It’s time to grow up about STIs at University

I’m in a random classroom in my secondary school, aged fifteen. Our health educator/school counsellor/behavioural coordinator is a man named Phil. He has a goatee and a high ponytail. He shows us how to put a condom on a banana. He shows us pictures of genital warts. He answers the questions we have posted into a painted Clarks shoe box. Most of them are innuendos or crude drawings.

Back then, I found the whole thing deeply embarrassing. It felt far away from real life. The pictures of sexually transmitted infections that Phil put up on the whiteboard were nauseating, and everyone at my school stayed a good six feet apart for the rest of the week.

As it turns out, my school had a much more comprehensive sexual education programme than most. In a 2022 poll by the Sex Education Forum, just one in five students surveyed said they had the ‘opportunity to ask [their] questions and get answers’. A shocking 46% of students didn’t discuss the topic of sexual pleasure at all, and third of those polled didn’t learn about how to access their local sexual health services. By learning about sex in a clinical and restrictive way, students don’t learn about having a safe and healthy sex life. 

Only 27% of students agreed, in this 2020 survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute, that their sexual education prepared them for sex and relationships at University. Nearly half (49%) of the LGBTQ+ students questioned said that their education was ‘not at all relevant’ to their experiences. This drops to 16% when disabled students were asked, with the vast majority of disabled students reporting that their sex education was not relevant to their disability.

It’s easy to see how this lack of education can translate into unsafe sexual practices at University. Cases of STIs are rising with no sign of slowing down. The UK Health Security Agency found that there were nearly 400,000 cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) reported in England in 2022. Gonorrhoea cases had risen by 50% from the previous year, alongside a 24% increase in chlamydia and a 15% increase in syphilis.

STIs are particularly common within student communities, yet there is still a profound stigma surrounding STIs and STI testing. I met with Megan, Vice President of Sexpressions Leeds, a charity offering relationships, sex and health education. Sexpressions is seeking to use education to combat the stigma and lack of awareness around sexual health.

Megan has found that the stigma around STIs is particularly prevalent among straight men. Groups of male students are often unwilling to discuss sexual health without turning to humour. Megan has found that ‘the stigma is there and [some cisgender] men really do keep the stigma alive‘. The Sexpressions Freshers Fair stall ‘was really busy, only because it was funny’ and made allusions to female masturbation. ‘The amount of men we had come over [to the stall] was insane, but the amount of men we’ve had at training is 0%’.

Megan has found, however, that peer-led discussions of sexual health do encourage students to open up: ‘When I’ve done discussion sessions before, it’s always worked better when it is a discussion, not someone older talking down to you‘. Sexpressions is working on building a supportive place for peer conversation.

They are launching the #bestifyoutest campaign, offering advice that is tailored for Leeds. The campaign is running until the end of December and is encouraging people to access free STI tests. The campaign is being run in collaboration between Sexpression:UK and Yorkshire MESMAC to encourage students to access free STI tests, attend talks and join peer support sessions.

Another initiative is the ‘Works for Me’ campaign, which promotes different types of contraception, with the NHS opening up the Leeds Student Medical Practice on Saturdays to help students find a form of contraception that works for them.

Students need to confront the ever-increasing rates of STIs, and sexually active students should test regularly. The vast majority of STIs can be fully treated if they are caught early, and it is always better to know. If you have had unprotected sex, it doesn’t have to lead to shame or stigma. STIs are a part of university life just as much as Freshers hangovers and overflowing bins; there is no point hiding from them.

Sexpressions Leeds is open to society collaborations and to offering training. They are working to overcome the stigma to make students aware of more resources. As Megan put it, as much emphasis should be put on sexual health as on ‘physical health because it is that.’ 

Sexpressions can be found on Instagram at @SexpressionsLeeds.

For more information about free sexual health testing in Leeds, visit https://www.leedssexualhealth.com/.