Sexual Health
498 peer-reviewed studies indexed
'Our rights, Our lives, Our future': evaluation of a 5-year multi-country programme to enhance sexuality education in sub-Saharan Africa.
The 'Our rights, Our lives, Our future' programme made a substantial contribution to keeping sexuality education on the political agenda across 33 sub-Saharan African countries, but delivery was hampered by limited teacher competencies, negative attitudes, and lack of community support.
Prevalence of Neisseria meningitidis carriage among men who have sex with men at a sexual health clinic in Brussels, Belgium: a cross-sectional study.
Asymptomatic Neisseria meningitidis oropharyngeal carriage was observed at 25.2% among MSM at a Brussels sexual health clinic, with serogroup B (50%) most frequently identified and non-vaccination against Nm being the only factor significantly associated with colonization.
From "combined prevention" to "comprehensive prevention": building the response to the syndemic with adolescents and youth in São Paulo, Brazil (2020-2023).
This essay argues for transitioning from 'combined prevention' to 'comprehensive prevention' as a conceptual framework better suited to addressing the syndemic nature of overlapping health and social crises affecting adolescents and youth in São Paulo, Brazil.
The mechanisms by which a whole-school intervention might improve sexual health: qualitative realist research nested in a trial in English secondary schools.
Qualitative realist research nested within a trial identified seven mechanisms through which whole-school sexual health interventions might 'work', including improving knowledge, normalising talk about sexual health, changing gender attitudes, promoting service access, building school engagement, increasing inclusion of sexual-minority students, and reducing sexual harassment.
Youth-Centered Mobile Intervention (Next4You) to Promote Healthy Relationships and Sexual Wellness Among Adolescents in or Transitioning From Foster Care: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Next4You presents an innovative approach to sexual health education by addressing critical gaps in sexual health education for foster youth through mobile technology, evaluated via a randomized controlled trial targeting 500 adolescents aged 16-19 with foster care experience in California.
Optimizing machine learning-based identification of sexual health influencers for HIV self-testing distribution among men who have sex with men in China: a secondary analysis of a quasi-experimental trial.
Among sexual health influencers distributing HIV self-tests to peers, effective distribution was associated with stronger awareness of peers' HIV status, more active sharing of HIV information, and having been accompanied during one's own HIV test.
Chronic inflammatory skin conditions in young people and their impact on intimate relationships: a quantitative and qualitative study.
Young people with chronic inflammatory skin conditions experience significant burdens navigating romantic and intimate relationships, yet 78% reported their clinicians did not adequately enquire about intimacy concerns and standardized metrics failed to capture these psychosexual impacts.
Oropharyngeal gonorrhoea infections among young heterosexual users of online sexual health services across the island of Ireland.
Oropharyngeal gonorrhoea was detected in 92% of gonorrhoea cases among young heterosexuals using an online self-sampling service, with 63% of cases occurring as single-site oropharyngeal infections that would have been missed by urogenital-only testing protocols.
'It's less traumatic because you're in your own home': exploring trauma-informed care for digital sexual health services - a secondary qualitative data analysis.
Online postal self-sampling for sexual health facilitates several trauma-informed care principles by offering privacy, comfort, and control, but gaps remain including limited peer support and concerns about providing sensitive information online.
How Can Oncology Nurses Overcome Barriers to Addressing Sexual Health With Muslim Patients?
Oncology nurses must be well prepared to overcome barriers to addressing sexual health with Muslim patients with cancer, a growing minority religious population in the United States.
Generative AI Chatbots as Digital Adjuncts for Sexual Health Information After Prostate Cancer in Men Who Have Sex With Men: Auto-Netnographic Study.
Contemporary GenAI chatbots, when used as digital adjuncts, may enact communication styles that can be perceived as supportive, culturally sensitive, and LGBTQI+-inclusive in specific sexual health interactions, though they lack ethical consciousness and cannot replace professional care.
Sexually transmitted diseases-related knowledge levels of midwifery students studying at two different universities: A comparative study.
Midwifery students' knowledge levels regarding sexually transmitted diseases were found to be insufficient, with an average STD Knowledge Test score of 14.49±3.83, and significant factors influencing knowledge differed between eastern and western Turkish university students.
An Affective-Sexual Education Program for People With Moderate Intellectual Disabilities: Analysis of Its Effectiveness in the Spanish Context.
The Saludiversex-M affective-sexual education program is effective in improving knowledge about sexuality among people with moderate intellectual disabilities and empowers support staff working with these populations.
Effectiveness of the Continuous Care Model on Quality of Life, Sexual Satisfaction and Function in Bladder Cancer Patients Undergoing Tumor Resection Surgery: A Randomized Control Trial.
The Continuous Care Model intervention effectively enhanced quality of life, sexual satisfaction, and sexual function particularly in males among bladder cancer patients undergoing tumor resection surgery.
Bridging the Gap: Canadian Parents' barriers and concerns in delivering sexuality education - A qualitative study.
Canadian parents face multifaceted challenges in navigating sexuality education, shaped by cultural taboos, lack of resources, and limited confidence in initiating these discussions, underscoring the need for inclusive, parent-focused resources, training, and policies.
Changing the model of HIV PrEP delivery - nurse-led telehealth in a metropolitan sexual health service: a retrospective analysis.
A nurse-led telehealth PrEP clinic ('TelePrEP') with free multi-modal testing pathway was found to be feasible in overcoming issues of accessibility for key population groups including overseas-born MSM, achieving high overall attendance rates, high adherence to guideline-indicated laboratory monitoring, and rapid linkage to treatment for clients with HIV identified on screening.
A holistic evaluation of sexual health disease investigation: case study of the 2022 Mpox outbreak in Santa Clara County, California.
A composite measure evaluation of Mpox disease investigation services in Santa Clara County found that each investigation led to 1.90 outcomes achieved, with an overall composite score of 0.53, demonstrating that disease investigation services produced multiple public health outcomes simultaneously.
Patients' Perception of the Impact of Moderate to Severe Atopic Dermatitis on Their Sexual Well-Being: Comparison of Pre- and Posttreatment with Advanced Therapies.
MtS-AD negatively impacts patients' sexual well-being; however, advanced therapies like abrocitinib and dupilumab can significantly improve the sexual lives of affected patients, highlighting the broader benefits of these treatments on QoL.
'You want to treat all patients the same. . . But it's important to know where someone is coming from': a qualitative study of U.S. healthcare providers' perspectives on culturally relevant sexual and reproductive healthcare for refugee women.
Providers identified multiple important strategies to facilitate culturally relevant sexual and reproductive healthcare for refugee women, including patient-centered care, tailoring care to cultural backgrounds, recognizing implicit bias and structural racism, and partnering with community members.
The relative importance of socio-ecological factors in regard to psychosexual health among adolescent students: based on dominance analysis.
Dominance analysis revealed that peer relationship (36.1%) and parent-adolescent communication about sex (34.2%) were the most important socio-ecological factors influencing psychosexual health among secondary vocational school students, followed by general self-efficacy (14.5%), sexual refusal self-efficacy (9.6%), and parental monitoring (5.9%).
He mana tō te mātauranga - knowledge is power: a qualitative study of sexual and reproductive healthcare experiences of wāhine Māori.
Wāhine Māori want to be told more about their health and options when encountering healthcare providers regarding sexual and reproductive health, as being informed is empowering while feeling uninformed results in a breakdown in trust in the healthcare system and inability to exercise mana motuhake (autonomy).
Using self-generated identification codes to match anonymous longitudinal data in a sexual health study of secondary school students: a cohort study.
Self-generated identification codes (SGICs) successfully matched approximately 72.65% of a longitudinal study sample of secondary school students over a one-year period, while revealing that male students and younger students were less likely to be perfectly matched.
Targeting Side Effects Associated with Androgen Deprivation Therapy Using Melatonin: A Randomized Trial on Hot Flashes and Sexual Health in Prostate Cancer Patients.
Melatonin (3 mg twice daily for four weeks) significantly improved quality of life scores and reduced mild hot flash frequency in prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy, though its impact on sexual function remained inconclusive.
Crowdsourcing a Training Dataset of Question-and-Answer Pairs for AI-Enabled Health Information Tools on Sexually Transmitted Infections: Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Exploratory Survey Study.
This study describes a protocol for crowdsourcing a contextualized, open-access dataset of question-and-answer pairs on sexually transmitted infections from participants aged ≥15 years across sub-Saharan Africa to support the development and training of AI-enabled health information tools.
Visit Types and Linkage to HIV Prevention Among Individuals Seeking Mpox Vaccination in an Urban Specialized Sexual Health Clinic.
Individuals attending mpox vaccine-only visits at a sexually transmitted infection clinic were more likely to be new patients with high socioeconomic status and identify as White than those vaccinated during non-mpox-related visits, and a small number received HIV preexposure prophylaxis or testing following vaccination, representing a potential missed opportunity for HIV prevention.
'And don't say everything will be normal!': An international cross-sectional survey on the patients' unmet sexual wellbeing needs after ostomy formation.
Sexual wellbeing concerns following stoma formation are common and frequently unmet, with 68% of patients receiving no information about the impact of a stoma on their sexual life despite 89% expressing a desire for such information.
Understanding the impact of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome on sexual wellbeing-a qualitative study.
Individuals with MRKH experience unique sexual challenges and demonstrate adaptation and resilience in the way that they navigate sexual norms, sexual relationships, and genital self-image.
Expanding access to STI care with free of charge, convenient services in sexual health walk-in clinics.
Free, convenient sexual health walk-in clinics with sex-positive culture and targeted outreach to key populations represent an approach that could be adapted and expanded to support the public health mission of controlling STI spread.
A Novel 8 Ps Framework for Addressing Complexities in Sexual Health Histories for US Healthcare Providers.
The authors propose an expanded 8 Ps framework for sexual health history-taking that introduces 'Proximity' and 'Perspectives' to address limitations of existing behavior-centric frameworks by incorporating social, structural, and environmental determinants of sexual health.
Analysis of the factors associated with sexual health improvement in patients who underwent surgical management for adult spine deformity.
Long-segment ASD surgery could improve sexual health, which was correlated to physical activity improvement, severe deformity with worse preoperative quality of life, and better postoperative sagittal correction.
Youth social dynamics in low-income urban communities in Brazil: spaces, leisure, and vulnerabilities to HIV.
Leisure and sociability for heterosexual youth in low-income Brazilian communities occur primarily within the community territory, where affective and sexual interactions and substance use take place in the complete absence of STI/HIV prevention campaigns or educational actions.
Engaging Parents in Sexually Explicit Media Literacy Education: Expert Perspectives From Australia and New Zealand.
Sexual health experts in Australia and New Zealand reported that parents were generally comfortable with sexually explicit media literacy education content, but faced challenges with resourcing, accessing certain population groups, and parental lack of awareness of SEM availability and support.
Evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for providing sexual health information: a consensus study using real-world clinical queries.
Prompt-tuned AI chatbots demonstrated superior performance in providing sexual health information compared to base ChatGPT, with high safety scores particularly noteworthy, though all AI chatbots showed susceptibility to generating incorrect information.
Developing a bespoke patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for genital dermatoses: A pilot service evaluation.
A bespoke patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for genital dermatoses demonstrated significant improvements in follow-up patients compared to new patients, affirming efficacy of existing treatments while suggesting a necessity for greater psychological support.
'We Are Trying to Make Sense of Our Lives': Health Promotion in the Context of Young People's Digital Sexual Environment.
Young people interact with digital sexual health content from a wide range of sources and platforms, and this environment serves as an important space for self-exploration in relation to sex, relationships and identity that is situated in the broader context of young people's offline environment, community, and friendships.
Evaluation of a novel comprehensive sexual health e-testing pathway to inform state-wide roll out in new South wales, Australia.
MyCheck, a novel e-testing pathway combining telehealth consultation with direct referral to pathology, was well-received by clients and effective as an STI screening and management testing pathway, though staff offer rates to eligible clients were a limiting factor.
Sexual function and supportive care: Experiences of patients after prostate cancer treatment in a Gauteng oncology centre, South Africa.
Men treated for prostate cancer via radiotherapy reported sexual function challenges that negatively affected their masculinity and intimate relationships, while inconsistent sexual-health support, limited communication, and sociocultural masculinity norms left many without adequate counselling or follow-up care.
Integrating a Human-Centered Design Tool, dScout, to Design a Web-Based Intervention for Parent-Adolescent Sexual Health Communication.
A community-engaged, human-centered design approach using dScout virtual ethnography was used to codesign and beta-test The TALK, a nurse-led web-based eHealth intervention to improve parent-adolescent sexual health communication among Black male adolescents and young adults, yielding positive and constructive usability feedback before efficacy testing.
"I'm Trusting You with My Body": A Qualitative Examination of the Role of Trust in Safer Sexual Decision-Making Among Black Women.
Trust in romantic relationships among Black women influences safer sexual decision-making in complex ways, functioning as both a buffer against risk and a barrier to safer sex practices, suggesting that concepts of trust should be addressed in interventions seeking to improve the sexual health of Black women.
Outcomes from sexual health outreach in asylum seekers in the London borough of Hounslow.
Targeted sexual health outreach in asylum seekers in Hounslow identified high rates of STIs and BBVs, with 9.2% HIV and 12.7% chlamydia prevalence versus 0.17% and 0.29% respectively in England, demonstrating that targeted outreach can improve engagement, testing and care in excluded populations.
Sexual health indicators among young adults living with perinatally-acquired HIV in france, a gender-stratified comparison with their peers in the general population.
Young adults living with perinatally-acquired HIV showed similar results regarding most sexual health outcomes compared to their peers in the general population, however PHIV women reported less sex life satisfaction and more voluntary abortion.
A continuous quality improvement process to create a sexual health curriculum for systems-involved youth.
A continuous quality improvement process applied to the Need to Know teen pregnancy prevention program for systems-involved youth identified seven key areas for curriculum improvement across ten implementation cycles with youth and six with caregivers.
[Promoting sexual health at a local scale. The exemple of the Antenne santé sexuelle Onex].
The 'Antenne santé sexuelle Onex' is a recent integrated local initiative combining free, confidential interviews and sustained networking to improve sexual health care access and remove barriers to care in an underserved area.
Lexicographic qualitative approach of nurse's perspectives on men's access to sexual health care in Portugal.
Nurses' perspectives about men's access to sexual healthcare revealed challenges in recognising men as legitimate recipients of such care, as well as the broader issue of men's political invisibility in this area.
Improving the sexual health of couples with diabetes: study protocol of an action research study.
This study describes a protocol for an action research study designed to improve the sexual health of couples with diabetes using a four-phase approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods.
Continuity of care in crisis: Community based mobile health teams for sexual and reproductive health services in post-earthquake period in Türkiye.
Community-based mobile health teams were critical in reaching women in post-earthquake Türkiye, with 83% of 15,841 women's applications reached by mobile services, while pre-existing gaps in SRH services were exacerbated by the disaster and NGOs became essential in bridging service delivery.
Improving Adherence to Sexually Transmitted Infection Retesting Guidelines at a Sexual Health Clinic.
A multifaceted quality improvement project implementing low-cost reminder-based and education-based interventions exceeded the goal of increasing STI retesting rates by 50% at a sexual health clinic serving youth.
Engagement of Parents in an Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program for Native American Adolescents.
Engaging parents or trusted adults in a teen pregnancy prevention program for Native American adolescents was feasible (82.7% session completion) and resulted in increased parent-youth sexual health communication at 9 months postintervention.
Treatment Model for Young Patients with Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction and Resultant Infertility.
A novel 16-week patient-centric intervention incorporating the GLTC communication framework, Hawton's psychosexual stratification, and educational videos demonstrates clinically meaningful improvements in erectile function recovery rates, coital success frequency, and couple satisfaction in young patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction-related infertility.
Sexual History-Taking in a Surgery Clerkship Assessment: A Stubborn Clinical Skills Gap With Reproductive Health Care Implications.
Reinforcing the clinical relevance of sexual history-taking for surgical patients was associated with higher-quality histories and broader differentials but not higher rates of sexual history-taking.