Can I have an STI and not know?
A person can test negative in their urine but still have gonorrhea or chlamydia in their throat – or in their rectum.
Sometimes people don’t even have symptoms in those parts of the body so they can pass it on to other people without realizing. The only way to know for sure is to get a throat and rectal swab.
For >80% of patients who show these infections in their swabs, it does not appear in their urine test result and would be missed. Unfortunately, not swabbing leads to missed diagnoses and false confidence of your STI status. This all increases the spread.