Ask Aunt ABby: the morning-after STD test

Time: Surprisingly complicated!

Spring has sprung here at Abortioneers HQ, and there's a new feature on the block! You've got questions. We've got answers. And we received a comment that may or may not deserve its own post.

After reading VV's post on the importance of Backing Up Your Birth Control, Virginia commented:
So much concern about getting pregnant and been able to terminate it...what about getting HIV and STDs while having unprotected sex, do you go check if you got those as fast as you go get a day after pill??


Dear Virginia,

It's hard to tell if you're being snarky or simply not very knowledgeable. Either way, welcome to our new advice column, and thanks for giving us an opportunity to clear up potential misconceptions!

Testing for STIs the morning after unprotected sex (especially HIV, which can take up to 6 months to be detectable) is like testing for pregnancy the morning after unprotected sex -- you won't get a positive result when you test that soon, even though you're not in the clear. So to directly answer your question: No, of course you don't "go check if you got those as fast as you go get a day after pill" [AKA the morning-after pill, emergency contraception, EC, the brand-name Plan B, or any number of generic-label names], as you put it. You literally CAN'T do it right away; whereas with the morning-after pill, you MUST.

That's why, instead of rushing out for a meaningless "morning-after HIV test," many people make it a habit to seek testing at regular intervals. I usually do mine at my yearly physical, because I consider it part of a complete checkup. Many providers suggest you only need to test when exposure is suspected, for example IF you had unprotected sex in the past 6 months or year and haven't yet had a test in that time.

Contraception, on the other hand, is important to seek out as soon as possible after unprotected sex, in order to prevent ovulation -- because that's how ALL birth control pills work, including emergency contraception. The longer you delay, the more time for ovulation to occur, and if it does, then EC won't work and you're left at risk for pregnancy. (This is why taking a regular birth control daily is still most effective -- you've targeted ovulation BEFORE the approach of sperm even begins.) If you miss that window and one of your ovaries does release an egg into its fallopian tube, then at that point all you can do is wait a couple weeks to see if a pregnancy does result, and if so, then (potentially) seek abortion care.

It's important to realize that the "morning after pill" is NOT the same as "getting pregnant and be[ing] able to terminate it." You can only use the morning-after pill to PREVENT pregnancy, and it's only effective in the first 5 days after unprotected sex; abortion, on the other hand, can only take place AFTER pregnancy has begun.

I sure do hope this helps, Virginia. Feel free to follow up with lingering questions, and definitely feel free to share this knowledge with your friends and family.

Yours,

Placenta Sandwich
VP of Taking You At Face Value
Head Know-It-All
Abortioneers

Abortioneer gone AWOL

I’m graduating from graduate school in three weeks. When I applied to my public health program almost three years ago I wrote my personal statement about my abortion clinic. I will be starting a part-time public health doctoral program in the Fall and I also wrote my personal statement for this application about abortion. Yet, the full time job I have accepted is working with persons living with HIV/AIDS. There were a lot of factors that went into my decision to accept an ostensibly non-reproductive health job. I did not make the decision quickly or lightly, but I still feel some sadness that I won’t be working day-to-day in reproductive health and specifically abortion. I know a job is not necessarily a lifetime commitment, but I do envision staying somewhere for awhile. I can also pursue whatever I want in my doctoral program and dissertation, but it doesn’t feel like enough. Part of me thinks I was a fraud on my personal statements for going on and on about how I wanted to learn skills and gain knowledge to improve this field. But, how could I have known when I applied where I would end up three years later?

Then I think back to the times when I was a full-time paid abortioneer. I worked at a non-profit clinic usually 50 hours a week and even during my time off I was immersed in abortion (rallies, volunteer positions, fielding phone calls from staff, baking fetus cookies, etc). Frankly, I got burned out. It was too much. When I moved up here for school I started abortion patient hosting as a way to stay connected, but not too connected. I get to compartmentalize my abortioneering and host when it works with my schedule. These last few months I have held an internship on a teen pregnancy prevention program which has brought me back to the field I love, but I sit in an office and plan evaluations and interventions. There is little talk of laminaria, or medical abortions, or LMPs, or even fetus jokes.

Every time I get a call from our patient hosting coordinator I smile, knowing I get to head to an abortion clinic and pick up a woman and essentially “do my thing”. I love entering the clinic…I love feeling a part of it all. I love how connected the staff are, and that knowledge that every day you leave work you significantly helped someone change their life. I remember one weekend I spent 2 days at a clinic waiting for a woman who traveled alone from Canada. The clinic had undergone some renovations and their heat was not working properly and it was January. I huddled on the floor with my laptop and books and photocopies of readings for class and I couldn’t have been happier to be studying there. I was in a room surrounded by strangers yet I felt so at home.

I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get back into the abortion clinic as an employee. There aren’t many jobs for people with advanced degrees outside of healthcare workers. My new employer does have a clinic for our HIV/AIDS clients and I’m hoping I can grow to love it as much as I love my abortion clinics.