Features

Sexual Health in Scotland

Sexual health in Scotland remains poor. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that the incidence of sexual ill-health in the Scottish population remains unacceptably high. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes so many people ignore their health and well-being around sex, but many people have no concept of changing their behaviour to keep themselves safe from unnecessary consequences of sexual activity.

It should be fairly simple – use a condom and save yourself and your partner a lot of hassle! Most men in our society would recognise a condom, unfortunately many refuse to use them, considering their own and others’ health not worth protecting. It’s a sad reflection of our society that we don’t care that much about ourselves.

I was reading the other day that those reporting that ‘information about STIs had no effect on their behaviour’ tended to increase with age – 80% of men aged 50-69 compared to 22% of those aged 16-19.* This is quite depressing in many ways. Mainly in that younger people are being set such a cavalier example by their elders – something that has been troubling me for some time now. It’s not an issue that most ‘mature’ people like to consider, as it’s a bit close to home, and so the focus of sexual health work remains fixated on young people.

I’m not saying that young people don’t need sexual health education, and even more importantly, relationships education, as they clearly do. They also need to be encouraged to use services and to be welcomed by those providing such services. However, I think that by focusing their minds on the activity of young people, as if there’s something different about them, the adults involved in policy development and service delivery fail to make sexual health something that all society is involved in. Until all society is seen as the source of the solution to Scotland’s poor sexual health and well-being I don’t think we’ll ever tackle it properly.

Meantime, in Scotland, amongst men who are over 40, the incidence of Chlamydia has increased by 500% since 1997. Although statistically speaking, most people with Chlamydia are 20-24, this is still a major increase and should be setting off alarm bells. It will be interesting to see over the next ten years or so how we manage to start making any impact on the sexual behaviour of men in Scotland. Considering what competition there is from the media, in which men are still regularly portrayed as being some kind of sexual ‘hunter-gatherer’, and women as willing fodder for this, the campaigns for safer sexual activity and relationships founded upon rights and responsibilities will have their work cut out. And if you think such a comment is unreasonable, check out the lads mags section of your local newsagent next time you’re there.

Sex is only one facet of the relationships that men find themselves involved in, and I am pleased that mhfs continues to be heavily involved in the work of trying to engage more men in tackling domestic violence in Scotland. I think that we need as a society to invest heavily in life-long education around assertiveness, as this would go a long way toward lessening the incidence of aggressive and violent behaviour that we see. It seems a real shame that something so fundamental to ALL relationships: good communication, is left so much to chance.

A good dose of assertiveness injected into the population would also see a big reduction in the transmission of STIs, as far as I can see, as men wouldn’t be quite so reticent about protecting their health.

*(Omnibus Contraception and Sexual Health survey 2005/06 quoted in Sexually Transmitted Infections and Other Sexual Health Information for Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, 2007)

Tim Street, Chair, MHFS