Survey finds little awareness about the symptoms, duration and risks of sexually transmitted diseases
YOUNG PEOPLE know very little about sexually transmitted infections and are more concerned about the social embarrassment they could cause than about the health risks, new research has found.
The Voice of Young People – A Report on Attitudes to Sexual Healthinterviewed some 120 people aged 18-20 years, as well as four groups of parents of younger teenagers.
It found that the 18-20 year olds had a superficial awareness of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but had a very low level of knowledge of the symptoms, duration and health risks of the diseases.
Almost none of the young people interviewed knew that STIs could lie dormant for years without showing symptoms, and many young men did not know that an STI could make them sterile.
“In the main, the primary concern among respondents with contracting an STI was not the potential health consequences, but the social embarrassment that it might cause in the event of their friends finding out,” the report said.
“For a minority of respondents [particularly young girls] the prospect of becoming infected with an STI was deemed to be a bigger crisis than an unplanned pregnancy.”
One 18-year-old woman told the researchers: “It would nearly be easier to say you’re pregnant. You would have your family supporting you.”
The research was commissioned by Pfizer Healthcare for its Way2Go health programme.
Almost all the young people interviewed said they would not tell anyone if they got an STI.
More worryingly, they said they would not confront the person from whom they got the infection, out of fear that the “infector” might publicly blame them.
Many of those surveyed also said that the sexual history of their partners was a taboo subject because it could lead to jealously or anger if it was revealed.
“The decision by both young men and women as to whether their partner is ‘safe’ [ie, at risk of passing on a sexually transmitted disease] tends to be based on a subjective judgment of their partner’s social background and character,” the survey found.
Many young men, and some young women, said they had unprotected sex on more than one occasion. “In almost all cases, alcohol was acknowledged to be involved, with many reporting being drunk.”
Speaking at the launch of the report yesterday, Dr John Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases, said STIs were on the rise but many were not reported. “The new trend is HIV in the heterosexual population,” he said.
Dr Lambert said many people were walking around not knowing that they had a disease such as chlamydia because they had no symptoms.
He said teenagers should know that they could get an STI from oral sex and that an infection such as herpes stayed with them for life.
Dr Lambert called for routine screening of young people to detect such infections.
