How many times have you sat on the edge of your bed trying not to scratch your genitals and furiously googling “herpes” or “STI symptoms”? Be honest.
Well you’re not alone, my fellow fans of casual sex. There’s good news for us, though: finally an ER doctor has taken pity on our promiscuous selves and created an app to soothe our itchy souls.
Olusegun Ishmael is the CEO and founder of Besafemeds. The app is designed so that users can input their symptoms, which are then forwarded to a doctor or nurse practitioner. When the healthcare provider receives the notification, they call the patient to help them determine whether or not they’ll require treatment. They can diagnose you and prescribe any necessary meds during the call, which costs $20 USD. They’ll e-transfer your script to the closest pharmacy, and you can go pick it up hassle-free.
“Funny,” Ishmael tells me over email, “that the vision started in Vegas — ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.’ But looking around the bar, I realized that some people don’t leave everything there — they take home STIs.”
He chatted with the bartender, who told him about some of the wildly unprotected hookups she’s seen. Initially, they planned to build terminals in bar washrooms designed in the same way as the app, but then they thought why not make a portable service that could be used anywhere?
“If I can use an app to hook up, why can’t I reach out with an app to get an STI treatment plan?” he wondered.
The need for the app stems mostly from the continued stigma surrounding STI contraction and from a lack of literacy surrounding sexual health. Despite the prevalence of STIs (half of all adults will get one at some point in their lives, and there are about 20-million new reported cases in the U.S. annually), Ishmael says that a surprising number of grown-ass adults would come to the ER, nether regions blazing, and scuttle off in embarrassment before they could receive treatment.
He’s seen people come into the ER and refuse to tell the triage nurse what their symptoms are, insisting on telling the doctor directly, only to reveal to him that they have common STI symptoms like unusual discharge or burning. He’s seen people tell the nurse their symptoms, only to leave before seeing him. He’s seen people come from two states away, terrified that they’d be recognized by someone from their hometown heading into the clinic.
Right now, besafemeds is based in Chicago, IL, and it also operates in Florida, Indiana, and Missouri. There are plans to expand to other states beginning next month, and in time, Ishmael hopes to extend this crucial service to casual sex having folks in other countries as well.
In the meantime, I hear condoms (or your preferred method!) can be a great protector.