Brook Encourages Sexual Health Services To Be More Welcoming To Boys And Young Men, UK

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Men's health
Article Date: 13 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Brook has launched research to encourage sexual health services to be more welcoming to boys and young men, Through the eyes of young men - a new vision for sexual health services, which looks at the reasons why young men do not make full and effective use of sexual health services.

Boys and young men make up just 20% of Brook's clients with lack of information and mistaken expectations stopping them from using services. Many are unaware of what sexual health services are and who provides them, a common perception being that sexual health clinics are just for girls or will involve embarrassing, invasive and painful physical examinations. Young men find it embarrassing having to talk about their sex lives and are worried about judgemental attitudes or being 'told off' for taking risks.

The research found that boys and young men are less interested in health than young women partly because of the perceived need to have a 'macho' image, or that asking for help or using sexual health services would be seen as a sign of weakness. Contraception is the most common reason for young men visiting (54% use the Brook service to obtain free condoms) and the second most common reason was to support a girlfriend who was getting contraception.

Only a small minority (18%) use services for the first time on their own - more than half come in with a male friend or group of friends (54%). Although young men are generally positive about using services to protect their sexual health, they prefer to go to friends or family for the emotional aspects of relationships.

Simon Blake, Chief Executive of Brook, said: "The research will support sexual health services and professionals in meeting the needs of young men and encouraging more widespread use of services. We need to look at sexual health services through the eyes of young men and ensure that we cater towards their interest and concerns as well as provide opportunities to engage with them."

"We can improve sexual health services for young men by promoting and improving access to services, using outreach programmes to go to the places where young men are and involving those who use the service in support of someone else."

Trefor Lloyd of Working With Men said: "The strength of this research is that it brings it all back to basics. Within sexual health we are too often looking for what is new and sexy, while this research reminds us that young men will access services if we provide what they want (condoms) at a time they want them and as long as we don't treat them as special or alien. I was left thinking that unless we place access to condoms at the corner of our sexual health strategies we will never see enough young men using services."

To complement the research, Brook is launching a Spermcatcher poster campaign to encourage condom use.

The research was supported by an educational grant from Durex and was carried out by Simon Forrest of 'Working with Men'.

Face to face interviews were conducted with 33 current service users. Survey questionnaires were completed by 215 service and non-service users.

1. Brook is the UK's leading provider of sexual health services and advice for young people under 25. The charity has more than 40 years' experience of working with young people and currently has a network of more than 50 services in 18 areas of the England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Jersey.

Brook services provide free and confidential sexual health information, contraception, pregnancy testing, advice and counselling, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and outreach and education work, reaching more than 200,000 young people every year. http://www.brook.org.uk.

2. 12th - 18th May is National Condom Week (NCW). For more information on NCW, please log onto http://www.durexchange.co.uk.