Things you'd ask a friend at 1am.
Honest answers about dating, testing and the bit in between. No lectures.
Am I in a situationship? A field guide
Four months in, you know how he takes his coffee and not what you are. The signs, the excuses, the one text that ends it, and what it means for your sheets.
Can you get an STI from oral? Yes. Here's the grown-up version
Which ones, which way round, why your kit might not have checked your throat, the cold sore thing, and what people actually do about it. Accurate, unbothered.
The ick, breadcrumbing, soft launching, love bombing: a dictionary for the group chat
Every term the group chat uses and you've been nodding along to. From the talking stage to zombieing, with one entry we added ourselves. Screenshot freely.
Do you have to tell someone you got tested?
No. It's your test and your business. But there's a version where telling him is the best move you've got, and one where you really should. Here's both.
First-date green flags nobody talks about
Everyone knows 'nice to the waiter'. Here are the quiet ones: how he leaves, what he doesn't say about his ex, and the one you can see before you've even met.
He says he's clean. What does that actually mean?
Usually: no symptoms and no thoughts. The four questions that turn 'I'm clean' into an actual fact, the 'since' problem, and why he's probably not lying.
How long do results take, and what happens if it's positive?
Postal kit, clinic, the wait, the text. And the bit you're actually googling: what happens if it comes back positive. Spoiler: tablets, mostly.
How often should you get tested if you're dating around?
The honest answer, the calendar version, how soon after a new person, and why 'but I've got no symptoms' isn't the reassurance you think it is.
How to ask if he's been tested without killing the vibe
The exact words, the right moment, what to do with each of his four possible answers, and the version where you don't have to ask him anything at all.
It's Sexual Health Week. The theme is connection. Here's the one conversation nobody's having.
Brook's Sexual Health Week 2026 is about connecting in a world of endless scrolling. Fair. But there's a connection we're all avoiding, and it's the ten-second one before you sleep with someone.
What a clean test actually covers (and what it doesn't)
The four things every standard kit checks, the ones it skips, why your throat might be missing, and the timing catch nobody mentions. Accurate, unbothered.
What the talking stage actually is (and how long it should last)
Three weeks of good mornings and no date in the diary. What the talking stage is for, when it's working, when you're being kept warm, and how to get out of it.
Why nobody asks: the psychology of the awkward question
You know you should. You never do. Not stupidity, a trap: the question announces one thing, implies another, and lands at the worst moment. Here's the way out.