| Re: Do girls usually get tested for std's and such when they get birth control pills?
A normal gynecological exam, the type women get once a year, the type that a girl is likely to get at a clinic when she is getting a prescription for birth control pills, consists of only a manual pelvic exam (the doctor looks at her reproductive organs and puts his hand inside to feel around), possibly a manual breast exam, and a PAP test, where some surface cells are scraped off the cervix and sent to a lab to be analyzed.
What this PAP test is checking for is cervical cancer. That is all it checks for.
Cervical cancer (or the pre-cancerous condition known as "dysplasia") is often caused by an STD called HPV, Human Papilloma Virus, which is the same virus that causes genital warts.
Now, often during a routine exam, a doctor will ask the patient whether she wants to be tested for HIV and other STDs.
And if, in the course of the manual/ visual exam, the doctor sees or feels something that appears to him to be symptomatic of an STD (genital warts, for instance, or herpes sores, or an unusual discharge, or something of that nature) the doctor might strongly advise the patient to submit to an STD test.
But, other than that: no.
STD testing is not a routine part of an ordinary gynecological exam. You can get a prescription for birth control without being tested for STDs. STD testing is something extra, that is usually done at the patient's request.
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