BMC Public Health 2009, 9:311 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/311 A semi-structured interview approach was used. Interview questions examined why respondents decided to go for STI testing, whether they acted upon this desire immedi- ately or decided to wait, and what they felt were important barriers/enablers to their health-seeking attempts. Follow- up questions explored the reasoning behind respondents' responses in more detail. A non-directive approach was used in the interviews to allow respondents to shape their own accounts. Interviewing continued until we deemed theoretical saturation to have been reached (the point at which no new themes were emerging). Researchers have proposed 30 as an approximate or working number of interviews at which one could expect to be reaching theo- retical saturation when using a semi-structured interview approach [13]. Interviews were tape-recorded (with respondents' permis- sion) and fully transcribed. Significant key words, phrases and themes in the interview transcripts were marked with summary words or 'codes' by the first author. Coded tran- scripts were then passed on to the second author. The sec- ond author reviewed the coded transcripts to ensure the reliability of the first author's codings, and to see if any further themes could be detected in the transcripts that the first author had missed. Once the first and second author agreed on the codings, all codes that were thematically similar were grouped together, and labeled with a sum- mary code, called a category. In line with standard quali- tative procedures [7], these categories then became the organizing themes of our analysis. In the findings section representative quotations are accompanied by codes pro- viding details about the respondents who uttered those quotations (see Table 1 for a key to these codes). Results Why do young people decide to go for STI testing? Respondents attended health services for STI testing for one or more of four reasons. First, they had come to a tran- sitional moment in their lives or personal relationships. This could be where respondents were about to enter a more intimate, though potentially more hazardous, phase in a sexual relationship (typically when they decided to Table 1: Key for respondent quotation codes stop using condoms for the first time) and wanted to min- imize physical vulnerability and feelings of uncertainty. I was maybe 24 and I was just moving in with a guy and we'd bought a house and we were going to be hav- ing unprotected sex and going on the pill so I said, right, I'm getting everything checked out. (F/FP/late 20 s/+). I'm with a long term girlfriend at the moment and we don't want to use condoms any more and she got tested and I got tested. We wanted to be sure that we were both clean and that we wouldn't be giving any- thing to each other. (M/SH/early20 s/-). A transitional moment could also be an instance where respondents were emerging from a sexually risky phase of their lives. This could be a phase where respondents had had sex with a number of potentially risky partners, or when they had been in a long-term sexual relationship with a partner whom they retrospectively considered to be 'high risk'. I was traveling abroad for a few months. I split up from my girlfriend and let myself loose being free and single again. I had a number of partners in a fairly short period of time. I felt safe. They weren't prostitutes and they weren't working in strip clubs. There's a lot of dis- eases with hookers and stuff like that but they were just ordinary girls that I knew from college. It was in the back of my mind that maybe there was a chance [that could get STI] so I just decided to get the test. (M/ SH/mid 20 s/-). STI testing at the exit phase of a risky relationship or life period had ritualistic and moral significance for respond- ents. It served to bracket the risky period/relationship and enable and mark the beginning of a new and clean iden- tity [14], one characterized by self-respect and a protec- tive, positive orientation towards self and body. The process of going for a STI test was portrayed as a 'cleans- ing' in itself. M F Early/mid/late 20 s SH FP GP STI MSM - + Male (self-defined as heterosexual n = 6, MSM n = 3) Female Respondents' age Went for STI testing in Student health service Went for STI testing in Family Planning service Went for STI testing in GP practice Went for STI testing in STI clinic Went for STI testing in specialist clinic for men who have sex with men (MSM) Tested negative for STI Tested positive for STI Page 3 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes)