Few Boys Receive Counseling On STIs, Contraception, Study Shows

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Men's health;  Pediatrics / Children's Health;  HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 22 Apr 2010 - 4:00 PDT

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Between 2001 and 2002, fewer than one-fourth of boys ages 15 through 19 received counseling from a health care provider about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and fewer than one-fifth discussed contraception with a health care provider, a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health shows, the New York Times reports. Despite recommendations that teens receive reproductive health counseling, the study found that the proportion of boys who received it was unchanged since 1995. Other reports show that nearly two-thirds of sexually active young women receive sexual health counseling.

The new findings are based on a 2002 national survey of 1,121 male teens who were asked about sexual health counseling they received during the previous year. Respondents who had three or more female partners or engaged in anal or oral sex with a male partner during that time were more likely to have received sexual health counseling, the study found, though it noted that a similar proportion of this demographic received counseling in 1995.

Arik Marcell, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's lead author, said, "The medical system is really set up to serve women and maternal-child health in ways that aren't addressing young men's needs" (Rabin, New York Times, 4/16).

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