S.H.A.G Clinic Sexual Health And Guidance For Teens

Sexual health can be an awkward topic to bring up for anyone. Many people are not brave enough to face the facts; but as young adults, you need to be sexually responsible, not only for yourselves but for your partner as well. The SHAG Clinic is a sexual health clinic which aims to make it easier for teens to access sexual health information and services. We know you may face a few obstacles, so here is how we overcome them.
  • We bulk bill – that means no cost to you if your family is with Medicare.
  • Don’t have your own Medicare Card? That’s fine, we can look up your family’s card number for you. They don’t even need to know.
  • Don’t want your parent/guardian to come? If you are 15 or older then you don’t need to be accompanied.
  • We are confidential – so we don’t routinely tell your parents/guardians that you visited our clinic
  • Think you may need some tests done? There is bulk billing pathology right next door so you don’t need to travel to a different location.
  • Just need to talk things out with someone? That’s what we are here for. There is no reason to feel embarrassed.
We provide our services in a safe and friendly environment so you can feel comfortable accessing our sexual health clinic. We offer:
  • Puberty education,
  • Sexual education,
  • Pap smears for sexually active women,
  • Sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing,
  • Contraception advice and prescription,
  • Long term (reversible) contraceptive options,
  • Pregnancy testing and shared maternity care – support and advice from a registered midwife,
  • Sexual assault support and referral to appropriate counselling services,
  • Sexual and reproductive health support – relationships, intimacy, and performance.
We have answered a few important questions for you below, but if you have more you can call us or send a private message on the Brisbane Centre for Sexual Health Facebook page (please do not include personal or medical information in any messages you send us online).

Q & A

I use condoms so do I still need a sexual health check?

Condoms do help protect you from STIs (and unplanned pregnancies), but they are not fool proof. Sometimes certain STIs will contaminate the skin around the genitals, which is not covered by a condom. If you experience any symptoms of an STI then you should speak to your doctor or one of our sexual health specialists about being tested.

This is no excuse to stop using condoms! Condoms are still your best protection against STIs.
I have had unprotected sex but I don’t have any STI symptoms, do I still need a sexual health check?
Everyone experiences STIs differently. For some people they will have severe symptoms that need to be treated as soon as possible for basic comfort. Other people may only have mild symptoms or none at all; this does not make them less contagious (in fact, you are more likely to spread an STI when you don’t know about it, which is why they are so common). Unknown and untreated STIs also have more time to develop and can cause serious medical and reproductive issues later. If you have had unprotected sex then you might want to consider being tested, especially before starting a new sexual relationship.
Are STI tests painful?
No, getting an STI test is surprisingly easy. The only hard part is being brave enough to go. The most common test involves sending a urine sample to a pathology lab, although sometimes a blood test or swab test may be require. Visit our STI Information page to learn more about STIs.

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Parent’s Policy

What is your policy on informing parents /guardians? Consultations for 15+ year olds are completely confidential unless we feel there is a risk to their health and wellbeing. This could be in the case of an under 18 year old becoming pregnant or if they are diagnosed with an infectious disease such as Hepatitis B or HIV. Other standard consultations, tests, treatments and contraception will be kept private. Should parents need to be informed it would be discussed with the patient at the time of the consultation and they would have the choice of telling their parents/guardians personally or leaving it to one of our practitioners to inform them.