Yes. Vaccines are always tested for safety in humans before they are approved, and all of the vaccines mentioned in this guide have been in use for decades, with millions of people receiving them.  

Most people who receive a vaccine experience no side effects aside from temporary ones like a sore arm, a mild headache, or a runny nose. Serious side effects from routine vaccines are exceptionally rare. If you’re worried, talk to a health professional or community organisation beforehand about your concerns. You can also continue to take your HIV meds, HIV PrEP, antibiotics (including DoxyPEP) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) when getting any of the vaccines above. 

The easiest place to receive your vaccines from is your local or regular sexual health clinic. They will usually have vaccines in stock ready for routine administration. Use the clinic-finder links below to see where you can get your vaccinations from. 

• England

• Northern Ireland

• Scotland

• Wales

You may also be able to access vaccines from your local GP. Other means of getting your vaccines include pop-up clinics. The Love Tank occasionally runs these as part of our outreach programmes , and we advertise when and where these happen we on our website. 

Getting the full course of the vaccines you’re eligible for – or even if you don’t get a complete course – will significantly reduce your chances of getting an STI if you are exposed to one. This is what scientists mean when they describe how effective a vaccine is. For example, studies have shown that a full course of the Hepatitis A vaccine is more than 95% effective, meaning people who have received it are 95% less likely to get Hepatitis A than people who haven’t been vaccinated against it. 

However, it’s possible that you may still get an STI even if you’re fully vaccinated. Vaccines cannot provide 100% protection due to many factors, including how our individual bodies respond to infection. That said, it’s also important to remember that, if they do get an STI, vaccinated people are much less likely to experience severe symptoms or require hospitalisation.  

Vaccines are only one part of sexual health and just one way of looking after ourselves, the people we have sex with, and our communities. Vaccines work in combination with other ways of preventing STIs, including HIV PrEP, DoxyPEP, testing and treatment, or using condoms or dental dams.

However, even if you are using none of these as part of your routine sexual health, getting your vaccines can be a relatively simple and fast way to look after both yourself and your sexual partners.

In general, there is no risk to getting more than one of your vaccines at the same time. However, it might not be possible to get all your vaccines at once – you only have so many injection sites! The person giving the vaccines may recommend no more than two at a time, with one shot in each arm, as they may end up feeling quite sore. 

Completing the vaccine courses offers you the greatest protection, but even one shot of a vaccine offers more protection than none. Because of this, don’t hesitate to get the vaccine doses you can, even if you’re unsure about being able to complete the full schedule.  

If you have difficulty remembering what doses you need to get or have already had, we’ve provided some advice below to help you keep track.

We know it can be hard to keep track of exactly which vaccines you’ve had, or how many doses you’ve received. One thing you can do is to build up your own vaccine tracker. 

You can do this by setting up a list on your Notes app on your phone or making a small table in a notebook. You can use the information on this page to work out which vaccines you’re eligible for, how many doses you need, and when you can get them.  

As an example, here’s what a schedule for a 30-year old gay men who hasn’t received any vaccines yet could look like: 

By creating your own vaccine schedule, you can set reminders for yourself, and you’ll be able to go into a clinic and know exactly what to ask for. You can even sync up different dosage schedules, so that you can receive different vaccines on one appointment, reducing the amount of time you’ll have to spend in a clinic. 

If you don’t remember how long it’s been since your first dose of a certain vaccine and you’re worried about when to get your second dose, the recommended spacing between doses is the least amount of time you need to wait. For example, while the advice here says you should wait 28 days to get your second dose of the MPOX vaccine after receiving your first, it’s OK if it’s been much longer than 28 days.  

If you’re still not sure, or if you can’t remember which vaccines you’ve had in the past, talk to your sexual health clinic. They may be able to offer more specific advice and work out what vaccines you may have received based on the information they have. They may also be able to administer immunity tests for Hepatitis A and B to help determine if you need to have a further dose of either vaccine.

Yes - there’s a combination vaccine that combines the Hepatitis A and B vaccines, marketed as “Twinrix”. If you take this option, you’ll need an initial shot, followed by another 30 days later, and another 5 months after the second dose.  
 
This can be a convenient option if your clinic has it, as it means you’ll need fewer injections over all. Check with your clinic if they have this available and discuss it with your doctor if you’re not sure if you’ve previously had this, or the single vaccine options.

NHS sexual health services, including the vaccines recommended, are free for everyone to use - including overseas students and people with insecure immigration status. If you’re a sex worker, you may need to disclose this in order to confirm your eligibility for the vaccines you need, but NHS sexual health clinics, by law, cannot share your information without your permission (including to your family doctor or GP). They can only share details about you with other authorities if they believe there are safeguarding issues (such as concerns about abuse, neglect, or modern slavery. Being a sex worker is NOT considered a safeguarding issue). 

You also do not have to give your real name when you visit a sexual health clinic. You’ll only need to provide a postcode, and some means of contacting you, such as an email address or a phone number. This way, the clinic can contact you and provide the support and care that you might need. 

It can. The Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI), the scientific advisory board that makes recommendations to the government and the NHS, will sometimes add to or change the advice on which vaccines people should get.  For example, the recommendation to get an MPOX vaccine was first made in 2022, while the recommendation for Men B for gonorrhoea was first made in 2025.  

Other times, the UK Health & Security Agency (UKHSA) might issue an alert and encourage a specific group of people to get a specific vaccine.  The information on this page will be updated if information and recommendations change, or new alerts are issued.  

The bugs that cause infections don’t discriminate. They don’t care if you’re gay, trans, or if you were paid for the sex you’re having. The reason why the NHS provides vaccines for free to certain communities is based on their likelihood of getting an STI.  The kind of sex a person has, the places sex happens, the amount of sex they have, and who they have it with, all affect the likelihood of different STI transmission.  

Our understanding of who is more likely to get an STI is built around behaviour and actions, but when developing a national vaccine policy and easy-to-use guidelines for clinics, it’s simpler to use identity categories as a shorthand.  For example, not all gay men are more likely to get an STI, but when looking at community-wide data, gay men as a whole are more likely to be exposed to an STI than men who don’t have sex with men.   
 
What this also means is that sometimes, people who probably should be able to access the appropriate vaccines, might not be able to because they aren’t easily described or captured by those identity categories. The kind of sex you have, who with, and how often, may mean that you could benefit from getting vaccinated against certain STIs.  

The best thing to do is discuss this at your next regular visit at a sexual health clinic. You could talk about the kind of sex you have, and why you think you could benefit from getting a vaccine for the STIs mentioned above. Your clinician can then use this information to help determine if getting a vaccine/s could be a good idea.

It can be challenging to disclose personal information about yourself, or about the kind of sex you might be having, to a medical professional, but it’s important to remember that this is how they can work with you to get a better sense of  how you could benefit from a vaccine. The information you offer will be kept completely confidential. 

Yes. The vaccines listed on this page are suitable for most sexually active people. But you may need more vaccines, depending on other factors. 

For example, if you plan on travelling, you may need to get vaccines to protect you against infections that may be common in the places you’re travelling to. You can check this link to find out exactly which vaccines you’ll need depending on your destination. 

In addition, people living with HIV can receive further vaccines from their GP as part of their care plan. These vaccines are free but are usually not available from sexual health clinics and instead would be provided by your GP. Your eligibility for the following vaccines may also depend on your CD4 count, and existing immunity, so it’s worth discussing this further with your clinician.   

You can learn more about these recommendations from the British HIV Association’s guidelines, linked here.