New App Gives You Portable Proof of Your STI History, Perfect First Date Icebreaker

By now, you’ve probably had the experience of meeting someone incredible, being eager to jump in the sack with them, but having to wait because they wanted proof of your latest STI testing results first.

We’re not knocking STI testing before agreeing to have sex with someone. We heartily endorse it (and the raw-dogging that may be possible because of it). But let’s be honest: it can be a real pain in the ass to try to get the documents proving you’re clean in a reasonably quick amount of time. The keepers of medical records are not known for their efficiency.

Lauren Weiniger realized this in 2015 while at Burning Man, where she met plenty of willing sex partners, but few who wanted to knock boots before seeing STI testing results.

“So many people were asking if we’d been tested, as STI rates were reaching an all-time high,” she told Mel magazine. “Why has there never been an easy way to verify somebody’s sexual health status?”

That’s why she co-founded Safely, an app that allows users to share their sexual health status – such as HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HEP-C, genital herpes, and syphilis test results – with potential sex partners, no matter where they were tested. It also helps users connect with sexual health experts and schedule testing at 30,000 partner labs (paid for with insurance and/or out-of-pocket).

The app launched this summer and has been garnering positive reviews from users who say it makes them feel “empowered” and helps facilitate conversations about sexual health. There are even plans in the works for the app to team up with dating apps to create some kind of “safe badge” that shows you’ve been tested.

Of course, the catch-22 is that STI results only capture a moment in time. With each new unprotected sexual experience, you’re putting yourself at risk, and should get tested again before barebacking with a new partner.

But given that the combined total of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis cases is now at an all-time high – and condom use is at an all-time low – you’d be doing both yourself and your future partners a favor by getting tested and proving it with Safely.

Better Safely, than sorry, right? (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

Cover Photo: Safely

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