This page is general health information, not medical advice. It cannot tell you whether you have an infection. A clinician can, and the testing options on this site are a good place to start.

Getting tested for sexually transmitted infections is a routine part of health care. This guide covers every main route to STD testing in San Diego: county and community clinics, Planned Parenthood, primary care, urgent care and at-home options. It also explains what happens at a visit, what gets tested, what to ask for, and what you can expect to pay.

Some details, such as exact prices and the county clinic's hours, are not published in the places we could read. Where that is true, we say so and tell you who to call.

Key takeaways

San Diego has free and sliding-scale testing. The San Diego LGBT Community Center lists its services as free, and Family Health Centers of San Diego offers free HIV testing and low-cost STI tests at its Hillcrest clinics.
The County of San Diego Central Public Health Center sexual health clinic charges based on income, according to the CDC's GetTested directory. Call (619) 229-5400 to confirm eligibility and whether you need an appointment.
Many STIs have no symptoms. The CDC recommends screening based on age, anatomy, sexual activity and health history, so ask a clinician which tests fit you.
Bacterial STIs and trichomoniasis are curable with treatment from a clinician. HIV, herpes and HPV are not curable, but they are treatable or manageable.
Under California Family Code section 6926, a minor who is 12 or older can consent to STI care without a parent.
Test results and window periods vary by infection. A clinician can tell you what a result means and when to retest.

In this guide

Your testing options in San Diego
County, community and LGBTQ+ health centers
Planned Parenthood, primary care, urgent care and at-home testing
What a testing visit involves
What gets tested and what to ask for
What testing costs
Your rights, privacy and San Diego numbers
Sources

Your testing options in San Diego

There is no single right place to get tested. The best choice depends on your budget, your schedule and how private you want the visit to be. Here is how the main routes compare.

The county sexual health clinic. Run by the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency. It lists income-based charges.
Community health centers. Family Health Centers of San Diego runs a daytime clinic and a evening clinic in Hillcrest. Both list sliding-scale costs and walk-in service.
LGBTQ+ community services. The San Diego LGBT Community Center lists free testing, including rapid HIV tests.
Planned Parenthood. The College Avenue center lists sliding-scale payment and no appointment requirement in the CDC's GetTested directory.
Primary care and urgent care. Your own doctor or an urgent care clinic can order tests. Costs depend on your insurance.
At-home testing. Family Health Centers of San Diego lists mail-in and at-home options.

If you want a quick list of local clinics to start with, the local testing list gathers them in one place. You can also use the CDC's own locator at gettested.cdc.gov, which lets you look up testing sites by ZIP code.

A note on how this guide treats the clinic details. Directory listings, including the CDC's, can be out of date. Call before you go, especially for hours, appointments and cost.

County, community and LGBTQ+ health centers

These are the lowest-cost routes in the city. Each one is listed below with what its own published pages say.

County of San Diego Central Public Health Center, sexual health clinic

This clinic is run by the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency and sits inside the Southeastern Live Well Center at 5101 Market St, San Diego, CA 92114. The CDC's GetTested directory prints the address with Suite 200. Another county-related snippet shows a different suite number, so confirm the suite when you call. The phone number is (619) 229-5400.

According to the CDC's GetTested listing, the clinic:

Lists a free STI test and a free HIV test.
Accepts insurance, Medicaid and Medicare.
Charges based on income, and asks you to call to confirm eligibility.
Tests for HIV, hepatitis B and C, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.
Offers hepatitis A and B, HPV and mpox vaccines, plus PrEP navigation.

Two things are not settled. The CDC listing says an appointment is required. Other material about county sexual health clinics suggests walk-in service. The clinic's hours are also not published in the sources we could read. The simplest fix is a phone call before you travel.

Hillcrest Family Health Center, daytime clinic

Family Health Centers of San Diego, a federally qualified health center, runs a daytime clinic at 4094 4th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103. Its page lists hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and says walk-ins are welcome. The appointment line is (619) 515-2300, and the information line is (619) 515-2545.

The clinic lists STI screening and treatment, PrEP and PEP, and HIV and hepatitis services. The page also says staff may be able to waive fees or help with insurance enrollment. The Gateway Center Way address that appears on some Family Health Centers materials is administrative only, so do not go there for care.

The Night Clinic at Hillcrest Family Health Center

The Night Clinic uses the same address, 4094 4th Avenue. Its page lists Monday through Thursday, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. A Friday schedule is not listed. The page describes "free and confidential HIV testing and low-cost STI tests," and says walk-ins are welcome. It also mentions free parking.

Services listed on the page include HIV and hepatitis testing, STI screening and treatment, PrEP, PEP and doxy-PEP. The page says fees may be waived or help with insurance enrollment may be available. You can reach the clinic at (619) 515-2545, and the page also lists (619) 515-2300 as the appointment line.

For people who work days, an evening clinic with walk-in service can be the easiest way to fit a test into a week.

San Diego LGBT Community Center (The Center)

The Center is at 3909 Centre Street, San Diego, CA 92103, phone 619-692-2077. According to the CDC's NPIN listing, it offers on-site chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis testing, plus rapid HIV and rapid hepatitis C testing, and PrEP navigation. The listing says there is no fee for services and that appointments are not required, with a note to contact the organization about eligibility.

The listed hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The listing adds a note to call for STD and HIV testing hours. A local news report gave a separate appointment contact, 619-800-4252, so the two sources differ. A short call will settle it.

Anyone can ask about testing here. The Center serves the LGBTQ+ community, and its listing does not limit services by identity.

UC San Diego Health Owen Clinic

The Owen Clinic is primarily an HIV care clinic. Its page describes a PrEP clinic for HIV-negative patients interested in PrEP, with appointments by phone at 619-543-3995. The page does not mention STI testing, so this is a PrEP route, not a place to get a general STI panel.

Planned Parenthood, primary care, urgent care and at-home testing

Planned Parenthood College Avenue

The Planned Parenthood Sarah Weddington Center is at 4575 College Ave, San Diego, CA 92115, phone (888) 743-7526. The CDC's GetTested listing says an appointment is not required. It lists payment through insurance, Medicaid and a sliding scale, plus PrEP for the uninsured.

The listing names rapid and blood HIV tests, and tests for herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. It also lists hepatitis B and HPV vaccines and PrEP navigation. Hours were not available in the listing, and Planned Parenthood's own site could not be read, so check hours with the center before you go.

Your primary care provider

A primary care doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant can order STI tests as part of a regular visit. This route works well if you already have insurance and want your results in the same chart as the rest of your care. It also lets a clinician link testing to other prevention, such as vaccines.

Tell the clinician plainly that you want STI testing. Do not assume a routine blood draw or a Pap test includes it. We could not find a published local price list for primary care, so ask your insurer or the office what you will owe.

Urgent care

Urgent care clinics can test and treat when you have symptoms such as discharge, burning when you urinate, sores or pain. They may cost more than community clinics, and which tests they run varies. We have no San Diego urgent care pricing or test menus to cite, so call the clinic and ask what is included before you go.

At-home and mail-in testing

Family Health Centers of San Diego lists at-home or mail-in testing through two programs, TakeMeHome and Don't Think, Know. The page does not state eligibility or cost. If you get a positive at-home result, the page says to call (619) 876-4462.

The CDC notes that at-home HIV self-tests are available, and that a positive self-test result needs follow-up testing with a health care provider. The same idea applies to any at-home result: a clinician confirms it and helps with next steps.

What a testing visit involves

Most people find the visit shorter and less awkward than they expected. Here is the usual shape of it.

Before you go

Call to confirm hours, whether you need an appointment, and what you may be charged.
Bring photo ID if you have it, and your insurance card if you have insurance. Ask whether either is required, since some free programs do not need them.
If you are testing for chlamydia or gonorrhea with a urine sample, ask the clinic whether to avoid urinating for a while beforehand. Instructions vary.

The conversation

A clinician or counselor will ask about your sexual health. Expect questions about the kinds of sex you have, the number of recent partners, condom or barrier use, past STIs, and any symptoms. The CDC's guidelines encourage clinicians to take this history in a respectful, nonjudgmental way, and to ask in a way that fits every gender and orientation.

You can answer as much as you are comfortable with. The answers help the clinician choose tests, including which body sites to sample. Throat and rectal swabs, for example, matter for people who have oral or anal sex.

The tests themselves

Urine sample. Commonly used for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
Swabs. A clinician or you may collect a swab from the vagina, throat or rectum, depending on exposure. The CDC says self-collected vaginal swabs are acceptable for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing.
Blood draw or fingerstick. Used for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis. Rapid HIV tests use a fingerstick or oral fluid and give a result during the visit.
Sore or lesion swab. If you have a sore, a clinician can swab it to test for herpes.

Results and follow-up

Rapid tests, such as the rapid HIV and rapid hepatitis C tests listed at The Center, can return a result in the same visit. Other tests go to a lab and take longer. Ask how you will be told, by phone, portal or in person, and how long it usually takes.

If a test is positive, the clinic can explain what it means and what a clinician may prescribe. Bacterial STIs and trichomoniasis are curable with treatment from a clinician. HIV, herpes and HPV are not curable, but they are treatable or manageable with ongoing care.

What gets tested and what to ask for

A common surprise is that there is no single "full STD panel" that every clinic runs by default. What is included depends on the clinic, your history and your symptoms. It helps to ask directly.

Who the CDC recommends screening

The CDC's STI Treatment Guidelines (2021) set out screening by group. In summary:

Sexually active women under 25: yearly chlamydia and gonorrhea screening. Women 25 and older are screened based on risk, such as a new partner or more than one partner.
Men who have sex with men: at least yearly screening for syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea at the sites of contact, and more often for those at higher risk. The CDC lists a range of every 3 to 6 months.
Everyone ages 13 to 64: HIV screening at least once, with more frequent testing for people with ongoing risk.
Adults: hepatitis C screening at least once, according to CDC recommendations.
Pregnant people: syphilis, HIV and hepatitis B testing at the first prenatal visit, with further testing depending on risk. Check with your prenatal provider about timing.
Transgender and nonbinary people: screening is based on the anatomy you have and the kinds of sex you have, not on gender label.

The CDC does not recommend routine herpes blood testing for people with no symptoms. If you have a sore, a swab from the sore is the preferred test. Ask a clinician about your own situation.

Questions worth asking

Which infections will this visit test for, and which will it not?
Do you swab my throat or rectum, if that fits my sex life?
Do you do a rapid HIV test, and how long until I get results?
Is syphilis testing included?
How will I be told my results, and who do I call with questions?
If something comes back positive, can I get treatment here?

Window periods

A window period is the time after an exposure when a test may not yet pick up an infection. The CDC gives these ranges for HIV tests:

A nucleic acid test (NAT) can usually detect HIV 10 to 33 days after exposure.
An antigen/antibody lab test using a blood draw can usually detect HIV 18 to 45 days after exposure.
A rapid antigen/antibody fingerstick test can take 18 to 90 days.
Self-tests can take 23 to 90 days.

For other infections, window periods differ, and the CDC does not publish a single number that applies across all of them. A clinician can tell you whether testing now would be informative or whether a repeat test later makes sense. If you had a recent exposure and are worried, ask about PEP, which a clinician prescribes and which works only if started quickly. The Hillcrest clinics list PEP among their services.

Prevention tools a clinician can discuss

PrEP. A medicine that lowers the chance of getting HIV. Family Health Centers says PrEP is available at all of its primary care clinics. It may be covered by insurance or available at low or no cost. PrEP navigation is also listed at the county clinic, The Center and Planned Parenthood College Avenue, and the UC San Diego Owen Clinic runs a PrEP clinic.
Doxy-PEP. In 2024 the CDC issued guidance on doxycycline taken after sex to reduce bacterial STIs for certain groups, specifically men who have sex with men and transgender women who have had a bacterial STI in the past year. A clinician decides whether it fits and prescribes it. The Night Clinic lists doxy-PEP as a service.
Vaccines. The county clinic and Planned Parenthood list HPV and hepatitis B vaccines, and the county clinic also lists hepatitis A and mpox vaccines.

What testing costs

Cost is the question people ask most. The honest answer is that it depends on where you go, whether you have insurance and what is tested. Here is what the published sources say.

Where	What the source says about cost
San Diego LGBT Community Center	CDC NPIN listing: no fee for services, with a note to contact the organization about eligibility.
The Night Clinic (Family Health Centers of San Diego)	Clinic page: free and confidential HIV testing, low-cost STI tests, and fees that may be waived.
Hillcrest daytime clinic (Family Health Centers of San Diego)	Clinic page: sliding scale, fees that may be waived, and help with insurance enrollment.
County Central Public Health Center	CDC GetTested: free STI and HIV tests listed, charges based on income, insurance, Medicaid and Medicare accepted. Call to confirm eligibility.
Planned Parenthood College Avenue	CDC GetTested: insurance, Medicaid and sliding scale accepted, and PrEP for the uninsured.
UC San Diego Health Owen Clinic	Cost not published on the clinic's page.
Primary care and urgent care	No local price list available. Depends on your insurance and the clinic.
At-home and mail-in testing	Family Health Centers' page does not state eligibility or cost.

None of these pages lists a specific dollar amount for a test, so we are not going to give you one. Ask each clinic for the fee in advance, and ask whether the amount changes with your income.

Ways to keep the cost down

Start with a free or income-based clinic from the list above.
If you have insurance, ask whether STI screening counts as preventive care. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea in sexually active women 24 and younger and in older women at increased risk, and recommends HIV screening for ages 15 to 65. Under the Affordable Care Act, many plans cover USPSTF-recommended preventive services without cost sharing, though details vary by plan.
Ask about fee waivers. Family Health Centers of San Diego says it may be able to waive fees.
Ask whether you can have results shared in a way that does not go to a household insurance statement, if privacy is a concern.

Your rights, privacy and San Diego numbers

Minors can consent to STI care

California Family Code section 6926 lets a minor who is 12 or older consent to diagnosis and treatment of an infectious, contagious or communicable disease that must be reported to the local health officer, or a related sexually transmitted disease, and to care related to the prevention of an STD. The statute says parents are not liable for payment. The Guttmacher Institute's review of state policy, current as of August 1, 2026, lists the minimum age as 12 and lists no parental notification provision for California. The statute text we read does not mention notification either. If you are a minor with questions about billing or privacy, ask the clinic how it handles statements and results.

Treating partners without a visit

California Health and Safety Code section 120582 allows expedited partner therapy. A physician who diagnoses chlamydia, gonorrhea or another specified STI may provide antibiotics to the patient's sexual partners without examining them. Nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives and physician assistants may also do so. Prescriptions for a partner whose name is unknown are marked "expedited partner therapy" or "EPT." If you are diagnosed, ask your clinician whether this applies and how to tell partners. Partners can also come in for their own testing.

California's law on disease transmission

California Health and Safety Code section 120290, as amended in 2017, covers any infectious or communicable disease, not HIV alone. Intentional transmission requires knowledge, specific intent to transmit, conduct posing a substantial risk, and actual transmission. Willful exposure applies only after a person has violated a health officer's specific instruction. Both are misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in county jail, and an attempt by up to 90 days. The statute says that taking practical means to prevent transmission, such as using condoms, negates intent. Knowing your status does not change the main point: testing is a health step, and clinics keep results confidential.

The local picture

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency's HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch compiled 2024 numbers for San Diego County, reported by Times of San Diego on March 2, 2026:

Chlamydia: 16,414 cases in 2024, down 7.4 percent from 17,720 in 2023.
Gonorrhea: 6,021 cases in 2024, down 9.5 percent from 6,651 in 2023.
Primary and secondary syphilis: 309 cases in 2024, down 35.8 percent from 481 in 2023.
Congenital syphilis: 31 cases in 2024, down from 36 in 2023. The county reported three stillbirths or neonatal deaths in 2024, the most since 2019.

These are county counts, not per-person rates, and the article did not show rates per 100,000 people. The decline is good news. The congenital syphilis figures are a reminder that syphilis testing during pregnancy matters. A prenatal provider can explain what testing is recommended and when. We could not confirm a specific California prenatal syphilis screening requirement, so ask your provider.

County HIV diagnosis figures and statewide numbers were not available in the sources we could read. The County of San Diego's sexual health page is a good place to look for updates.

A simple next step

Pick one option from this guide and make one call. If you want a free route, the San Diego LGBT Community Center and the Night Clinic both list free HIV testing, and the county clinic lists free tests with income-based charges. If you would like to compare more places, search by ZIP code at gettested.cdc.gov. Testing is a normal part of taking care of yourself, and every clinic named here is set up for exactly this.

STD Testing in San Diego: Where to Get Tested, What It Costs and What to Expect