Getting tested for STIs
STI testing is routine, quick and usually painless. Most infections have a test, and many can be self-collected. You do not need to be in a…
16-19 7 min read
Ages 16-19
Deeper health and independence
This pathway is for someone who may be booking their own appointments, making their own decisions about care, and thinking about longer-term health. It takes the biology seriously and takes your autonomy seriously.
Written for someone who may be booking their own appointments and making their own decisions about care.
Confidentiality is real, and it has limits
A clinician is generally bound by confidentiality, but there are recognised exceptions where the law requires disclosure — serious risk to someone else, or where someone is a child at risk. Knowing the limits is part of being able to trust a service with something embarrassing. The healthcare pathway explains exactly how this works where you live.
What this stage is actually like
Most of what people regret about their early health experiences is not the information they were given — it is the information they did not receive, or received too late, or were too embarrassed to ask for. Nothing on this page is too basic for you now.
Start here
Three articles to read first
Chosen because each one tends to raise the next question, rather than because they are the most read.
What's covered
Everything in this pathway
Every item below is also reachable from its topic, because a pathway is a route in, not a wall.
- Periods that are not typical PCOS, endometriosis and other causes worth investigating. Read
- Endometriosis Symptoms, what dismissal looks like, and how to push for a diagnosis. Read
- Sexual health and STI testing What is tested, how, and how often it makes sense. Read
- HIV: prevention, testing and treatment PrEP, PEP, the window period, treatment and living with HIV. Read
- Fertility and misconceptions Ovulation, fertile windows, and what the numbers do not tell you. In writing
- Mental health and emotional regulation Recognising when low mood is more than a bad week. In writing
- Nutrition, exercise and sleep Energy, training, and recovering properly. In writing
- Recognising medical misinformation How to check a claim before you act on it. In writing
- Talking to a clinician How to describe symptoms so you are taken seriously. In writing
- Body image and mental health Appearance anxiety, and how to get real help. In writing
- Sexual health stigma Why STIs carry shame that is not their fault, and how to talk about it. In writing
7 items are marked "in writing". We would rather label a gap than publish a placeholder and let you think a question has been answered.
Library
Every article written for ages 16-19
32 articles, listed alphabetically.
-
Asking a doctor about development
You can ask a doctor about any part of your body or development, and you will not be the first person of your age they have seen. Appointments are…
13-15 6 min read
-
Burning or pain when you pass urine
Burning when you pass urine is usually a urinary tract infection, but chlamydia, gonorrhoea and genital irritation can cause the same feeling. It is…
13-15 5 min read
-
Chlamydia
Chlamydia is a common bacterial infection that often causes no symptoms at all. It is easily tested for with a swab or urine sample and cured with a…
16-19 7 min read
-
Consent, coercion and healthy relationships
Consent is a free, informed, ongoing yes. Coercion is getting someone to say yes without those conditions — which is far more common than physical…
16-19 8 min read
-
Emergency, same-day or routine care?
Emergency means contact your local emergency number now. Same-day means be seen today. Routine means book an appointment. The distinction that…
13-15 7 min read
-
Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a long-term condition where tissue similar to the uterine lining grows elsewhere in the body, causing pain, particularly with…
16-19 7 min read
-
Genital herpes and oral herpes
Herpes is caused by two viruses, HSV-1 and HSV-2, and it is extremely common — most adults carry one of them. It often causes no symptoms at all…
16-19 7 min read
-
Getting tested for STIs
STI testing is routine, quick and usually painless. Most infections have a test, and many can be self-collected. You do not need to be in a…
16-19 7 min read
-
Gonorrhoea
Gonorrhoea is a bacterial infection that frequently causes no symptoms, particularly in people with a vagina. It is tested with a swab and treated…
16-19 6 min read
-
Headaches
Most headaches are tension-type or migraine, and neither is dangerous — but a few patterns are serious. The pattern matters more than the severity: a…
13-15 6 min read
-
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. It spreads through blood and certain body fluids — including sexual contact, shared needles and from…
16-19 6 min read
-
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is a liver infection that can sit silently for years without symptoms. It spreads mainly through blood — shared needles, unsterilised…
16-19 6 min read
-
HIV and AIDS
HIV is a virus that affects the immune system. With regular treatment, people with HIV can live a normal lifespan and the virus can be suppressed to…
16-19 9 min read
-
Hormones and mood
Hormones contribute to mood changes, but they are not the whole explanation. Puberty also brings sleep disruption, stress, social change and identity…
13-15 6 min read
-
Human papillomavirus (HPV)
HPV is an extremely common virus that most sexually active people acquire at some point. Most infections clear on their own; persistent infection…
16-19 8 min read
-
Irregular periods
A cycle between 21 and 35 days counts as regular, and cycles can change from month to month in the same person. Irregular outside that range is…
16-19 6 min read
-
Menstrual cramps
Cramping comes from prostaglandins making your uterus contract. Heat and anti-inflammatory painkillers help most people. Pain severe enough to stop…
13-15 7 min read
-
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
PID is an infection of the pelvic organs, usually spreading upward from the cervix. It often causes little or no pain, which is exactly what makes it…
16-19 6 min read
-
Period products: pads, tampons, cups and liners
Pads go outside the body, tampons and cups go inside. Tampons are the only product linked to a rare but serious infection, and their risk is managed…
10-12 8 min read
-
Personal boundaries and consent
Consent means choosing to do something freely, and being able to stop choosing at any time. A boundary is a line you get to set and change. Silence…
13-15 8 min read
-
PMS and PMT
PMS is a cluster of symptoms in the week before a period that ease when bleeding starts. It is real and it is hormonal, not imagined. It affects a…
13-15 6 min read
-
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
PCOS is a common long-term condition affecting how the ovaries work, causing irregular or absent periods, and often acne, increased body hair and…
16-19 7 min read
-
Sudden testicular pain
Sudden severe testicular pain needs emergency medical care immediately, not observation. It can be caused by testicular torsion, where the blood…
13-15 5 min read
-
Syphilis
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that spreads through sexual contact and, less commonly, through shared needles or from a pregnant parent to a baby…
16-19 6 min read
-
Testicular lump or swelling
Most testicular lumps and swellings are benign — cysts, varicoceles, hydroceles or infection. But a hard lump that feels different from the other…
13-15 5 min read
-
The menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is the whole monthly process, not just the bleeding. It runs from the first day of one period to the day before the next, usually…
13-15 7 min read
-
Trichomoniasis
Trichomoniasis is an infection caused by a single-celled parasite. It is common, often causes no symptoms, and — unlike chlamydia or gonorrhoea — is…
16-19 5 min read
-
Typical timing and individual variation
Puberty commonly starts somewhere between about age 8 and 14, and it takes several years to complete. The range is wide because bodies are built…
13-15 6 min read
-
Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
A UTI is a bacterial infection of the urinary system. Burning when you pee and needing to go more often are the classic symptoms. It is common, it is…
13-15 6 min read
-
Vaginal discharge
Clear or white discharge is normal and keeps the vagina healthy. It changes with hormones and the cycle, and often increases before ovulation and…
13-15 7 min read
-
Weight changes and body proportions
During puberty your body changes shape before it changes weight. Shoulders widen, hips narrow or widen, limbs lengthen and your centre of gravity…
13-15 5 min read
-
What hormones are
Hormones are chemical messengers made by glands and carried in the blood to act elsewhere in the body. During puberty their levels change…
13-15 6 min read
Context
What is different at this age
- You are likely navigating healthcare more independently, sometimes without a parent in the room.
- Long-term health decisions — contraception, HPV vaccination, screening — are on the table now.
- Sexual health carries the most misinformation of any health area, and it is the area you are least likely to get straight answers about.
- Body image issues often peak here, and they are a genuine health matter, not vanity.
Question you would rather not ask anyone?
Ask it here. No account, no name, nothing sent anywhere, and no judgement about what you are finding out about.