Comprehensive STI screening, symptomatic assessment, and treatment in a private CQC-registered clinic. Same-week appointments. Discreet, judgement-free, results in days. Female doctor on request. Honest pricing — including honest advice on when NHS sexual health (which is free, excellent, and 5 minutes from us) is the better choice for you.
Most asymptomatic people don't need every test that exists. The basic panel covers the four most common UK STIs and is right for most routine screens. The comprehensive panel adds hepatitis B & C and trichomonas. The extended panel adds herpes and mycoplasma. Your consultation includes pre-test advice on which is right for you — you'll pay for the panel you actually need, not the most expensive one.
The standard UK sexual health screen for most asymptomatic people. Covers the most common bacterial and viral STIs.
Includes consultation, pre-test discussion, results review, treatment plan if positive.
The basic 4 tests plus the extended viral and parasitic panel. Right for people with multiple recent partners, anyone who hasn't been tested in over a year, or anyone who wants a thorough screen.
Includes consultation, pre-test discussion, results review, treatment plan if positive.
All comprehensive tests plus herpes serology and mycoplasma. Right for symptomatic patients with lesions or recurrent infections, or anyone who specifically wants the broadest available screen.
Includes consultation, pre-test discussion, results review, treatment plan if positive.
If you have any symptoms — discharge, lesion, sore, pain, itching, bleeding, burning — book the standard consultation0). The doctor will examine you, take specific tests targeted to what you have, and treat there and then where appropriate. You don't need to pre-buy a test panel — we'll work out what tests you need at the appointment.
After possible exposure, STIs take different amounts of time to become detectable. Testing too soon gives false reassurance. The windows below follow British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) guidance for reliable detection — if you've had an exposure, this is when you should test for reliable results.
NAAT (PCR) tests can detect these bacterial infections from around 14 days after exposure. Testing earlier than this risks a false negative. If you have symptoms before the 14-day mark, we'll still test — symptomatic infections produce more bacterial load and are detected earlier.
Modern 4th-generation HIV tests detect both antibodies and the p24 antigen and are reliable from 4 weeks post-exposure for most exposures. BASHH recommends a confirmatory test at 6 weeks for full certainty — we'll discuss your specific risk at the consultation and advise accordingly. If you've had a very high-risk exposure within the last 72 hours, see the "PEP" note below.
Syphilis serology becomes positive from around 6 weeks but isn't fully reliable until 12 weeks after exposure. If symptoms appear earlier (typically a painless ulcer), come in — we can take samples directly from the lesion.
Hepatitis B antibodies typically develop 6–12 weeks after exposure; hepatitis C antibodies 6–9 weeks. For a full clear-negative result, BASHH recommends repeat testing at 6 months following a known exposure.
Herpes serology has well-known limitations — many people with HSV-1 or HSV-2 are positive on antibody testing but have no active disease and aren't infectious. We'd usually only test for HSV if you have symptoms (lesions) or after counselling on what the result means. PCR of an active lesion is more useful than serology.
HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is a 28-day course of antiretroviral medication that can prevent HIV infection if started within 72 hours of a high-risk exposure. We do not provide PEP at this clinic — you need a specialist sexual health service. For Tower Hamlets and East London:
Time matters here — the sooner PEP starts within the 72-hour window, the more effective it is. Don't wait for an appointment with us if you might need PEP.
NHS sexual health (sometimes still called "GUM" — genitourinary medicine) is one of the best things the NHS does. Consultant-led, completely confidential, doesn't share information with your GP, free contraception, free PEP/PrEP, same-day treatment. For most people in East London, the Ambrose King Centre at The Royal London Hospital — 5 minutes' walk from us — is genuinely the best service. Here's an honest comparison so you can decide what's right for you.
Best for: Most people. Especially: anyone needing PEP/PrEP, complex or recurrent infections, free contraception, partner notification support, anyone for whom cost matters.
Ambrose King Centre, Royal London HospitalBest for: Speed matters · you want a single appointment at a specific time · you want a private clinic experience · you have insurance that covers private GP · you're symptomatic and want examination and treatment in one visit.
There's also SHL.uk — a free at-home STI test kit service for London residents. They post you the test kit, you return it by post, results come by text or email. Great for asymptomatic people who don't need a consultation.
Full pricing for all consultations, procedures and reports is published on our price list. We do not charge separate appointment fees on top of quoted prices, and all costs are confirmed before any test, procedure or report is started.
Yes — consultations are confidential under GMC professional standards and UK GDPR. We do not write to your NHS GP about your sexual health visit by default. The visit doesn't appear on your NHS record unless you specifically ask us to inform your GP (which some people prefer for continuity of care).
NHS sexual health clinics work the same way — they also don't share with your GP by default. Sexual health is one of the most protected areas of confidentiality in UK medicine.
Yes if you request one at booking — tell us and we'll match you to a female GP. For intimate examinations a chaperone is always offered. If you don't have a preference, you'll be booked with whichever GP is available the soonest.
Most results in 1–3 working days for the basic panel. Hepatitis, herpes and mycoplasma can take up to 7 working days. We'll text or email you when results are ready, and book a results review consultation if anything is positive or needs discussion. Negative results are sent with a written summary.
The doctor calls you, in a confidential conversation, to discuss the result and the next step. For most bacterial STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, mycoplasma) this is straightforward antibiotic treatment, prescribed privately or transferred to NHS sexual health. For HIV, hepatitis or syphilis we refer you to specialist NHS sexual health services — their expertise, infrastructure and free treatment are the right setting for these.
We'll also discuss partner notification — informing recent partners so they can be tested. We can help you do this anonymously through partner-notification services if that's easier than telling someone yourself.
For most people in East London, the Ambrose King Centre at The Royal London Hospital (5 minutes from us, walk-in, free) is genuinely an excellent service — consultant-led, comprehensive, free PEP/PrEP, free contraception. We'd point you there honestly if it's a better fit for you.
Private with us makes sense if: you want a specific appointment time, you want a single-visit experience, you're symptomatic and want examination + tests + treatment in one go, you have insurance that covers it, or you specifically want the privacy of a paid private clinic. Otherwise — honestly — the NHS clinic next door is hard to beat for sexual health.
If there's a possibility of HIV exposure from a high-risk source, you may need PEP within 72 hours — please call NHS 111, go to the Ambrose King Centre (Royal London Hospital, Mount Terrace, E1 2BB) or A&E if it's out of hours. PEP is most effective the sooner it's started. We don't provide PEP at this clinic.
For testing — you can't reliably test in the first few days. We'd typically advise testing for chlamydia/gonorrhoea at 2 weeks, HIV at 4–6 weeks, syphilis at 6–12 weeks. Symptoms appearing earlier (discharge, ulcer, rash) warrant immediate consultation — come in.
If you've been sexually assaulted, please contact The Havens (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) — 020 3299 6900 — they provide free specialist care including HIV PEP, emergency contraception, forensic examination and psychological support. You don't have to involve the police.
Not at this clinic — all our STI tests include a brief consultation. We do this because the consultation is genuinely useful: discussing recent exposures, picking the right panel, giving you the right window-period advice, and discussing the meaning of any positive result before testing. Five minutes of conversation can save you an unnecessary expensive test or a misleading false-reassurance.
If you specifically want test-only without consultation, SHL.uk offers a free at-home test kit by post for London residents. The NHS Ambrose King Centre also offers walk-in self-sample testing.
From 16 years old, with consent for confidential treatment in their own right. For under-16s, NHS sexual health services are specifically set up for young people, free, confidential, and follow Fraser/Gillick competence assessment — we'd point you to the Ambrose King Centre or Brook (young people's sexual health charity, ages up to 25).
For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, modern NAAT (PCR) tests work well on both urine and swab samples. For men, a first-pass urine sample (the first part of your stream) is excellent. For women, a self-taken vaginal swab is more sensitive than urine for these infections. If there's a possibility of throat or rectal infection (from oral or anal sex), specific throat/rectal swabs are needed — we'll ask about this at the consultation.
Book a consultation as soon as you can — same week ideally. We'll test you for the relevant infection and may treat empirically (treat now, test in parallel) depending on what your partner has and how recent the exposure was. For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, current UK guidance is usually treat partners without waiting for test results — it's faster, cheaper, and prevents reinfection cycles. We'll discuss with you.
Most STIs are easily treatable and most tests come back negative. Waiting doesn't make things better — testing does. Book online, no need to explain to anyone.
See full pricing on our price list