Opening up About Sexual Health Screening
Reported May 14, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Though young women may be fine with being tested for sexually transmitted diseases, they dont like talking about their sex lives with their doctors.
According to a new survey from the University of Melbourne in Australia, not only did they not want to give details, sometimes they lied about it.
The findings indicated that women, especially younger ones, would accept age-based screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like Chlamydia, but they dont want to be targeted or questioned extensively about their sexual history or partners.
Previous surveys found women did not mind giving such information at family planning or sexual health clinics, but felt uncomfortable when their general practitioners took detailed sexual histories before offering the test.
The studys authors acknowledge that its important for young women to understand that Chlamydia is an STI and their partners should be notified if they test positive. However, they question whether asking for a detailed sexual history is necessary and that it might be better if the test was offered as part of a regular check-up.
Researchers also stress the importance of de-stigmatizing the testing and normalizing the offering of it so individual women dont feel singled out.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, published online May 13, 2008