PEP — Emergency HIV Prevention

I had put this off for nearly two years, mostly because of the idea of sitting in a waiting room where everyone could guess why I was there. It is a normal reception with normal people in it. Booking took a minute, nobody asked for ID, and the doctor read the result with me himself instead of handing me an envelope. Half an hour, start to finish.”

I came in with a question I had been too embarrassed to ask anywhere else, and left with an answer and no lecture attached. What I noticed most was that the doctor told me which test I did not need. I had expected to be sold the expensive one.”

I called on a Sunday about PEP and was told to come straight in rather than wait for a slot. The clock mattered and they treated it that way. Everything since — the follow-up testing, the switch onto PrEP afterwards — has been handled by the same two people, so I have never had to explain the story twice.”

My biggest worry was whether Japanese would be understood; the test itself was almost secondary. From the phone call to paying at the end, all of it was in Japanese.”

I asked what would happen to my records if my insurer ever came asking, and the answer was specific rather than reassuring — which is what I wanted. They told me what goes on the receipt and what does not, before I had paid for anything. The test took less time than the conversation did.”

I booked at ten at night on my phone and got a slot the next morning. I did not have to speak to anybody until I was standing at the counter.”

This was my third visit for PrEP follow-up. It is the same doctor every time, and she remembers the last conversation, so I do not have to start it again.”

The result arrived as a message saying only that something was ready, with a link, and the link asked me to sign in. So I read it on my own laptop at home rather than on a phone screen on the BTS. Whoever decided that had thought about where people actually open these.”

The price I saw when I booked was the price I paid. Nothing appeared at the end that had not been there at the start.”

I turned up without an appointment and expected to be turned away. There was a wait, but I was seen the same day, and somebody told me why the wait was happening before I had to ask. There is nothing showy about the place, and that is the point.”

I had already decided the worst had happened before I walked in. The doctor did not rush that, and did not pretend a test could tell me something it could not tell me yet.”

The hard part was never the test. It was telling my partner. I asked the doctor how to say it, and she actually answered instead of pointing me at a leaflet.”