Most STIs can be treated with a short course of antibiotics. Some STIs, such as HIV cannot be cured – but they can be treated to prevent them from getting worse.

If you test positive for any STI, your clinic will encourage you to talk to your current partner and sometimes to your previous partners, so they can be tested as well. The clinic will help you find the best way to talk to other people if you need to and can even contact them for you through 'partner notification' without even mentioning your name.

STIs can be caught during oral (licking, kissing, or sucking someone's genitals), vaginal or anal sex and some can also be passed through sexual touching and skin-to-skin contact – so the best way to avoid STIs is to use a condom or dam every time you have sex.

A condom is made of very thin latex (rubber) and is designed to cover the penis to stop sexual fluids from being transferred between partners which protects against STIs and pregnancy.

A dam is a thin square of latex, which can be placed over the genitals or anus for oral sex; they are available from your nearest sexual health service (often called GUM clinics) or you can buy them online.

Even if you are using another method of contraception such as the pill, implant, patch, contraceptive vaginal ring, IUD or IUS – it’s important to use condoms and dams as well to also protect from STIs.