A "CRADLE-TO-THE-GRAVE" national sexual health strategy should be a priority for the Government, according to the Dublin Well Woman Centre which has reported sharp increases in sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
The organisation has also called for a national screening programme to test women and men under 25 for the STI chlamydia, which can result in ectopic pregnancy, infertility and chronic pain.
Its 2007 annual report shows that of 4,670 clients screened for chlamydia, 5.5 per cent tested positive, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.
In the five years from 2005, the numbers tested for chlamydia had increased three-fold, those attending for full STI screening had risen by a factor of five to almost 3,000 and the number of couples attending because of fertility problems, had doubled. Dublin Well Woman has three centres in Liffey Street, Pembroke Road and Coolock. Its chief executive, Alison Begas, said "our own statistics for chlamydia show a need for national screening of women under 25 and men in the same age group because they are 50 per cent of the problem in terms of chlamydia".
Ms Begas stressed the need for a structured national health strategy rather than the current piecemeal approach and said a national strategy would have to include better sex education, better access to screening services for STIs, better information and referral to services for menopause, premenstrual syndrome and infertility. She highlighted that "there are many 40-something and 50-something-year-olds out there whose marriages have broken down, who completely missed the sex education message the first time around and we have to give them that sex education now".
The Well Woman Centre started 30 years ago and was primarily about contraception and preventing pregnancy but now women are seeking help for infertility. There was still a lot of the same ignorance of 30 years ago around now, she said. Ms Begas said there is an openness among people to come for testing, but the problem is "what they're doing on the other 364 days of the year".
It was clear that Ireland's sexual health needs are changing. Most people now have multiple sexual partners in their life time; they are delaying child birth and living longer, with the consequence that most remain sexually active for longer, Ms Begas said. The population's needs have moved beyond basic contraception to encompass a whole range of sexual and reproductive healthcare services.
She pointed out that the highest prevalence rates for chlamydia were concentrated in the under-25 age category. "Reflecting client age, lifestyle and socio-economic factors, there was a marked difference in chlamydia prevalence between our Coolock clinic and our clinic at Pembroke Road. In Coolock, prevalence for the disease was almost 19 per cent among under-20s who were tested, while at Pembroke Road, the prevalence rate was under 9 per cent for the same age group.
"The high prevalence rate of chlamydia among certain groups of young people would suggest that either sexual education is inadequate, or that sex education is not translating into consistent behavioural change."
A national programme of screening for chlamydia would be effective at early identification of chlamydia among high-risk groups, she said.
