Category Archives: blog

New online resource gives female travelers access to vital reproductive health care

February 23, 2017blog, HealthSRH Matters

New online resource gives female travelers access to vital reproductive health care

2017-02-23

Getting comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care as a woman is hard. Getting care while jet setting, however, is damn near impossible.

But a silly-named site is looking to change that for female travelers, allowing globetrotters to access need-to-know health information in an easy-to-read wiki.

Gynopedia is an online, open-source database giving women access to free sexual and reproductive health care information for popular travel destinations around the world. The resource, which is searchable by major city, outlines where to go for reproductive health care, including gynecological exams, emergency contraception and STI tests. Gynopedia even advises on where to find safe abortion clinics.

t also includes trusted regional organizations working to promote reproductive rights and curb sexual violence.

Additionally, the wiki details regional stigma around each topic, and offers an average cost of service. Notably, Gynopedia includes information tailored to the LGBTQ community in many of their guidances — a rarity in conversations around reproductive and sexual health.

“Why did I create Gynopedia?” creator Lani Fried wrote on the site. “Honestly, because I couldn’t find anything like it.”

Modeled after Wikipedia’s user-friendly style, Gynopedia currently houses extensive information for 67 cities throughout North America, Africa, Asia and South America.

Fried, who is a San Francisco native, told Broadly she was inspired to create the site in 2016 after she realized how “clueless” she was when it came to accessing sexual health care for her upcoming trip to Asia.

But Fried said difficulty accessing care had been an issue even prior to her 2016 trip. Just moving state-to-state within the U.S., she said, required a lot of time and dedication to find quality care.

“I lived in Istanbul for a while a few years back, and I remembered how challenging it was to get a proper STD test there,” Fried told Broadly. “And not just in Turkey: I have moved to and from a lot of different American cities, and have always had to do way too much research to gain information on what is basic but essential stuff.”

As a frequent traveler, Fried wanted to create a resource that took the guesswork and apprehension out of crucial care for female travelers. But building the database was a one-woman show for a while, with Fried compiling all the information based on her own travels and knowledge.

To help broaden her scope, Fried eventually reached out to national nonprofits and organizations dedicated to sexual and reproductive health to help inform entries.

“When I started it, I was driven by the belief that women and all people — no matter their genders — should be able to make decisions about their own bodies,” Fried said. “Whether they choose to become parents or have an abortion, to use birth control or not, the choice is theirs to make. Women’s health decisions shouldn’t be a political issue.”

Like other Wikipedia-styled sites, Gynopedia allows any user to edit or add information. Though this feature allows the site to cover more global locations, the crowdsourcing nature of the site also has the potential to negatively impact the quality and reputability of the site’s information.

To help set ground rules on editing, Fried created a guidelines page to outline expectations. But while Fried’s top priority is ensuring the site is trustworthy, she admitted Gynopedia — which she calls a “baby-new project” — can’t be her main focus yet.

“The project isn’t my full-time occupation, but I really, really care about it,” she said. “My main goal now is to recruit more contributors so that we can grow into a full-on Wiki and always be current.”

In the meantime, the site is a start to solving a long overlooked issue — and to addressing stigma around sex and sexuality for traveling women.

“I’m no health expert or web entrepreneur. And I probably don’t even know what I am doing here,” Fried wrote on the site. “But I’m someone who has been uninsured, in need of health care and lost in cities many times — and that’s just me. There are millions of women who have it much worse — cut off from information and progressive health care, isolated from so many resources.

“So, that’s it,” she continued. “I got fed up with the state of things, so now I feel crazy passionate about this new ‘lil website.”

Sex and gender education in schools: Government’s resource kit very mature, addresses even homosexuality issues

February 23, 2017blog, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

Sex and gender education in schools: Government’s resource kit very mature, addresses even homosexuality issues

In India, equipping adolescents with adequate sexual and reproductive health information and shaping a gender-progressive attitude in them has historically been ignored.

In India, equipping adolescents with adequate sexual and reproductive health information and shaping a gender-progressive attitude in them has historically been ignored. With sex and gender education dealt with perfunctorily in school curricula—take the out-of-school adolescents into account, and the problem worsens—and adults choosing to either sweep queries under the carpet or remain tight-lipped, many adolescents often turn to dubious sources of information, and that shapes unhealthy attitudes towards these matters in later life. All this, however, could soon change, if the resource kit the Union health ministry has drafted for adolescent health education is widely adopted to inform young adults about these matters. The resource-kit, drafted as a guide to train 1.65 lakh peer-to-peer educators called saathiya, encourages a progressive stand on a wide range of issues such as consent, gender stereotypes, etc.

The most striking change from the past is that the resource-kit addresses the issue of homosexuality squarely—deeming same-sex attraction natural—and advises against discrimination. It also comes out strongly against unhealthy gender stereotypes, reinforced in common perceptions of what constitutes masculine and feminine behaviour, and gender-based violence. There is also relevant information about contraception—teenage pregnancy in India is more than twice as common in US and ten times that of Western Europe, though this has more to do with girls being married off early here—and sexual behaviour that is of immense import in a largely prudish country. With 26 crore adolescents in India, the resource kit and the saathiya initiative are an opportunity to build the right attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health and gender in the adults of tomorrow.

McGill graduate spearheads PornHub’s new sex ed initiative

February 23, 2017blog, blog-home, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

McGill graduate spearheads PornHub’s new sex ed initiative

Pornhub, the largest online provider of pornography, launched a new initiative website on Feb. 1. Called the Sexual Wellness Center, it is the first sexual education website undertaken by a pornographic website.

“At the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center, we are fully dedicated to your health and education, and to create a place where information pertaining to the physical, psychological, and even the most intimate aspects of sex is available to all,” Dr. Laurie Betito, 1988 McGill University graduate in psychology and Montreal-based clinical psychologist, explained.

Betito is the creator of Pornhub’s new initiative and the author of the majority of its content. The Sexual Wellness Center also brings in experts to contribute articles about reproductive health, anatomy, and sexually-transmitted infections, including Dr. Zhana Vranglova, an associate professor of psychology at New York University.

Pornhub had an estimated 21.2 billion visits in 2015, which, according to Betito, is an enormous population who the Sexual Wellness Center would be able to reach.

“Pornography, is […] all just fantasy,” Betito said. “But, unfortunately, it is sometimes the only sort of sexual education people receive and if it’s possible that this website could potentially reach millions of people, it would be a step in the right direction.”

The Sexual Wellness Center also encourages visitors to send in questions regarding any aspect of sex. Betito’s latest responses answer questions regarding the female orgasm and male virginity.

“In just a few weeks, we have received hundreds of questions, telling us that the site has already gained some traction,” Betito said.

According to statistics published by the Guttmacher Institute, a U.S. sexual and reproductive health think tank, 76 per cent of public and private U.S. schools taught abstinence as the best method of avoiding pregnancy. Furthermore, 88 per cent of all U.S. schools allowed parents to remove their children from sexual education classes. Instead, the extensive accessibility of pornography influences children’s and young adults’ views on sex, in particular with respect to its physical aspects.

Not everyone agrees that Pornhub’s sex education initiative is decidedly beneficial. Quartz had a more skeptical outlook on the website.

“The ironies of Pornhub’s endeavor, of course, are clear,” Leah Fessler wrote in Quartz. “If any industry has negatively impacted young people’s understanding of healthy sexual behavior, it’s mainstream porn. And if any company epitomizes mainstream porn, it’s Pornhub. [Pornhub’s Sexual Wellness Center’s] site collectively feels like a wash of disconnected, elementary, and at times, even inaccurate information which, without proper context, serves limited educative power.”

It is too early to determine the efficacy of the Sexual Wellness Center as the site only launched a few weeks ago. However, according to Betito, Pornhub releases an annual report on the viewership of its content and this new initiative is very likely to also be included in the statistics.

There are still some technical issues to address as the Sexual Wellness Center is set in motion. From Pornhub’s main site, it is currently impossible to navigate to the Sexual Wellness Center. Betito responded that she is working on resolving the issue and increasing the visibility of the site.

“Pornhub has told me they are working on it,” Betito explained. “We just got started a couple of weeks ago. They will also post some banners to advertise in between the videos.”

Betito also responded to accusations that Pornhub is pursuing sex ed just to get more clicks.

“I want to make it clear that this is not some sort of publicity stunt by Pornhub to attract more people to their site,” Betito said. “They already have enough traffic as it is.”

Aesthetically, the Sexual Wellness Center has distinguished itself from its mainstream partner. The website’s pale blue background is in stark contrast to the black and orange theme featuring Pornhub’s more explicit materials.

With Pornhub’s bold new initiative, other pornographic websites may follow suit. Just this month, the adult website xHamster protested Utah’s refusal to adopt a comprehensive sexual education program by redirecting traffic from the state to websites hosting sexual education videos. Utah currently provides abstinence education only.

Time to make amends: world has let down the girls

February 23, 2017blog, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

Time to make amends: world has let down the girls

THE GLOBAL community has made commendable progress in arresting the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the past four decades. AIDS is no more a death sentence as millions of people are now leading healthy lives, thanks to life-saving medications. Even in poor countries, including Africa, HIV infection rate has declined dramatically. But HIV infection rate among adolescent girls and young women remains high, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

UNIADS has raised the alarm that a large number of teenage girls and young women aged between 15 and 24 years across the globe are being inflicted by HIV every week.

It is said that in 2014, about half of all adolescents living with HIV globally were living in six countries, five of which are in Africa.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, 74 percent of new HIV infections among adolescents are among girls aged 15-19, and AIDS-related illnesses are the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age.

These damning statistics are a clear indication that there is urgent need for new innovative HIV prevention interventions and approaches to reach adolescent girls and young women.

It is further testament that along the way – during the fierce battle against HIV/AIDS the world somehow failed to empower adolescent girls and young women.

And it is time to change course. Policy makers, including parents, first need to wake up from the slumber. As adults, we need to come to terms with the reality that young people know more than what we think.

They are living in a fast-paced world dictated by the digital information age.

They are consuming too much information from the Internet, including sexual content, but without proper guidance from the elders.

Pressure is now on our policy makes, especially in health and education sectors, to chart a new course regarding the welfare of our young girls.

And we are grateful that this message has reached home in our region where the problem is said to be calamitous.

About 100 delegates from east and Southern Africa recently gathered in Namibian capital, Windhoek, to strategise on how best to reach adolescent girls and young women with HIV prevention in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The picture that emerged from the gathering is that governments and all stakeholders, including parents, are paying little attention to the dangers of HIV infections among teenagers of reproductive age. That we have been too gullible to assume that teenagers are not engaged in sex – more so in risky sexual behaviours.

“The important thing is not to deny that sex happens, but to teach them about all the consequences.

It is ignorance, not education that puts young people at risk,” according Namibian health minister, Dr Bernard Haufiku.

Minister Haufiku made an assessment that it is crucial to educate our teens mostly girls about sexual relationships. In the absence of a cure for HIV/AIDS, the minister calls for a shift in socio-cultural and religious beliefs that remain a stumbling block to an effective sex education. Haufiku further observed that: “Our sexuality and maintaining sexual health are lifelong processes that begin at birth and continue throughout life and children should be educated about it at tender age.”

Until we break the sex talk taboo – our young ones are bound to make costly mistakes early in their lives. But who is going to educate them if the majority of parents in Africa, including teachers grew up in an environment where talking about sexuality issues is a big ‘NO’. If parents cannot have candid sex talks with their kids, who is going to do it? One blogger on a South African open online forum ‘Ukweli Wa Mambo’ charted a new course for governments in the region.

The blogger wrote that: “How about our governments’ partner with young African movers and shakers, who are already making a difference in our communities.

Allow them to regularly speak to the children as older brothers and sisters or friends instead of authority figures. Open the communication channels and perhaps we can combat teenage pregnancy and reduce sexually transmitted diseases.”

Safer Sex Week | Use A Condom Plus One – For Everyone’s Protection

February 15, 2017blog, blog-home, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

Safer Sex Week | Use A Condom Plus One – For Everyone’s Protection

2017-02-15

Condom + Another Contraceptive = #UltimateProtection’ is the theme for this year’s Safer Sex Week – February 13-18. The aim is to push for the use of dual contraceptive in the fight against unwanted pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases (STDs).

Condoms are an effective method to protect against pregnancy, HIV and other STDs, but according to the National Family Planning Board Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (NFPB-SRHA), it is always best to have a back-up method such as the Pill, injection or an intrauterine device.

The latest data in the 2016 UNAIDS Prevention Gap Report found that the highest increase of new HIV infections is within the 15-29 age group. In addition, one per cent of all live births in Jamaica are to adolescent girls, many of whom reported that their pregnancy was either mistimed or unwanted.

As a result, the NFPB-SRHA is pushing the use of dual method of contraceptive for all ages, and urging everyone to take responsibility for their own sexual and reproductive health.

ALWAYS IN FASHION

On a regional level, Dr Kevin Harvey, Caribbean regional director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), said for Safer Sex Week his organisation is putting the spotlight on the need to mainstream condom use to encourage persons to join the prevention efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other STDs by protecting themselves and their partners.

“Although we have made impressive gains in Jamaica and the Caribbean, our young people, particularly girls, remain at risk. We, therefore, will continue to encourage condom use, especially among this cohort, and stress that in order for us to solidify our gains and reduce the impact of this disease on the present and next generations, condoms have to always be in fashion and are the smart choice to make when engaging in sexual activity,” Harvey explained.

AHF, the largest global AIDS organisation operating in 38 countries, will be working closely with Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) and the NFPB-SRHA to undertake activities and events across the island for Safer Sex Week geared at encouraging condom use and empowering persons to take charge of their sexual and reproductive health. This will include free condom distribution.

“Condoms are always in fashion, but they are not always available, affordable or attractive. Condoms are still the most effective way to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as preventing unwanted pregnancies,” stated Terri Ford, chief of global advocacy and policy for AHF.

SAFER SEX TIPS

– BYOC (bring your own condom). Don’t rely on a partner to have condoms. Always have your own supply, and check the expiration dates before use.

– Examine genitalia. Look at your own and your partner’s genital area for any changes, including sores, discharge or unusual odours.

– Get tested and treated for STDs. Regular testing will help to reduce the risk of transmitting STDs to others.

– Have one partner at a time. Multiple partners increase your chance of getting STDs.

– Don’t use two condoms at once. Two lubricated condoms can get slippery against each other and can fall off, leaving you unprotected for both pregnancy and STDs. Use one condom plus another form of contraceptive.

– Stay sober. Drinking or using drugs lowers your ability to make good decisions and make safer choices. Staying sober will help you to keep a calm, level head at all times.

– Role-play safer-sex conversations with friends. Brainstorming strategies for dealing with difficult responses and practising what to say can help you to be more comfortable and assertive when the time comes to deal with it for real.

– Create your own list of limits and boundaries. And be firm about them with your partner

– Safer-sex practices. Make these a part of the sexual activity to increase the fun and pleasure. For example, put on male or female condoms together or for each other.

– Don’t rush into higher-risk activities. First take your time with low- or no-risk activities, which can help build trust, comfort level and communication.

– Avoid pressure. Don’t be forced into something you are not sure of or are uncomfortable doing. If your partner is forcing you to do something you do not want to do and won’t take no for an answer, get out of that relationship as quickly as possible.

– No guilt. Don’t feel bad or guilty about not wanting to do something. It is your right to refuse and to do only what you are comfortable doing.

Awareness programmes needed to reduce teen pregnancies

February 15, 2017blog, Reproductive HealthSRH Matters

Awareness programmes needed to reduce teen pregnancies

Awareness programmes on sexual and reproductive health need to be stepped up to help reduce teenage pregnancies, says Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun.

She said a survey by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) showed that awareness on reproductive health was closely linked to the teenage pregnancy rate.

“Without this awareness, they do not know the consequences of engaging in sexual activity.

“The statistics and survey showed that we must expand our awareness campaign to ensure that our teenagers are informned about reproductive health.

“After that, they may feel that they do not want to try and will be aware of the consequences,” she told reporters after closing a Jiwa Muda Pekerti programme on sexual and reproductive health at SMK Lundu here yesterday.

Chew said statistics from the state Health Department showed that there were 3,707 cases of teenage pregnancy in Sarawak in 2015.

But, the figure dropped to 2,087 from January to October last year.

“I believe this is closely related to the Pekerti programme which LPPKN has carried out in Sarawak. We will also focus on hot spots where the situation is serious,” she said.

She added that Sabah and Sarawak had the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country due to a lack of awareness and knowledge.

LPPKN deputy director-general (management) Shukur Abdullah said the agency was working with the state Education Department to identify schools with high rates of pregnancy and sexual activity.

He said LPPKN would go to these schools to conduct the awareness programmes.

In her speech earlier, Chew urged teachers and parents to break the silence on sexual and reproductive health.

“We need to educate our teenagers about these matters.

“Having knowledge about reproductive health is very important for reducing pregnancies and sexual activity among teenagers in the country,” she said.
Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/02/15/awareness-programmes-needed-to-reduce-teen-pregnancies/#BXATxyftAP2Qg3js.99

JKUAT Students Develop Sophie Bot Sexual Reproductive Health App

February 13, 2017blog, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

JKUAT Students Develop Sophie Bot Sexual Reproductive Health App

2017-02-13

A group of six students from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology created SophieBot, an application revolutionizing access to sexual health information in Kenya. According to a post on the JKUAT website, “Sophie is an intelligent system that is fed with verified information on sexuality and sexual reproductive health and relays the information to its users through conversations that are driven by text or voice chats. Her features include anonymous forums and digital chat bots built in on the app, Facebook, Telegram, Messenger and Twitter.”

Likened to the Artificial Intelligence Apple program Siri, Sophie Bot sources its answers from 10,000 base questions. Striving to be better with every user who signs up to the program, the SophieBot team continues to make changes to ensure it serves users better. The innovation features a chatbot where users can ask questions to Sophie. It also includes a forum where individuals could anonymously ask questions to a community of users.

The young group of passionate millennials is lead by Irving Amukusa, an undergraduate student studying Actuarial Science. He is a self-taught developer with a passion for tech. Derick Mureithi a Software developer who was ranked first runner-up in Hack4Farming by Awhere with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation holds the title of Chief Technology Officer. The team of six also includes Rashid Beduni Mwagonga, Nicholas Wambua, John Nzau Makau and the only woman on the team Beverly Mutindi, Chief Financial Officer.

Although the team has faced several challenges including funding the idea, they got their big break in 2016 when they exhibited their idea at the Nailab. According to Business Daily, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with Nailab, hosted the event. SophieBot was among the lucky 4 announced as winning innovations around sex involved in an iAccelerator programme. The app is set to demystify the sensitive subject matter of sex, sexually transmitted disease and more by giving the youth access to the information right on their phones.

Music Video About Vaginas Reminds Men They Don’t Control Women’s Bodies

February 13, 2017blog, blog-home, Reproductive HealthSRH Matters

Music Video About Vaginas Reminds Men They Don’t Control Women’s Bodies

No form of female genital mutilation is OK.

Experts have long held that allowing any form of female genital mutilation to exist is damaging, and regressive.

But since some people aren’t convinced of that fact, the nonprofit Integrate UK, which works toward fostering equality and integration, released a catchy music video in December to address the issue. Titled “#MyClitoris,” the video took on significant meaning this week: Monday marked Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Day, an annual awareness campaign aimed at ending FGM.

“Seems it’s up to us girls to be quite tough,” the girls in the video sing. “If we need to spell it out, get your mitts off my muff.”

FGM involves the total or partial removal of external female genitalia for no medical benefit, and comes with a host of serious health consequences, including heavy bleeding, sepsis and infertility, among other issues. Communities perform the procedure as a way to keep girls “pure” and prevent them from having pre-marital sex.

At least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, according to the United Nations. The number of women who are at risk in the U.S. has tripled in recent years.

Set against a light pink backdrop, the girls in the “#MyClitoris” video wear floral crowns and pearls, and gently tap their feet to a folksy tune. They take ownership of the overtly feminine expectations of young women and turn them on their head as they sing about their vaginas, clitorises and the fact that they alone can decide what happens to their bodies.

“They say it’s OK for a little bit to be taken away from my clit,” the song continues. “No, thank you.”

The video, which decidedly challenges the idea that men can control women’s bodies by disfiguring them, was produced in response to a controversial op-ed The Economist published in June. The column suggested that outright banning all forms of FGM isn’t working. Instead, the author wrote, governments should consider banning the worst forms of female genital mutilation and allowing trained professionals to perform the types that aren’t as harmful.

“Instead of trying to stamp FGM out entirely, governments should … try to persuade parents to choose the least nasty version, or none at all,” the author wrote. “However distasteful, it is better to have a symbolic nick from a trained health worker than to be butchered in a back room by a village elder.”

The concept of medicalizing FGM has been suggested in the past. In 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement saying that performing a “ritual nick” could help wipe out the practice. But some experts say that was actually a damaging setback to ending FGM.

Medical experts across the globe have expressed their opposition to allowing any form of FGM to continue.

Last year, the World Health Organization issued its first-ever medical guidelines on FGM. The guidelines help doctors identify cases of FGM, and treat the issues those patients could present, including depression and problems with sexual health.

The guidelines also urge doctors to treat FGM as abuse, not a cultural practice.

“If we’re thinking this a cultural issue and we don’t want to get involved, we are not safeguarding people at risk,” Comfort Momoh, a midwife who treats FGM survivors at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ hospital in London, said at a health conference last year. “FGM is everybody’s business.”

Male contraceptive gel passes monkey test

February 7, 2017blog, blog-home, Reproductive HealthSRH Matters

Male contraceptive gel passes monkey test

2017-02-07

By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

An experimental new type of male contraceptive that blocks sperm flow with a gel has been successful in monkey trials.

Vasalgel acts as a physical barrier once injected into the tubes that sperm would swim down to the penis.

The company behind it says a two-year trial, published in Basic and Clinical Andrology, shows the gel works and is safe – at least in primates.

It hopes to have enough evidence to begin tests in men within a few years.

If those get funding and go well – two big “ifs” – it will seek regulatory approval to make the gel more widely available to men.

It would be the first new type of male contraceptive to hit the market in many decades.

At the moment, men have two main options of contraceptive – wear a condom to catch the sperm, or have a sterilising operation (vasectomy) to cut or seal the two tubes that carry sperm to the penis from where they are made in the testicles.

Vasalgel has the same end effect as vasectomy, but researchers hope it should be easier to reverse if a man later decides he wants to have children.

In theory, another injection should dissolve the gel plug.

That worked in early tests in rabbits, but the researchers have yet to prove the same in monkeys and man.

Under anaesthetic

The idea behind Vasalgel is not new.

Another experimental male birth control gel – RISUG (reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance) – that works in a similar way to Vasalgel is being tested in men in India.

Unlike RISUG, Vasalgel is not designed to impair the swimming sperm.

It merely blocks their path while still letting other fluid through, according to the manufacturer.

Both gels are given as an injection, under anaesthetic, and are meant to offer long-acting contraception.

The monkey trial

The University of California researchers tested the gel on 16 adult male monkeys, 10 of whom were already fathers.

The monkeys were monitored for a week after getting the injection and were then released back into their an enclosure to rejoin some fertile females.

Mating did occur, but none of the female monkeys became pregnant over the course of the study, which included two full breeding periods for some of the animals.

Few of the male monkeys had side-effects, although one did need an operation because the injection did not go to plan and damaged one of his tubes.

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: “The study shows that, in adult male monkeys at least, the gel is an effective form of contraception.

“But in order for it to have a chance of replacing the traditional surgical method of vasectomy, the authors need to show that the procedure is reversible.”

He said there had been very little commercial interest from pharmaceutical companies in this kind of a approach.

The non-profit company researching Vasalgel, the Parsemus Foundation, has used grants and fundraising to get this far.

Prof Pacey said: “The idea of a social venture company to develop the idea is intriguing.

“I would imagine there is a worldwide market for a new male contraceptive, but trials in humans and more long-term safety data are required before we will know if it is a success.”

This type of contraceptive wouldn’t protect against sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

But in terms of willingness, experts believe men would be up for trying new contraceptives, such as a gel.

Dr Anatole Menon-Johanssonm from the sexual health charity Brook, said: “Some men do want to be part of the solution and do their part.

“If you can have more options available then maybe more men would go for it.”

He said the idea of a “reversible vasectomy” was desirable, whereas asking some men to take hormones to control their fertility might be “a big ask”.

Ulster University research to maximise sexual wellbeing for men and their partners after a prostate cancer diagnosis

February 7, 2017blog, Sexual HealthSRH Matters

Ulster University research to maximise sexual wellbeing for men and their partners after a prostate cancer diagnosis

World-leading researchers at Ulster University are set to lead a £430,000 pioneering international research programme in the UK, the US and Canada, which aims to improve the sexual health of men, and their partners, after a prostate cancer diagnosis.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men and treatments can lead to a number of physical and emotional challenges. In Northern Ireland there are over 8,000 men living with and after prostate cancer and there are over 330,000 men living with the disease UK wide. More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of those who have had treatment for prostate cancer report experiencing erectile dysfunction.

Ulster University’s new three year study will see the creation of three new flexible support packages designed to address individual needs and empower men and their partners to manage their sexual health challenges prior to and after treatment.

The resources include a web-based sexual recovery programme for men and their partners, an engagement tool to ensure quality communication between health professionals and men and partners, and an online sexual health training programme for health professionals caring for men living with prostate cancer.

Ulster University’s research is supported with a £400,000 grant from the TrueNTH global initiative led by the Movember Foundation in collaboration with Prostate Cancer UK. A further £30,000 has also been awarded from the HSC Public Health Agency to further support the study.

The research will be led by Professor Eilís McCaughan at Ulster University’s Institute of Nursing and Health Research alongside colleagues from the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital; Ninewells Hospital, Dundee; University of Surrey; University of Southampton; University of Michigan; and University of Toronto.

Ulster University’s Professor Eilís McCaughan said: “Sexual dysfunction experienced by men after prostate cancer treatment can have a devastating effect on them as individuals and on their relationships.

“Men are often reluctant to discuss personal sexual issues and there is also evidence that health professionals have limited time available to provide necessary levels of care and support for men and their partners.

“The results of this new research will provide much needed guidance and help restore sexual health to a level of satisfaction for both the man and his partner.

“The new resources we develop will provide them both with crucial need-to-know information on the possible consequences of the different forms of treatment and where to seek information and support to self-manage their condition.”

Dr Sarah Cant, Director of TrueNTH and Outcomes at Prostate Cancer UK said: “When it comes to treating erectile dysfunction following prostate cancer treatment, early support and treatment is vital. This programme is a tremendous step towards ensuring that no man who has been treated for prostate cancer is left to deal with erectile dysfunction alone. We look forward to the results of the project and hope it will lead to improved support and experiences for all men.”

Paul Villanti, Executive Director of Programs of the Movember Foundation said:

“The Movember Foundation is committed to improving the lives of men with prostate cancer through the creation of our TrueNTH program. TrueNTH is a nautical term; it’s a compass point, it’s an idea that if we can understand the individual patients’ needs when they are first diagnosed, we can help them navigate towards the ultimate outcome they want to see. The funding of this programme would not be possible without the continued support from our Movember community, to whom we’re extremely grateful for their efforts.”