How to collect sexual health histories

This leads to gaps in identifying and addressing potential new HIV infections and opportunities to reduce risk.

Research demonstrates sexual health histories are often skipped over and/or left blank during healthcare visits.

Key INgredients:

Consider the 6 P’s Model:

From Dr. Paul Trowbridge

If they are being seen for a general/regular health visit:
- “Clearly your health is important to you. Based on some of your risk factors, you might be at higher risk for getting HIV. While we don't have any vaccine for HIV, we do have medications that can lower the risks of you getting this life-long infection."
If they are there for HIV testing connect to that:
- “What are your practices to protect yourself from HIV and other infections? Did you know there are mediations you can take to protect yourself even more, even if you sometimes aren't able to use your other practices that you protect yourself with?”
If you are at an appointment for STI testing, connect it to that:
- “So we're going to check for STIs today because you may have been exposed. If we could have been exposed to an STI, we could have been exposed to HIV, and we know that there are things we can do to lower our risk of HIV in the future if you want to talk about your options.”