To find a young people’s sexual health service near you, click here.
Under the age of 18 and wondering whether you can access HIV tests without having to tell your parents? You’re in the right place.
When you become sexually active, it’s important to protect yourself and your partners from sexually transmitted infections by getting tested regularly. If you don’t want to tell your parents or get their permission to get tested, you can relax, because most of the time, you don’t have to.
If you’re under 18, you can visit a sexual health clinic confidentially and receive free services like STI and HIV tests. You don’t need to make an appointment.
If you’re 16 or 17
In the UK, if you’re 16 or 17, you have a right to confidentiality and can make your own decisions about your healthcare, without parental permission. You can access adult or young people’s sexual health services, including online services.
Online services allow you to order a self-testing kit which gets posted to you. The kits come in plain packaging and don’t have any labels to say what they contain, but if you don’t want to get it delivered to your home, you can get it to delivered to a different London address instead.
If you’re under 16
If you are 15 or younger, you can’t order online self-testing kits, but you can still access sexual health services confidentially.
Healthcare professionals will assess whether you understand the service you’re accessing, in this case HIV testing, and can make an informed decision. They will keep your information confidential unless they are worried that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm. If they think there is a risk of harm, they might have to tell someone about this to try and keep you safe, but they will always talk to you about this first.
You can find out more about the different sexual health services you can access here. Do It London also provides information for young people about where to get condoms and lube, and where to get more support and information on topics like consent and support.
So to sum up: YES! Young people can get tested without parental consent in most cases. You may be encouraged to speak to a trusted adult, particularly if you’re under 16, but they will respect your confidentiality unless they have concerns about your safety or wellbeing.
