[GuanYin]

Ok, this thread may be a bit out of order on this board. So if I'm out of line, Mods, apologies and please shut it down. I don't know if a poll is appropriate, but I don't expect many people will answer posting, so I'll leave it up to the mods I guess.

I got a mail in work yesterday with recent statistics on STI infections, including HIV, which estimates that prevalence is on the up in this country again. It is especially high in 14-25 year olds with males 33% higher than females.

In 2002 we reached a record high of 3200+ confirmed cases of HIV. The other countries where HIV prevalence has risen are Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland.

One of the things that struck me is, this implies that people are still having unprotected sex. Another thread on boards.ie I saw also suggested this and I'm wondering if the safe sex awareness campaign has failed in this country and needs to be re-initiated.

In someways I thoght safe-sex was something that was a given nowadays, but when talking about it with people I know (including people in the healthcare profession), many have engaged in unprotected sex at least once.

So the question I am posing really, is has the STI awareness campaign in this country failed? Does it need a stronger re-initiation. And do you see safe sex as a big deal?

STI CLINICS

Leinster

Dublin Well Woman Centre
Lower Liffey Street Tel: 01 872 8051
Ballsbridge Tel: 01 660 9860
Coolock Tel: 01 848 4511
www.wellwomancentre.ie

Irish Family Planning Association Medical Centres
5/7 Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1.
Tel: 01 872 7088 / 874 2110
Level 3, The Square
Tallaght, Dublin 24
Tel: 01 459 7685/6
www.ifpa.ie

Femplus Clinic
Blanchardstown
Tel: 01 821 026
www.femplus.ie

STI Clinic, St James Hospital
01 416 2315/6

STI Clinic, Mater Hospital
01 8032063/8034780

Midlands Crisis Pregnancy Counselling Service
1800 20 08 57

Life Pregnancy Care Service
1890 28 12 81

CURA
1850 62 26 26

One Family
1890 66 22 12 or 01 662 9212

Pact
1850 67 33 33

Dundalk Institute of Technology
Health Services – STI screening(limited screening, will refer onto STI clinic)
Dublin Rd
Dundalk
Co. Louth
Tel: 042 9570452

Institute of Art Design and Technology Health Services – STI screening
Kill Avenue
Dun Laoghaire
Co. Dublin
01 2144760

Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown
Health Services – STI screening
Blanchardstown Road North
Dublin 15
Tel: 01 8851105

Dublin Institute of Technology
Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Aungier Street
Dublin 2
01 4023614

Dublin Institute of Technology
Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Bolton Street
Dublin 1
01 4023051

Trinity College Dublin
Health Services – STI screening
College Green
Dublin 2
01 8961556

University College Dublin
Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Belfield
Dublin 4
01 7163133

HIV & Hepatitis testing only
Baggot St Hospital 1800 201 187 or 01 6699500
Beaumont Hospital 809 3006

Connaught

Ballinasloe STI Clinic
090 9648 372 (extension 676)

Castlebar STI Clinic
094 9021733 ext 3501

Galway Family Planning Clinic
091 562 992

Galway STI Clinic
091 525200

Sligo G.U.M Clinic
071 9170473

Mayo Crisis Pregnancy Support Service
1890 20 00 22

Ballinasloe Crisis Pregnancy Support Service
1850 20 06 00

National University of Ireland, Galway
Health Services – STI screening (€20 charge for screening)
University Road
Galway
091 492604

Munster

Cork Family planning Clinic
021 427 7906

Carlow STI Clinic
051 842646

Clonmel STI Clinic
051 842646

Cork STI Clinic
021 4966844

Ennis STI Clinic
061 482382

Limerick Family Planning Clinic
061 312 026

Limerick STI Clinic
061 482382 & (061 316661 Sexual Health Helpline)

Nenagh STI Clinic
061 482382

Tralee Family Planning Clinic
066 712 5322

Tralee STI Clinic
021 4966844

Waterford STI Clinic
051 842646

Youth Health Service
021 422 0490/1

Sexual Health Centre, Cork
021 427 6676/021 427 5837

Kerry Crisis Pregnancy Counselling Service
Family Planning & Women’s Health Clinic, Tralee
066 712 5322

Kerry Counselling Centre, Tralee
066 712 2931

Southwest Counselling Centre
064 36416/064 36474

West Cork Crisis Pregnancy Counselling Service
1890 25 23 59

University College, Cork
Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Cork City
Co. Cork
021 4902311

Institute of Technology, Tralee
Health Services – STI screening
Clash
Tralee
Co. Kerry
Ireland
066 7191679

Limerick Institute of Technology
Health Services – STI screening
Moylish Park
Limerick
061 490106

Athlone Institute of Technology
Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Dublin Road
Athlone
Co. Westmeath
090 6424693

Waterford Institute of Technology
Health Services – STI screening (limited screening, will refer onto STI clinic)
Cork Road
Waterford
Co. Waterford
051 302873

Ulster

Altnagelvin STI Clinic
048 71611269

Belfast STI Clinic
048 90 63 4050

Coleraine STI Clinic
048 703 46027/8

HIV Support Centre Northern Ireland
048 9024 9268

Newry STI Clinic
048 30835000 Ext: 2243 or 5050

Letterkenny Institute of Technology Health Services – Chlamydia testing only
Port Road
Letterkenny
County Donegal
074 9186855

A map is available here: http://www.thinkcontraception.ie/info_contacts.asp

information on STD's:
http://www.gumnewcastle.nhs.uk/page.asp?id=2

[thedrowner]

i don't think STI awareness in this country is very good. i was shocked by a 21 year old friends last week who though that pulling out was a faultless form of contraception (i know its not the same as an STI but it just goes to show the lack of awareness)

i blame drink a lot of the time though. it's scary how things don't matter when you've had that much alcohol. and you could still be aware when you're drun, you just don't care because it seems like such a good idea at the time, you think you're invincible.

[Miguel_Sanchez]

To be brutally blunt if you don't use protection in this day and age you are a moron.

No matter how nice that person seems there's no way that you can know where they've been or who they've been with.

[Typedef]

Originally posted by sykeirl
So the question I am posing really, is has the STI awareness campaign in this country failed?

That depends on what you mean by failed?

People are aware of stds, the same way they are aware of cigarettes causing cancer, but, getting drunk or simply having brovado (hence the high incidence of STDs in young males (thinking themselves unlikely to get infected)), is the main cluprit.

Again, Jesus saves.

[Tha Gopher]

I know of 5 guys who caught crabs off one girl recently.And she isfrom a different town,which shows how it can spread so easily to an area.Not the serious disease in the world but still.Does a condom provide any protection against crabs?Or do you catch it off the hair?If she is shaven can you catch it?What are the diseases that condoms provide no protection against?

But in all honesty are STDs a big public health timebomb or is it hype?I read that one in six young Irish women have chlamydia.As only 50% of people expereicne any symptoms which would require a doctors visit that means that 1 in 12 are at risk of carrying this disease for years and spreading it.But is it really this bad?And if it is not powerful enough to cause symptoms does that mean it is relatively inactive and so poses little risk to anybody?

Also what is the risk with prostitutes?Just wondering as I might be going to Amsterdam with friends soon and you only live once
Honestly its Amsterdam,where you do what you like.Get prosttutes from store windows,smoke hash in cafes,do the safest and best quality ecstasy around and buy a shedload of porno.Nobody judges you for what you get up to over there

But the way that I look at it is that STDs have been around since god knows when.They were enough of an issue in the 1940s for the US government to warn troops in Norn Iron to stay away from local women who were regarded as being a bit infested with them.So if society didnt collapse back when there were few cures for these illnesses arewe really in such awful trouble today?

And if there are so many fertillity threatening STDs how come 30 year old skanger slappers are still giving birth to their 8th children?Thats what Ive always wondered when they tell you alcohol and cigarrette abuse damages your fertillity when you see Anto who has been an alcoholic since he was 12 have his 12th kid.

[Shiminay]

If you have unprotected sex then you deserve all you get!

If you swallow - beware. Do you know this person? They could be riddled! Sure, you won't get pregnant (ladies), but you could catch something nasty.

[NeMiSiS]

But in all honesty are STDs a big public health timebomb or is it hype?I read that one in six young Irish women have chlamydia.As only 50% of people expereicne any symptoms which would require a doctors visit that means that 1 in 12 are at risk of carrying this disease for years and spreading it.But is it really this bad?And if it is not powerful enough to cause symptoms does that mean it is relatively inactive and so poses little risk to anybody?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chylamdia can lead to infertility in women,I saw a documentry not so long ago about a girl who had contracted it unawares,after a few months of trying for kids they went to the doctor,where he diagniosed it. An operation later led to her being told she could never have kids . She was absoloutly heart broken. As im guessing would anyones mother/sister/girlfriend be.

So no it poses a huge risk,just cause it doesnt manifest in symptoms,doesnt make it dangerous..

nem

[WhiteWashMan]

Originally posted by Kharn
If you have unprotected sex then you deserve all you get!

If you swallow - beware. Do you know this person? They could be riddled! Sure, you won't get pregnant (ladies), but you could catch something nasty.

did you catch something dav?



but i agree, anyone who doesnt use contraception, and i dont just mean the pill, i mean some sort of shielding contraceptive, then you are idiot.

people do know, they just believe that they are invincible, that nothing can happen to them. its just a teenage state of mind. hell, when i was a teen, i thought i culd do anything and nothing could touch me. ive had pregancy scares once to often in college, and thats what copped me on. whos to say im any differnt from kids nowdays?

but i still think you gotta use a condom!

[Cabaal]

Originally posted by Jeff_Lebowski
To be brutally blunt if you don't use protection in this day and age you are a moron.

I totally agree, No pitty what so ever if they have no common sense at all.

Actually to be honest, you can still be drunk have have sense enough to wear a condom.
drink is not an excuse!

[Zombrex]

Cabaal
Actually to be honest, you can still be drunk have have sense enough to wear a condom.
drink is not an excuse!

Most people I know it is ignorance rather than being drunk .. i know lots of guys and girls who will happly have sex, sober, without using protection.

I was amazed when i first when to college at the complete lack of knowledge about STDs everyone seemed to have. I went to a school that had quite a good Sex Ed program, but still i didn't know a whole lot and started reading up on stuff when i started having sex. But most of my friends either choose to pretend STD didn't exist or barely knew they existed in the first place. Most people i knew worried about only 2 things, pregency and AIDS. They took the pill for the first and rationalised that the odds of getting HIV were so small, and went out and had lots of unprotected sex.

There is a general feeling, I think, that we (young society) don't want things such as reality to get in the way of us having fun. The people on the telly have random unsafe sex all the time it looks like fun. We are bombared with images of sex sex sex everywhere. We want to be able to have sex when ever and with who ever we want. Pick up a lads or lasses magazine and it is fully of "I had sex with a strange on a plane" or "I shagged the waiter in the bathroom at my 21 birthday." That sounds like fun, we want to do it as well.

We use any old excuse to rationalise unsafe sex (plenty of STD you can get with a condom, herpes, warts, HIV etc etc) and get on with the fun. And when was the last time you say a character on TV getting an STD.

Tha Gopher
Also what is the risk with prostitutes?Just wondering as I might be going to Amsterdam with friends soon and you only live once

Kinda shows my point in glaring light ...

You want to shag a prostitute cause you think it sounds fun (when did sleeping with a prositute become something someone did before they died??) and you don't want a little thing like the huge probability she has a serious STD stop you. So you are rationalising down the risk. Ah it can't be that bad etc ...

Tha Gopher
What are the diseases that condoms provide no protection against?

Most people have no clue how to use a condom properly, and they fail and rip all the time, but to answer your question -

Any genital skin infection, such as Herpes and Warts can be carried on areas that the condom doesn't cover. Also it is doubtfull that condoms protect against warts even if covered.

HIV can be stopped by a condom, but it is not a guarantee. A condom will lower the risks not remove them. Same with the other serious STD viruses.

There is no complete protection against STDs for intercourse. Safe sex is more about being smart about the choices you make, rather than what medical device you use.

[simu]

So much is said these days about STIs but awareness of their existence is not enough!

There should be a better system in place for ppl who suspect they have become infected!

Many students and 2ndary school students have difficulty paying for one or more visits to a doctor to get treated and for the medicine needed to treat these infections.

Plus, ppl are so afraid to take sex seriously in this country - we love to make jokes and giggle but many ppl are too complexed to admit to a doctor or even to themselves that yes, they have had multiple partners and that yes, they have taken risks.

In fact, does anyone know how to go about getting one's self tested for STIs in Ireland? (I'm thinking I should do so myself)

I know in other countries, ppl who are sexually active and who have had different partners go for routine check-ups say once a year. This seems like a really good idea to me as it encourages ppl to be responsible for their sexual health. Do ppl in Ireland ever do this or do they mostly just wait for symptoms to become impossible to ignore before taking action?

[The Sweeper]

Chlamydia is one of the most widely spread STDs in the world. If left untreated it can cause PID (Pelvic Inflammatory Disease) which can cause scarring of the fallopean tulbes and can make women infertile. It does have symptoms - I'm not going to gross people out by going into 'discharge' details so if you want to know about it, go here for instance. Chlamydia is diagnosable through urine samples or other testing, and is easily curable with antibiotics.

Chlamydia is occasionally mistaken by some people for Thrush, a yeast infection that nine out of ten women suffer from in their lives. It isn't the same thing.

However, men can catch Thrush from unprotected sex. This simple fungal infection, while not remotely life threatening, is highly uncomfortable. Couples in long term relationships who have poor sexual health due to lack of awareness, or the highly common refusal to see a doctor out of embarassment, for instance, can constantly reinfect each other through unprotected sex.

Inotherwords you shouldn't just wear a condom because you're afraid of HIV.

And yes, I agree 1000000% that awareness of all issues sex-related in Ireland is poor, poor, poor. I blame this directly on the fact that a lot of the posters on these boards will have parents from a generation who just DID NOT talk about sex, (born in the 40s - 50s) or a generation later than that where they talked about it a bit while the Catholic Church railed against it (the 60's 70's). How are Irish young people supposed to educate themselves when their parents, out of their own lack of awareness, don't actively promote it?

Personally, I think the internet is one of the most valuable resources in sex education. If you can surf for porn, you can surf for information on contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and any other question that you're too embarassed to ask someone directly.

[Mercury_Tilt]

Originally posted by Minesajackdaniels


Personally, I think the internet is one of the most valuable resources in sex education. If you can surf for porn, you can surf for information on contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and any other question that you're too embarassed to ask someone directly.

Indeed.

But it just not the same whacking off while reading about sexual diseases compared say to a bit of blackonblonde tbh.

[jammy_dodger]

No matter how nice that person seems there's no way that you can know where they've been or who they've been with.

Unless of course you know where they've been and who they've been with.

[The Sweeper]

And I thought life was all sold out of rose coloured glasses...