Sexual Health Education

Good sexual health is something that is publicised by the NHS a lot. The trust I work for frequently has localised campaigns around sexual health. However, my clinics are full every day with people who are worried about the possibility of having a sexually transmitted infection. Many of them do have something to worry about as they have practiced unsafe and risky sex on a relatively frequent basis. Why, when the NHS spends so much money on educating people about good sexual health are we still in a position where people are regularly practicing unsafe sex and exposing themselves to Sexually Transmitted Infections.

I work in a hospital in the centre of a large city and we see people from all around the city, some from the more affluent areas and some from the less affluent ones. When they come, we give them advice (as well as testing them for the STIs which they are most at risk of having) and they leave with a load of condoms and literature on sexual health and safe sex. However, one does wonder whether the patients use the free condoms they’ve been given or if they read the literature we give them. I suspect that some do not, while others do.

Sex Education in schools leave a lot to be desired. Pupils are not receiving adequate information on safe sex and sexual health. They get the very basics about STIs, but that’s not enough. I went into a school with a community nurse as part of my training a while back and I asked the group we were with whether they knew what a GUM Clinic was, how to find one and the importance of being tested whilst being sexuall active (the group was full of 16/17 year olds). Few knew what a GUM clinic was, fewer knew how to find one and even fewer again knew the importance of getting tested for STIs. This concerned me greatly, needless to say by the time we’d finished I had given them all the information they needed (whether they paid any attention or not is another matter).

Better education in schools on Sexual Health is something I really do think we need. Just now we have a situation where the quality of sexual health education varies between schools. A national sexual health education curriculum which is taught in all schools across the country is something we desperately need if we are going to tackle the ever rising numbers of people diagnosed with STIs.

Have sex, but safely please!