Rapid STI self-tests and lab testing: what’s the difference?
Some STI tests promise a result at home in minutes. For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, the Australian STI Management Guidelines recommend lab PCR testing, and the TGA allows a self-test only once it has evaluated that test. Here’s how rapid self-tests and lab testing compare, and where the HIV self-test fits.
Key facts
- Chlamydia and gonorrhoea
- Lab PCR (NAAT) is the recommended test
- Self-tests for STIs
- Allowed in Australia only once the TGA has evaluated the test
- HIV self-tests
- Permitted since 2014
- A positive rapid result
- Needs a lab test to confirm it
- Lab results with Prickly
- 3–8 business days after posting
How lab testing works
For chlamydia and gonorrhoea, the lab uses a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), usually PCR, which looks for the bacteria’s genetic material. The guidelines describe NAATs as highly sensitive, and as the only recommended test for chlamydia. They also work on samples you collect yourself, which is why many clinics, and at-home services, ask you to collect your own swabs and urine.
The trade-off is time: the sample has to reach a lab, so results take days rather than minutes.
How rapid self-tests work
A rapid self-test reads a sample on the spot, usually as lines on a strip, a bit like a COVID-19 rapid antigen test. The result is quick, but it’s a screening result: the TGA requires that a positive is confirmed by a lab test, and that users are told a negative result doesn’t rule out other STIs.
To be approved in Australia, a chlamydia or gonorrhoea self-test has to meet the TGA’s accuracy bar: finding at least 95% of infections that lab PCR finds (sensitivity) and correctly clearing at least 99% of people without one (specificity).
What’s allowed in Australia
Self-tests for STIs and other serious diseases have been banned from supply in Australia since 2010, with HIV self-tests the exception since 2014. Since October 2020, a self-test for chlamydia, gonorrhoea or syphilis can be supplied only once the TGA has evaluated that test and included it in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG).
One rapid self-test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, for people with a vagina, was approved in 2024. In June 2026 the TGA suspended it, after independent lab testing couldn’t reproduce the detection limits claimed for it. A test sold online from overseas, and not included in the ARTG, hasn’t been evaluated by the TGA.
The HIV self-test
HIV self-tests are a different case: they’re approved in Australia, and the guidelines expect people to come in after a reactive self-test. A fingerprick HIV self-test looks for antibodies, so it can miss HIV caught in the last 3 months, and a reactive result must be confirmed with a lab blood test. A lab test picks HIV up sooner after an exposure. See HIV testing at home.
How they compare
| Lab PCR testing | Rapid self-test | |
|---|---|---|
| Result | Days, once the sample reaches the lab | Minutes |
| Recommended for chlamydia and gonorrhoea | Yes | No |
| Throat and anal samples | Yes | Depends on the test |
| A positive result | Diagnoses the infection | Needs a lab test to confirm it |
| Treatment | Prescribed by a doctor after the result | Needs a doctor and a lab test first |
Whichever you use, a doctor is needed to treat a positive result, and to help you tell partners. If you have symptoms, see a sexual health clinic (opens in new tab) or GP clinic (opens in new tab) in person rather than testing at home.
How at-home testing works with Prickly
Prickly is an Australian at-home STI testing service for people without symptoms. Your samples are tested by PCR at a NATA-accredited lab, the same method clinics use, and a doctor reviews every result.
- Request online. Complete a five-minute online request, or book a short call with a doctor – bulk billed with Medicare. Either way, a doctor confirms that at-home STI testing is suitable for you.
- Receive your equipment. Collection equipment tailored to your exposures ships the same or next business day in an unmarked mailer box with Australia Post tracking.
- Collect at home. Follow the included STI testing self-collection guide – swabs and urine for the lab, and, if you’ve added HIV testing, a fingerprick HIV self-test you read at home in 15 minutes.
- Post to the lab. Post your lab samples back the same day using the included prepaid return label – at any Australia Post Office, red street posting box or Parcel Locker.
- Get your results. A doctor reviews every lab test result and emails you privately. Telehealth follow-up included – with help accessing treatment and telling partners, if needed.
The same steps are on the home page under How it works, and fees are under Pricing.
When at-home testing isn’t right
See someone in person at a sexual health clinic (opens in new tab), GP clinic (opens in new tab) or urgent care clinic (opens in new tab) instead if you have symptoms or if you’re under 16. And if you may have been exposed to HIV in the last 72 hours, don’t wait for a test – visit www.getpep.info (opens in new tab) or go to a sexual health clinic (opens in new tab) or emergency department (opens in new tab) as soon as you can. If something happened without your consent, 1800RESPECT (opens in new tab) is also available 24/7 for free, confidential support.
Sources
- Australian STI Management Guidelines – Chlamydia (opens in new tab), ASHM.
- Australian STI Management Guidelines – Gonorrhoea (opens in new tab), ASHM.
- Australian STI Management Guidelines – HIV (opens in new tab), ASHM.
- Understanding the rules for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) self-tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis (opens in new tab), Therapeutic Goods Administration.
- TGA suspends chlamydia and gonorrhoea self-test (opens in new tab), newsGP, RACGP, 15 July 2026.