Monetary difficulties are resulting in a fall-off in the numbers attending Well Woman clinics for sexual health testing
THE RECESSION is having a significant impact on the numbers availing of testing for sexually transmitted infections and fertility, according to the medical director of Dublin’s Well Woman Centres, Dr Shirley McQuade.
At the launch of the centre’s latest annual report yesterday, she also said that more women were taking breaks from the contraceptive pill for cost reasons.
She said women sometimes turn up and say they hadn’t taken it for three to four months because they couldn’t afford it, and seek advice on cheaper options.
In addition, a trend first reported a year ago when the centre said increasing numbers of women attending its three pregnancy counselling services in the capital were considering terminating pregnancies as a consequence of the recession, had continued over the past 12 months, she said.
The report states that “increasingly a presenting element in the counselling session revolves around financial concerns for clients who may be without employment, or working on reduced hours and so on.
“There would appear to be concerns for many that they are financially unable to continue with a pregnancy due to the insecurity of future employment or having mortgage related issues.”
Dr McQuade said the numbers attending for cervical smear tests remained constant at between 8,000 and 9,000 a year, but this is a free service under the national cervical cancer screening programme.
However, she said the numbers attending for testing which must be paid for, such as testing for chlamydia – a sexually transmitted infection which can have no symptoms but could lead to infertility if untreated – had fallen.
While more than 4,500 women were tested for the infection in 2008, this dropped to less than 3,500 in 2010. This drop, the report says, reflected the overall decrease in numbers attending the clinics “and also the reluctance of people to incur additional costs – even though the extra cost is only €15 for the test”.
An analysis of some 12,000 chlamydia test results taken between 2008 and 2010 by Well Woman found the highest prevalence of infection was among those aged under 20, where up to 15 per cent of those screened had the infection.
The numbers of men and women availing of “full screens” for a whole range of sexually transmitted infections has also declined over the last three years, down from almost 3,000 in 2007 to 1,600 last year.
The report says this is “probably due to a combination of factors including less money available for discretionary spending and less people in the at-risk age group now living in the country”. Full screening for a couple costs €200.
While screening for sexually transmitted infections is available free at a number of public hospitals, the waiting times for appointments could be up to eight weeks, said Dr McQuade.
Putting off check-ups or delaying treatment for an infection may result in people compromising their sexual and reproductive health, she added.
Dr McQuade also said that since computerised records began at the centre in 2002, there had been an increase every year in the number of couples attending for initial infertility investigations.
Last year, however, was the first year the numbers coming into Well Woman clinics for such a consultation declined, and she believes this is yet another example of how the recession may be impacting on women’s reproductive health.