It's not always easy to talk openly about your health concerns - especially when it comes to your sexual and reproductive health. But guess what? Your health care provider is a professional and has heard/seen it all. Plus, providers in California are required by law to ask for your consent before releasing any of your health information to a family member, even if you are a minor. There is absoloutely no reason to not be completely honest about questions or concerns you have about your body.
In fact, it's really important that you be proactive in letting your provider know if you've been sexually active, especially if you've had a new partner or had unsafe sex. Unless you go to a provider that specializes in sexual and reproductive health care - like at Planned Parenthood - they may not ask about your sexual history. To understand your sexual history, your provider might ask you questions like: Are you having sex? Do you have sex with men, women, or both? How many partners have you had in the last year?
It might feel really personal, but if you aren't completely honest with your provider, there is a possibility that a health issue could fly under the radar. Remember, most STDs don't have symptoms, and many providers won't automatically screen for STDs unless you go to a family planning clinic or STD clinic.
Besides understanding that anything shared between you and your doctor is completely confidential, you should also know how to protect your private health information if you are on another person's insurance plan, like your parent's. If you use your parent's health insurance to pay for a health service, you need to take an extra step to keep the information private. Thanks to a new law called the Confidential Health Information Act, you can complete a simple form called a Confidential Communications Request telling your insurance plan to send all information about the sensitive health care you accessed directly to you, and not to your parent. To find step-by-step instructions on how to submit a Confidential Communications Request, visit myhealthmyinfo.org.