No Clinic, No Shame, No Excuses: At-Home STI Testing with Dr. Andy Kogelnik of ProDX Health

Let me paint you a picture.

It's a Tuesday. You've got a lifestyle event coming up this weekend. You know you should test. You also know that means calling your doctor, waiting three weeks for an appointment, sitting in a waiting room next to a guy reading a 2019 fishing magazine, explaining to a nurse who is visibly judging you why you need a "comprehensive panel," getting maybe four tests when you actually needed fourteen, and then waiting another week for results that arrive on a portal so confusing it takes twenty minutes just to log in.

Yeah. No wonder people skip it.

That's the problem Dr. Andy Kogelnik set out to fix. And based on everything he walked us through on this week's episode of Beyond Monogamy, we're pretty sure he did it.

Who Is This Guy?

MD from Emory. PhD in bioengineering from Georgia Tech. Trained at Stanford in infectious diseases. Founded the Open Medicine Institute. And personally referred to our show by Susan Bratton — which, if you know Susan, means something.

Dr. Andy is also the founder of ProDX Health, an at-home STI and hormone testing company built specifically for people who are sexually active, privacy-conscious, and way too busy to spend half a Thursday at a clinic.

What Even Is ProDX?

It's a mail-in kit. A real one. A discreet white box — no logo, no brand name, just a barcode — shows up at your door. Inside is everything you need to collect your own blood, urine, oral swab, and rectal swab at home. You drop it in FedEx (or UPS, or the Post Office, because options), and 24 to 48 hours later your results arrive in a secure app on your phone with two-factor authentication.

No waiting room. No awkward intake form questions. No insurance claim that ends up on your spouse's EOB. No explaining yourself to anyone.

Just results. On your phone. In your slippers.

Pris Was Scared of the Needle. There Is No Needle.

This brought us great joy. Pris spent the entire pre-episode thinking she was going to have to inject herself with something. She was not enthusiastic about this plan. And then Dr. Andy pulled out the blood collection device — a small patch you press against your shoulder or thigh — and she realized it's a spring-loaded lancet that pops in and retracts, you barely feel it, and the whole thing takes about five minutes.

He said people universally respond to it with, "That's all it was?"

Pris's exact words were: "Oh."

The Number That Should Wake You Up

42%. That's the percentage of STIs that are completely asymptomatic. No symptoms. None. You feel totally fine. You have no idea. And you are absolutely capable of passing something along because you feel fine and therefore haven't tested.

"You don't know unless you've tested," Dr. Andy said about seventeen times, because apparently some of us need to hear it seventeen times.

He's not wrong.

What Are They Testing For That Your Doctor Probably Isn't?

Their flagship kit — the Pro13 — covers HIV, hepatitis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, and several others. But the one that caught our attention is MGEN (Mycoplasma genitalium) — a slow-growing, stubborn bacteria that's been rising for years, takes two weeks of antibiotics to treat (sometimes more), and your regular doctor is probably not ordering a test for it because they may not even know to.

ProDX includes it. Because of course they do.

Speaking of communities that get it — this episode is brought to you by SDC, the largest online community for open-minded adults. It's your people, all in one place. No weirdness, no judgment — just a ton of like-minded humans living their best lives, just like us. Make a profile and go poke around. You'll see. Sign up at sdc.com and use code 38236.

Oral and Rectal Swabs: Yes, Both, and Here's Why

Adam brought this up because he did his research and because of course he did. The more comprehensive ProDX kits include multi-site swabs — genital, oral, and rectal — because oral gonorrhea and rectal chlamydia are real, common, and will not show up on a standard genital or urine test.

In a community where oral and anal play are very much on the menu, testing only one site is like checking the front door and leaving every window wide open.

Dr. Andy noted that rectal swabs are also — and he said this with a straight face — "not that bad." It is a small swab. You do not have to go in very far. It is not a colonoscopy.

Privacy. Real, Actual Privacy.

Adam asked the question we all needed answered: what happens to the data? Short version: nothing you'd hate.

ProDX runs its own servers. They don't sell your data. They don't sell your samples. You can test completely anonymously — just give them a way to reach you with results. If there's a positive, they'll call you before releasing it and write you a prescription or connect you to local care. They store only a mathematical hash for identity verification — not your actual genetic data — which means if anyone ever came looking, there's nothing to give them.

PASS Certification: The Adult Industry Gold Standard

ProDX is the first lab to make PASS-certified testing available from home. PASS (pass-certified.org) is the nonprofit that governs testing standards in the adult film industry — and their bar is significantly higher than a walk-in clinic's. For performers, ProDX does a video call to observe the first blood collection, verifies a government ID, does a facial match, and ties the sample molecularly to the authenticated identity.

They literally can't be cheated. They throw a stuffed chlamydia at people at conventions to demonstrate how easy it is to catch an STI. They have a stuffed chlamydia. On their desk. His name is Trick.

Nine STI Kits. Eleven Hormone Panels. Something for Everyone.

Whether you want the full PASS-certified Pro13, a standard panel, herpes-specific testing, or HPV — ProDX has a kit for it. They also have hormone panels covering testosterone, thyroid, sleep quality, sexual performance, longevity, and general health.

Adam heard "sexual performance panel" and has been quietly interested ever since. We're not elaborating further.

The Group Sharing Feature Is Actually Genius

You can share your results — by consent, selectively, on your terms — with partners, a group, or an event coordinator. Several lifestyle event groups have already built ProDX into their ticketing process. Buy your ticket, order your test. Results feed back to the event coordinator anonymously (with your consent). Everyone shows up knowing everyone is good.

That's not a feature. That's infrastructure for a safer lifestyle community.

Adam and Pris Are Testing Live on a Future Episode

They said it out loud. They're doing the full kit — every swab, every step — on camera. If you've ever wanted to watch two people casually collect their own blood and rectal swabs on a podcast, your moment is coming. Subscribe so you don't miss it.

Find ProDX Health

• Website: prodxhealth.com
• Pro13 Kit: getpro13.com
• Social: @ProDxHealth on Instagram, X, and Facebook

And as always, everything Beyond Monogamy lives at www.beyond-monogamy.com.