Having the “STD talk” is an awkward but necessary part of any new relationship. Sure, sitting down with someone you want to jump in the sack with and asking them when they were last tested probably isn’t anyone’s idea of a hot date, but it’s got to be done, right?

The folks who created Qpid.me are hoping to make that awkward conversation a little less awkward – by taking it out of the real world and putting it behind a screen.

Qpid.me is a free site that allows users to create a private profile detailing their STD status. People can use the service to request their STD results from their doctor or clinic and attach their results to their profile. Then, they can discreetly share these results (including the date they were last tested) with anyone they want using a one-time-use link. The site supports results for HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, hepatitis C antibody and the HPV and hepatitis A vaccines, but not for HPV and herpes (apparently they’re harder to verify).

“We think the shareability of that information — verified information — is absolutely critical,” says founder and CEO Ramin Bastani.

The benefits

Qpid.me’s first benefit is obvious: it makes that awkward STD talk as easy as sending a text.

Second, the results are taken straight from doctors’ records, meaning they’re a lot harder to fake or lie about. Folks who receive a link to the site can be reasonably confident that the STD statuses of their potential paramours are exactly as advertised.

Third, it could provide a jumping off point for candid conversations about sexual history and STD status. As Qpid.me’s medical adviser Dr. Jeffrey Klausner said in an interview with the Huffington post, “Anything that promotes more conversation, more dialogues and more transparency in sexuality is a good thing.”

The drawbacks

But, as one would imagine, a digital STD reporting service also has its drawbacks.

First, there’s the obvious issue of privacy concerns. Like any other site that stores private information, Qpid.me takes precautions to avoid being hacked, but they can’t offer a 100 percent guarantee your information will never find its way into the wrong hands, or that someone won’t just take a screenshot of your private page.

Second, a person can pick up an STD at any time, meaning test results from even just a month ago may no longer be accurate if an individual has had sex since then. Qpid.me wisely explains that it’s no substitute for protection, and that you should be using a condom anyway – a condom which, if used correctly, should protect against every STD except (somewhat ironically) the ones the site doesn’t test for.

Third, one could argue that if you’re not comfortable discussing the potential negative consequences of sex with someone, you might want to think twice about having sex with them. If you’re planning on having any kind of a relationship with a person, being too timid to discuss the most basic sexual health issue with them is setting a bad precedent for that relationship.

I suppose those standards of openness and being comfortable with yourself and each other might be waived in the case of heat-of-the-moment casual sex – but in that case, due to the time it takes to get the results, using Qpid.me wouldn’t be possible unless both people had already signed up to the site and uploaded their test results.

The verdict

Right now, it seems that Qpid.me’s biggest draw is that it makes lying about one’s STD status pretty difficult. So, if you’re using it to add an extra layer of security to your next romp (people do lie, after all), it’s a good tool to have in your arsenal. But don’t use it to avoid a potentially embarrassing conversation — and for the love of all that is good and sexy, don’t use it as a replacement for safer sex precautions. Be safe, you crazy kids.