Health Issues
Sexual Health & Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Introduction
Although sex education is all around in schools, magazines, health centres, family planning clinics do we really ever pay as close attention as we should when it comes to prevention? Do we really make that effort to pick up the leaflets printed for our benefit?
The majority of us will have to admit to that very failure. Why? Perhaps we feel that the "it will never happen to me" syndrome is stronger on an area which, even today, there is still a bit of taboo though this is more prevalent is certain parts of the country than others.
I have always practised safe sex with the exception of two partners. During the time of practising safe sex I still managed to catch Chlamydia twice. The two partners I chose to trust, one turned out to have both Chlamydia and thrush, the second had recently finished her course of Doxycyline but not yet pronounced clear. Ooops.
So whilst in the local Genito-Urinary (GUM) clinic I gathered up all the Health Education Authority leaflets and decided to reproduce them here. Why? Because many of you might never see these leaflets and also due to the rising prevalence of certain diseases like Chlamydia in the UK today. Some of them are incredibly easy to catch no matter how safe you think you are.
I hope you will browse at least some of the areas covered. Hopefully you might learn something you did not know and take that little bit more care.
The facts reproduced in the topic areas are from Health education Authority factsheets and are available free from GP surgeries, NHS sexual health (GUM) clinics, or your local health promotion unit (in the phone book under your local Health Authority).
We gratefully acknowledge the copyright that exists on some of this written information. We thank the copyright owners for their permission to reproduce the information here.
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