervical samples
- For gonorrhea test in men, the sensitivity and specificity were 92% and 99% for urine samples compared to urethral samples
More Info
- For Women FemoScan® 6
- For Men AndroScan® 6
