Private STI Testing & Sexual Health Clinic in Whitechapel, London

Yes — consultations are confidential under GMC professional standards and UK GDPR. We do not write to your NHS GP about your sexual health visit by default. The visit doesn't appear on your NHS record unless you specifically ask us to inform your GP (which some people prefer for continuity of care).

NHS sexual health clinics work the same way — they also don't share with your GP by default. Sexual health is one of the most protected areas of confidentiality in UK medicine.

Yes if you request one at booking — tell us and we'll match you to a female GP. For intimate examinations a chaperone is always offered. If you don't have a preference, you'll be booked with whichever GP is available the soonest.

Most results in 1–3 working days for the basic panel. Hepatitis, herpes and mycoplasma can take up to 7 working days. We'll text or email you when results are ready, and book a results review consultation if anything is positive or needs discussion. Negative results are sent with a written summary.

The doctor calls you, in a confidential conversation, to discuss the result and the next step. For most bacterial STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, mycoplasma) this is straightforward antibiotic treatment, prescribed privately or transferred to NHS sexual health. For HIV, hepatitis or syphilis we refer you to specialist NHS sexual health services — their expertise, infrastructure and free treatment are the right setting for these.

We'll also discuss partner notification — informing recent partners so they can be tested. We can help you do this anonymously through partner-notification services if that's easier than telling someone yourself.

Both are good options and we'll be honest about which suits you. Private testing with us makes sense if you want a specific appointment time, a single visit with examination, tests and treatment together, results without a long wait, insurance-friendly private care, or simply the privacy of a paid clinic — with same-week appointments, selected results from one working day, and a female doctor on request.

The NHS is the better route if cost is the priority, or you need PEP/PrEP, free contraception, or care for complex or recurrent infections. The Ambrose King Centre at The Royal London Hospital (5 minutes away, walk-in, free) is an excellent consultant-led service, and we'll point you there when it's the right fit.

If there's a possibility of HIV exposure from a high-risk source, you may need PEP within 72 hours — please call NHS 111, go to the Ambrose King Centre (Royal London Hospital, Mount Terrace, E1 2BB) or A&E if it's out of hours. PEP is most effective the sooner it's started. We don't provide PEP at this clinic.

For testing — you can't reliably test in the first few days. We'd typically advise testing for chlamydia/gonorrhoea at 2 weeks, HIV at 4–6 weeks, syphilis at 6–12 weeks. Symptoms appearing earlier (discharge, ulcer, rash) warrant immediate consultation — come in.

If you've been sexually assaulted, please contact The Havens (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) — 020 3299 6900 — they provide free specialist care including HIV PEP, emergency contraception, forensic examination and psychological support. You don't have to involve the police.

Not at this clinic — all our STI tests include a brief consultation. We do this because the consultation is genuinely useful: discussing recent exposures, picking the right panel, giving you the right window-period advice, and discussing the meaning of any positive result before testing. Five minutes of conversation can save you an unnecessary expensive test or a misleading false-reassurance.

If you specifically want test-only without consultation, SHL.uk offers a free at-home test kit by post for London residents. The NHS Ambrose King Centre also offers walk-in self-sample testing.

From 16 years old, with consent for confidential treatment in their own right. For under-16s, NHS sexual health services are specifically set up for young people, free, confidential, and follow Fraser/Gillick competence assessment — we'd point you to the Ambrose King Centre or Brook (young people's sexual health charity, ages up to 25).

For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, modern NAAT (PCR) tests work well on both urine and swab samples. For men, a first-pass urine sample (the first part of your stream) is excellent. For women, a self-taken vaginal swab is more sensitive than urine for these infections. If there's a possibility of throat or rectal infection (from oral or anal sex), specific throat/rectal swabs are needed — we'll ask about this at the consultation.

Book a consultation as soon as you can — same week ideally. We'll test you for the relevant infection and may treat empirically (treat now, test in parallel) depending on what your partner has and how recent the exposure was. For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, current UK guidance is usually treat partners without waiting for test results — it's faster, cheaper, and prevents reinfection cycles. We'll discuss with you.