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DENVER (KDVR) — With the number of sexually transmitted infections rising in Colorado and around the country, state officials are encouraging people to get tested, and now there is a new option.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is offering free at-home test kits for STIs. People can order them on the CDPHE website, and the kits will be discretely delivered to their homes.

“Some would prefer to be tested at home confidentially, or may not have a medical home where they could go, and so we are seeing more and more opportunities for at-home tests,” said Dr. Eric France, the chief medical officer at CDPHE.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexually transmitted infections increased in Colorado and across the country in 2020, and some doctors say a lack of testing early in the pandemic could have contributed.

Dr. Beth Carewe at Rose Medical Center said many of her patients are now coming in and getting back on track with regular care. Her office routinely tests for STIs.

“The most common STIs that we see in our office are gonorrhea and chlamydia,” Carewe said.

If caught early, most STIs are completely treatable. 

“I recommend testing for all of my patients under the age of 24, which is what the CDC recommends, annual testing, and then it is offered to anybody over that age, especially when there is increase in risk factors — so change in sexual partners, or STD exposures, things like that,” Carewe said.

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