CLAP FOR SEXUAL HEALTH BREAKTHROUGH21-08-2006Go on admit it...have you ever hadla ate-night, post-pub fumble with someone you didn't really know and failed to use protection? Even if you didn't, there are plenty who have - and one unfortunate side-effect of our increasing sexual license is a corresponding risein sexually transmitted infections. Edward Cameron confesses all.. ******** Sexual health experts are discussing the possibility of allowing people to be screened for Chlamydia through the post. The bacterial infection is one of the most common of the sexually transmitted kind and it appears to be on the increase, costing the NHS £100m a year to treat. More worryingly in 50 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women there can be no symptoms despite it leading to possible infertility. The increased advertising this summer is certainly working on me and has made me seriously consider getting checked out. I'm not ashamed to say that I've had a few partners - more than Pope Benedict XVI and less than Russell Brand - but I'm hardly what you'd call ‘promiscuous'. Nonetheless I fit right in the middle of the most commonly affected male category, that of being aged between 20 and 30. Now in a stable, loving relationship I find myself thinking about the risks I may or may not have taken. In my case I never had condom-free sex with anyone I didn't trust. But all of them I eventually ended up falling out with. In one case after the dust of a stormy break-up I was left with the niggling concern that maybe, just maybe, she might not have been entirely faithful. My problem now is that I've no idea about her potential affair's sexual history. When you have unprotected sex you're not just having sex with one person, you're with every single person that your partner has ever been with and all of their ex-partners too. It only takes one broken condom and one person to decide to not worry about it. We live in an age where by the time an average person reaches their late 20s and gets with their one final true love both could have had the experience of a number of partners. And yet while many will almost boast about their tallies we still find it embarrassing talking about the consequences. There are also too many myths associated with the STI test. A female friend told me she went to see her GP and was advised against having a test because it could affect her ability to get life insurance if the insurer thought she lived a dangerous sex life. This ‘fact' was disputed entirely by the Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinic who assured her that her personal details would never leave those four walls. I'm convinced and I'm going to sort out a test as soon as possible, if only so I can be sure to erase all my previous partners rather than allow the last vestige of a past relationship to be a quiet, vengeful infection that will destroy my chance of having children in the future. I'm told at the most the genital swab can be ‘uncomfortable but not painful'. Either way it's worth it for a clean bill of health and the reassurance that sex with the woman I love will not hurt either of us. And anything that allows more people to break through the taboo of STIs, such as postal screening, is surely to be welcomed.
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