STI rates have surged across Australia by 46 per cent over the past decade, with untreated cases of common infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea leading to serious health consequences.
There were almost 110,000 confirmed chlamydia cases in 2023 and women made up nearly 70 per cent of notifications.
Gonorrhoea was the second most common STI with more than 40,000 cases, half of which were people aged 15-29.
But health experts warn the true number of infections is likely to be far higher, as thousands of cases go undiagnosed each year due to mild or absent symptoms and a lack of testing.
Analysis by the Kirby Institute released in September found just 16 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 49 had ever been tested for an STI, showing significant sexual health gaps.
Nearly half of Australian women say they experience discomfort or reluctance when it comes to discussing sexual health with a care provider, making them most vulnerable to falling behind with their testing.
"There's a real sense of shame when it comes to STIs and that they say something about you personally rather than being a bacterial infection that, actually, somebody else gave you," vulvovaginal specialist naturopath Jessica Lloyd told AAP.
"A major factor is linked to women's sexual activity and the sentiment that if you catch a disease, it's because you are a dirty s*** - but you haven't done anything wrong if you get an STI."
Men do not face the same stigma, Ms Lloyd added, and they are more likely to be the transmitter of the infection.
An at-home, STI self-test has been developed by Touch Biotechnology as a pre-screening tool to help reduce women's mental load of needing to visit a clinic.
The test screens for chlamydia and gonorrhoea and is able to deliver accurate and reliable results within 15 minutes following a vaginal swab, which Ms Lloyd described as a game-changer for sexual wellness.
"Anything that makes it easier to get tested and treated is so important," she said.
"So much damage is caused by untreated STIs and the longer it goes on, the worse it gets."
Many STIs can present without obvious warning signs and can often be mistaken for other conditions such as thrush or bacterial vaginosis.
Some people are completely asymptomatic, with testing the only way to discover an infection.
Most STIs are easily treated and cured with antibiotics but if you don't know you have an infection you can't do anything about it, Ms Lloyd said.
"As a general rule, how often you should get tested depends on what you're up to in your sex life or what your partner is up to," she said.
"If you are having sex get tested once a year or if you change partners you should make getting tested more regularly a priority."
