9 sexual health services that you can get at home

Adapted from a story by Stephanie Auteri for The Washington Post.

We’re taught to feel shame around our sexuality from a young age, as our bodies develop and start to function in ways we’re unfamiliar with, as we begin to realize our body’s potential for pleasure. Later on, women especially are taught to feel ashamed if we want “too much” sex, or if we want it “too early,” or if we’re intimate with “too many” people. Conversely, women and men are shamed if we don’t want nearly as much sex as our partner, or if we’re inexperienced in bed. We worry that we won’t orgasm, or that we’ll do so too soon. We’re afraid the things we want to do in bed will elicit disgust.

This shame can also keep people from getting the health care they need.

For example, a 2016 study of college students found that, while women feel more embarrassed about buying condoms than men do, the whiff of mortification exists for both genders.
Another 2016 study found many women hide their use of health-care services from family and friends so as to prevent speculation about their sexual activity and the possibility that they have a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

Which may be why smartphone apps, at-home testing kits and other online resources have seen such growth in recent years.

Websites that let you video chat with medical specialists from your computer

Companies that allow you to order contraceptives from your home without going to the doctor for your prescription

L
Nurk

Companies with at-home STI testing kits

(These let you swab yourself at home, mail in your samples and receive the results on your phone.)

Service that allows women to monitor their vaginal health with at-home tests

SmartJane

What the research shows

One study built around a similar service that was still in development showed people 16 to 24 years old would get tested more often if the service was made available to them. They were intrigued by the ability to conceal STI testing from friends and family, and to avoid “embarrassing face-to-face consultations.”

The downsides

Mark Payson, a physician and co-founder of CCRM Northern Virginia, says these screening tests can have limits, noting that there can be false negatives or false positives, necessitating follow-up care.

“This type of testing, if integrated into an existing physician relationship, would be a great resource,” Payson says. “But for patients with more complex medical histories, the interactions of other conditions and medications may not be taken into account.”

Michael Nochomovitz, a New York Presbyterian physician, shows a similar level of restrained excitement. “The doctor-patient interaction has taken a beating,” Nochomovitz says. “Physicians don’t have an opportunity to really engage with patients and look them in the eye and talk to them like you’d want to be spoken to. The idea is that tech should make that easier, but in many cases, it makes it more difficult and more impersonal.”

The upside

While many will use these options as a means to replace those office visits entirely, their potential lies in the ability to improve the health care people receive.