Testing

Got an STI? Anonymously tell sex partners to get tested

Tell Your Partner, a free partner notification service, makes it easy to let people know they might need to get tested for STIs.

By Emily Land, MA

November 18, 2019 < 1 Minute Read

A new tool makes it even easier to let your sex partners know—anonymously—that they may have been exposed to a treatable sexually transmitted infection (STI) and that they might want to get tested.

The free service, Tell Your Partner, is a fast, secure, easy-to-use notification system that doesn’t require you to share any of your personal information. Simply add phone numbers or email addresses for partners you’d like to notify and enter the infection(s) your partner(s) should get tested for. After you preview a sample message and confirm you’re not a robot, hit send.

Many people keep up with regular STI testing and treatment as part of a proactive sexual health plan. But with rising STI rates across the U.S., and higher rates among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, it’s clear that more tools are needed to slow the spread of STIs including gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.

“Notifying sex partners about a recent infection makes it more likely that those partners will get tested, treated and not pass the infection along to anyone else,” said Jen Hecht, MPH, senior director of program strategy & evaluation at San Francisco AIDS Foundation and director and co-founder of Building Healthy Online Communities. “In that way, you’re also improving your own future health, by reducing the overall infection rate in the community.”

The site and mobile app were conceptualized and created by Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC) in collaboration with YTH and the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD). Tell Your Partner is a modern version of inSPOT, the first online STI partner notification system developed by YTH, which sent e-cards anonymously to partners.

Tell Your Partner

It takes less than 2 minutes to notify your partners that they may have been exposed to an STI. Explore the Tell Your Partner website to notify sex partners, find a local free clinic and get tips on talking to sex partners in person.