Prevention and Education
HealthTestExpress Blog Updates: What's Changing in 2026
We're planning a better reading experience on the blog: every article will carry a "Last reviewed" date, and we're improving search, category sorting, and reading time. To get there, we're reviewing every post against current guidelines through the end of 2026, so new articles will be less frequent, and we're looking for contributors.
I'm Dr. Michael Thompson, and I want to tell you plainly what you'll see on the HealthTestExpress blog over the next few months, and why. The end of the year is an intensive time for us, and we have big plans for making this site more useful to you.
Why Are We Publishing Fewer New Articles Right Now?
The honest answer is that we're a small team, and the final months of the year are demanding. Between now and December, you'll see fewer brand-new articles than usual. That's a deliberate trade-off: I would rather spend our limited time making sure what is already on the site is accurate than add more pages that will need updating later.
We're also still looking for people who would like to write with us. If you work in sexual health, public health, nursing, or medical writing, or you simply explain complicated topics clearly, we would like to hear from you. You can learn more about who we are and how we work on our About Us page.
To get in touch about writing for us, email support@healthtestexpress.com.
What Is Our Biggest Priority Before the Year Ends?
Reviewing every post on the blog and updating it with the latest clinical knowledge. Sexual health guidance does change. A clear example is gonorrhea treatment: in recent years, the CDC's clinical guidance moved from a two-drug regimen to a single 500 mg injection of ceftriaxone for most uncomplicated infections, a shift driven by antibiotic resistance.
That is exactly the kind of detail that can quietly go out of date on a website that never looks back. It's covered in our gonorrhea treatment guide, and every other article deserves the same attention.
To make this visible, each article will carry a "Last reviewed" label showing when it was most recently checked against current guidance. This is not the publication date. It's the review date, so if you ever wonder whether what you're reading is still current, that label gives you the answer.
What Else Is Changing on the Blog?
Alongside the review, we're planning several improvements to how the blog works:
Improvement | What it means for you |
|---|---|
"Last reviewed" label | See when each article was last checked against current guidance |
Better category sorting | Find symptoms, testing, treatment, and prevention topics faster |
Article search | Look up a specific topic without scrolling through the whole blog |
Reading time | Know how long an article takes to read before you start |
Quiz improvements (exploring) | More useful self-check tools inside relevant articles |
A software specialist who is a friend of the project is helping us build these features. Some will arrive sooner than others, and I would rather release them carefully than rush. We expect this plan to keep us busy until the end of the year.
How Can You Reach Us?
Questions, feedback, or a topic you would like us to cover: write to support@healthtestexpress.com, or message us on Messenger as you have until now. We read everything, even when replies take us a little longer than usual.
Thank you for the trust you've placed in us. We're getting to work.
When Should You Not Wait for an Article?
No blog post, including ours, replaces care from a clinician. If you have a possible STD exposure or symptoms, don't wait for an update:
Go to the ER immediately if you have severe lower abdominal or pelvic pain with fever
Go to the ER immediately if you have sudden vision changes or eye pain after a possible STD exposure, since ocular syphilis can threaten vision
Go to the ER immediately for sudden, severe testicular pain or swelling
Call your doctor within 24 hours if you notice new genital sores, unusual discharge, or burning when you urinate
Call your doctor within 24 hours if you develop joint pain and a skin rash after a known or suspected exposure
Seek same-day care if you are pregnant and think you may have been exposed to an STD
Frequently Asked Questions
Will older articles be removed or rewritten from scratch?
No. We're updating existing articles in place, so the pages you've bookmarked keep working. Where guidelines have changed, we revise the content. Where they haven't, we confirm that and update the review date.
What does "Last reviewed" actually mean?
It's the date an article was most recently checked against current guidance from sources such as the CDC. It is separate from the original publication date, which stays as it is.
Will you still publish new articles before the year ends?
Yes, but less often than usual. Our first priority is the existing library, and new articles will be fewer until that review is further along.
Can I ask you a personal medical question?
We can't give personal medical advice or diagnose, because HealthTestExpress is not a clinic. Write to us with questions about the site or topics you'd like covered, and see a clinician for anything about your own health.
When will the new blog features go live?
In stages over the coming months. Some, like the review label, may arrive before others, such as the quiz improvements, which we are still exploring.
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Dr. Michael Thompson is an expert in sexually transmitted diseases with extensive clinical and research experience. He leads campaigns advocating for early diagnosis and prevention of diseases like HIV and gonorrhea.