Short answers first. Where there is more to say, the link takes you to the page that says it.
It depends on the infection, and the range is wide: about 2 weeks for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, 6 weeks for syphilis, up to 45 days for a reliable HIV lab test. Testing the next morning tells you nothing — the infection has not had time to become detectable.
See the window period for HIV →Yes. Most sexually transmitted infections cause nothing at all in most people — around 7 in 10 women and 5 in 10 men with chlamydia notice no symptom whatsoever. Feeling fine is not evidence of anything, which is exactly why they spread.
How quiet chlamydia really is →Nine: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HPV, mycoplasma genitalium and trichomoniasis. Each has its own page with incubation period, symptoms and when a test becomes reliable.
No. The message says that one of the person's partners has a positive result for a specific infection. It does not say which partner. The email subject is neutral, so a notification on a lock screen tells a stranger nothing.
How partner notification works →You link a partner yourself by sending them an invitation. Both of you agree before anything can be sent. If a positive result later arrives for you, everyone currently linked gets a message asking them to test — without your name.
Read the whole process →We work with laboratories across the Czech Republic — most of them in Prague. Pick one on the map or in the list, then sign up so the result lands in your record automatically instead of on a piece of paper.
See all laboratories →The price is set by the laboratory, not by us, and it differs from place to place and from test to test. Health Mates itself is free: keeping your results, sharing your status and notifying partners cost nothing.
Find a laboratory near you →For most tests, no — you can go and pay for them yourself. Some laboratories ask for a referral to bill your insurer, so it is worth checking with the one you pick before you go.
It cuts the risk sharply for infections passed in fluids, like HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. It helps less against those passed by skin-to-skin contact — HPV, syphilis and herpes can be transmitted from areas a condom does not cover.
More about HPV →It goes into your record, and if you have linked partners who agreed to it, they get a message telling them to test. Then you talk to a doctor: almost everything on our list is either curable or controllable with treatment.
What partners receive →There is no single answer, but a common rule of thumb is: after every new partner, and at least once a year if you are sexually active. If you have several partners, every three to six months is a reasonable rhythm.
Your results, the partners you linked yourself, and a record of what you agreed to and when. No names are attached to what a partner sees, and results are kept encrypted.
What is stored, in detail →Nine infections we track. For each one: how long it takes to show up, what it does and does not feel like, and when a test starts telling the truth.
The most commonly reported bacterial STI in Europe, and the quietest: most people who have it feel completely fine.
Incubation period: 1 to 3 weeks, if anything shows at all.
Fast to show itself in men, often silent in women, and the one infection the WHO watches most closely for drug resistance.
Incubation period: 2 to 14 days. In men it is often 2 to 5.
Known for centuries as the great imitator: it moves through stages, disappears for years, and its rash can look like almost anything else.
Incubation period: 10 to 90 days, most often around 3 weeks.
A short flu-like episode, then often years of nothing at all. Which is exactly why the testing window matters more here than anywhere else.
Incubation period: 2 to 4 weeks for the first short illness, if it happens at all.
A liver infection with a long, quiet incubation — and the first cancer-preventing vaccine ever made.
Incubation period: 30 to 180 days, on average around 90.
Silent in four out of five people, undiscovered until 1989, and since 2014 the first chronic viral infection medicine can reliably cure.
Incubation period: 2 weeks to 6 months, most often 6 to 10 weeks.
So common that catching it is close to unavoidable, and in most people it goes away on its own within a couple of years.
Incubation period: Weeks to months for warts. The cell changes that matter take years, sometimes decades.
One of the smallest living things that can copy itself, only recognised as an STI in recent decades, and increasingly hard to treat.
Incubation period: 1 to 3 weeks.
The most common curable STI in the world, and the only one on this list caused by a parasite rather than a bacterium or a virus.
Incubation period: 5 to 28 days.
This page is general information, not a diagnosis and not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections, and many infections have none at all — only a test can tell. If you think you have been exposed, talk to a doctor.