Young People In Ireland Are Shockingly Blasé About STIs
A study carried out on sexual health among 5oo Irish people has led to some concerning findings.
The Durex survey - which questioned men and women aged between 18 and 24 - found that 68% never had an STI check. It also revealed that men are even less likely to get checked compared to women - 77% of males have never had an STI check, compared to 59% of females.
The results also showed that 54% have never asked a partner if they'd recently been checked for STIs.
The survey, carried out in November, revealed a distinct lack of understanding Irish people have of STIs - for instance, 43% of those surveyed thought that genital herpes could be cured with prescription medication.
When it came to talking to partners about STIs, 38% said they would tell all recent partners if they were at risk of getting an STI while 37% said they would only inform their current partner.
The majority of young people interviewed said that contracting an STI wasn't their biggest worry when having unprotected sex.
Below are some of the results of the findings.
- 68% have never had an STI check
- 54% have never asked a new sexual partner if they had recently had an STI check
- 53% admit that pregnancy is the biggest worry when having unprotected sex
- 43% mistakenly believe genital herpes can be cured with prescribed medication.
- 12% have had an STI scare
- Of those who reported having an STI scare, 10% say they were initially more intent on using a condom when having sex, but eventually fell back into their old habits.
- 36% would be too embarrassed to discuss the topic of STIs
- 38% would have the courage to inform all their recent sexual ex-partners of an STI risk
- 14% don’t consider having unprotected sex something they worry about