The doctor informed me that there was no point in being tested because women couldn’t have sex with each other and therefore couldn’t transmit STIs. Even though I had never made it past Junior Cert biology I felt like something was wrong with that statement, but I didn’t have the confidence or knowledge to question it.
A few years later I became a volunteer with Dublin Lesbian Line and for almost a decade I have heard echoes of similar experiences, some with terrible consequences; including STIs left untreated for many years, and fertility problems.