STD Testing in Houston: 2023 Local Rates, Clinics, Lab Draw Sites, and Costs

Houston is one of the largest STI markets in the United States — but the story is volume and access, not rate shock. Across the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro (the surveillance area CDC uses for the 100 largest US metros), 2023 case counts are enormous in absolute terms: nearly 36,000 reported chlamydia cases and roughly 14,400 gonorrhea cases in a single year. That sheer volume makes regular screening a routine part of sexual health for Houston adults, whether or not you have symptoms.

The rate picture is more nuanced than the raw counts suggest. For chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, the Houston metro's 2023 rates sit below the 100-metro average. HIV is the exception: metro Houston's 2023 diagnosis rate runs above the metro average, and it is the one infection on this page where a Houston-specific urgency argument holds up in the data. These are diagnosis counts, not estimates of how many people are living with HIV — CDC labels them as new diagnoses during the year.

This page walks through the numbers with citations, then the practical side: where Houstonians can get tested at lab draw sites, which clinics advertise free or income-based testing in their own words, what private lab testing costs, and which per-infection guides go deeper.

The figures below come from CDC's 2023 NCHHSTP metro-level surveillance for the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land CBSA, with a population denominator of 6,688,958. The "mean" in each label is the average rate across the 100 largest US metros, so you can see where Houston sits relative to peer metros. Combined, the metro recorded 52,934 cases across these four infections — a rate of 791 per 100,000, ranking 64th of 100 metros by combined rate. High volume, middle-of-the-pack rates: both things are true at once.

State-level surveillance uses different geography and different years, so these numbers should not be mixed with the metro figures above. Texas DSHS tracks STIs by surveillance site, and Harris County — Houston's core county — is the state's largest site. In DSHS's 2022 STD EpiProfile, Harris County recorded 31,406 chlamydia cases (656.9 per 100,000), 12,935 gonorrhea cases (270.6 per 100,000), 5,670 total syphilis cases (118.6 per 100,000, up 12.8 percent year over year), and 1,082 primary & secondary syphilis cases (22.6 per 100,000, up 26.1 percent). Harris County led all Texas surveillance sites in primary & secondary syphilis case count that year.

DSHS has documented steep multi-year rises in syphilis statewide in this EpiProfile series, describing the trend in the framing of a statewide syphilis epidemic. One honest caveat cuts the other way: CDC's National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System provisional 2026 year-to-date data show Texas declines versus the same period in 2025 (chlamydia down about 9.5 percent, gonorrhea down about 6.5 percent, primary & secondary syphilis down about 28.4 percent). Provisional data get revised as reporting completes, so the durable takeaway is the evergreen one: STI rates move year to year, testing answers the question for any individual regardless of which way the curve is bending.

If you order a private lab panel — such as through STDcheck — your order is filled at a partner lab patient service center. You order online, walk in with the requisition, give a urine or blood sample, and leave; the visit itself typically takes about five minutes, and no appointment is needed.

Houston has no shortage of draw sites. Counting published Labcorp and Quest location sitemaps on October 17, 2026, we found roughly 18 Labcorp and roughly 25 Quest patient service centers in Houston city proper, with more than 80 across the wider metro. We counted locations from the labs' own published directories; this page does not list individual lab addresses, and the lab finders on each company's site (and the STDcheck lab locator) are the right place to pick the site closest to you.

If you're uninsured, several Houston clinics advertise free or income-based testing in their own words — quoted below with links so you can verify. Hours and funding change; call ahead. Every cost claim here is the clinic's own language, not ours, and eligibility rules differ by service and by location.

Houston Health Department's Northside Health Center (8504 Schuller Rd., Houston, TX 77093 — (832) 395-9100) offers walk-in STD services and states that "no one will be denied access to services due to inability to pay; there is a discounted/sliding fee schedule available." Sibling health centers include Sharpstown (6201 Bonhomme Rd., 77036) and Sunnyside (4410 Reed Rd., 77051). A September 2026 notice from the department encourages appointments, with walk-ins taken as capacity allows.

Legacy Community Health's Montrose site (1415 California St., Houston, TX 77006 — (832) 548-5000) advertises no-cost HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis C testing at participating locations, noting that other testing and costs vary by service and eligibility. Legacy also runs an Express STI pilot for uninsured asymptomatic patients on Tuesdays and Fridays; the clinic asks patients to call 832-548-5221 to confirm eligibility. Legacy's Wellness Bar location (120 Westheimer Rd., Suite F, 77006 — (713) 814-3730) lists walk-in HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis C testing, with full-panel STI testing by appointment — call ahead to confirm the current schedule.

Planned Parenthood's Northville Health Center (9919 North Freeway, Suite 107, Houston, TX 77037 — (713) 514-1106) offers broad STD testing and treatment; contact the center for pricing. Nationally, Planned Parenthood says some of its centers provide STD testing at no cost or reduced cost depending on income, with financial assistance available for uninsured patients — eligibility at this specific center varies, so calling is the way to confirm.

Avenue 360 Health & Wellness in Midtown (2920 Fannin St., Houston, TX 77002 — (713) 426-0027) states on its HIV testing page that it offers free rapid HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis testing, walk-in Monday through Friday; call to ask about other STI testing availability. Clinic hours, funding, and walk-in capacity at all of the above change without much notice — a five-minute phone call before you go saves a wasted trip.

There is no Houston-specific pricing for private lab testing — STDcheck and the national lab networks charge the same national prices at a Houston draw site as anywhere else in the country. The price table on this page reflects prices as published on October 17, 2026 on stdcheck.com/std-test-pricing.php. A $6 physician fee is added at checkout, and the links on this page apply a $10-off coupon to your order. Prices can change; the pricing page is the source of truth at the moment you order.

Three paths exist in Houston, and they optimize for different things. Sliding-scale clinics optimize for cost when you're uninsured — funding is grant-based, so expect variable wait times and call-ahead requirements. Private single tests ($24–$59 before the coupon) optimize for answering one specific question quickly. Panels optimize for breadth: the 10 Test Panel at $139 covers ten markers — including chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV 1 & 2, herpes 1 & 2, and hepatitis A, B, and C — in one draw visit, which is usually cheaper than buying the equivalent singles separately and spares you a second trip.

Each of these guides covers window periods, test methods, and what the national and local data show, with citations. Chlamydia: /locations/houston/chlamydia-test/ — the highest-volume infection in the metro by case count. Gonorrhea: /locations/houston/gonorrhea-test/ — including what rising antibiotic resistance means for treatment. HIV: /locations/houston/hiv-test/ — the one Houston infection running above the 100-metro average rate, with a look at 4th-generation test windows.

Syphilis gets national coverage rather than a local page in this release: /tests/syphilis/ explains the infection, the tests, and the window periods. Locally, the picture is the Harris County trend above — primary & secondary syphilis case counts up 26.1 percent in the DSHS 2022 data, with Houston leading all Texas surveillance sites in that category.

Every rate on this page is attributed to a published CDC or Texas DSHS source, with the surveillance year and geography labeled so metro (CBSA) figures and county figures are never blended. Clinic cost claims are quoted from each clinic's own published language and linked so you can verify them; we live-checked each clinic page on October 17, 2026. Lab draw-site counts come from Labcorp and Quest published location sitemaps, counted the same day, and we have not listed individual lab addresses.

This page has not yet been reviewed by a medical professional — reviewer status is deliberately unset until a licensed reviewer signs off, consistent with our policy that no health content ships as reviewed without a human reviewer. Nothing here is medical advice; it is consumer information with citations, so you can make your own decisions and ask better questions of whichever clinician you see.