Cover up for Christmas: No condom? Better jog on…

With just under a fortnight to go until the big day, the Christmas party season is now in full swing and for this reason alone is why last week Medical Specialists created a guide on how to survive the work Christmas party .

One thing to bear in mind is that just because it is the festive party season, it is not an invitation to let all your common sense and rational thinking simply fly out the door…Cover up for Christmas!

And by that we don’t just mean wear a woolly hat, gloves and scarf, we mean make sure you have plenty of condoms and other contraception readily available…and use them! Get yourself protected immediately to avoid an unplanned pregnancy or contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI), some of which may never actually fully clear-up.

Just like a beloved pet pooch you might receive at Christmas, an STI might not just be for Christmas…it may be for life, with symptoms of STIs such as genital herpes possible reoccurring at any given time. Genital herpes treatment can reduce the frequency of outbreaks however, and minimise the risk of it spreading to sexual partners (with condom use of course).

According to The Family Planning Association, worried/distressed phone calls made to their sexual health line are usually at their highest rate during January, perhaps unsurprisingly when statistics show more teen girls are falling pregnant in December and January in comparison to the other ten months of the year.

Rebecca Findlay of FPA, spoke last year about the issue, saying: “The helpline tends to go quiet before Christmas as everyone is busy and out partying, but calls then peak in January. Most people call about STIs or unintended pregnancy.”

So what can you do to avoid having to make a panic call to the FPA come January? The first is make sure you are fully stocked up on your contraception of choice, and ladies if this is in the form of a pill you need to take every day such as Marvelon or Yasmin, it is imperative you have enough to cover the Christmas period – especially if you happen to be going away.

If you are going away, we advise you to do the following things to ensure you have packed your contraception:

. Add it to your list of things you need to pack.

. Set a phone reminder.

. Ask somebody to remind you before you go.

. Make a note in your diary.

. Leave a note near the front door that you will see.

“The classic mistake is to go away and forget to take your contraception with you, or to run out of pills on Christmas Eve,” Findlay added.

“To avoid this, check when your pill pack is going to run out. If it will run out while you’re away, get a new one before you go. And if you’re using the contraceptive injection, make sure it’s up to date. Whatever contraception you use, make sure you’re organised and have enough to last.”

Also make sure to stock up on condoms. After all, condoms are the only method of contraception to protect against both pregnancy and STIs. Condoms are vital if you have sex with somebody new; who knows where that passionate kiss under the mistletoe will lead to, and are important to have should your regular contraception run out or fail to work.

We warn this as people generally tend to significantly increase their alcohol intake over the festive period and not many people may be aware of this, but vomiting can actually decrease your pill’s effectiveness. If you have had a bit too much to drink one night and end up being sick, condoms are essential to protect against an unwanted pregnancy.

And what better way to stock up on condoms than to buy Durex condoms. In particularly, 72 Durex performa condoms at the astonishingly low price of just £60! This bundle should last well into the New Year and keep you covered up for Christmas and beyond. The Durex performa condoms even have a special Benzocaine cream inside to help control climax and prolong sexual excitement for longer lasting lovemaking.

Get aware and protected for Sexual Health Week

You may not be aware of it but this week as well as being National Cholesterol Week, is also Sexual Health Week. Pioneered by The Family Planning Association (FPA) and proudly supported by Medical Specialists Pharmacy, the aim of this week is to promote awareness of a wide variety of sexual health issues. Each year the FPA focus on a different subject in a bid to get people aware and looking after their sexual health. Back in 2009 the main topic of this week was looking at sex and alcohol, in 2010 it was sexual health in the over-50’s, in 2011 it was ‘The Facts of Life, how and when to talk to your children about puberty, relationships and sex’, and now this year in 2012 the FPA and Brook are working together on the ‘XES We can’t go backwards’ campaign.

For those not in-the-know about this new national campaign and its aims, it is a campaign urging people to join in against fighting budget cuts, policy changes, and more specifically; the lack of easy access to contraception due to closures of sexual health centres or alterations to their opening hours. Basically the main premise of the campaign is to protect contraceptive rights and choice.

Both leading sexual health charities FPA and Brook, say that they are receiving an ever-growing number of calls from worried and unhappy members of the public, being denied basic access to the advice, products and services that they require.

FPA Chief Executive, Julie Bentley, commented: “We are seeing the beginnings of a crisis in this critical women’s health issue. Modern contraception is effective in stopping unplanned pregnancy and is also highly cost effective. But it is simply useless if women are stopped from accessing and using it. A woman’s reproductive years span over half of her lifetime and every reproductive choice she makes carries social, economic, and personal consequences. There’s a genuine risk that we’re slipping back to the dark ages. We cannot stand by and wait for the crisis to happen – we’ve got to act now.”

Adding to Julie Bentley’s comments was Brook Chief Executive, Simon Blake, who said: “A blend of different circumstances in sexual health are forming into a toxic mix. Services are being cut, and budgets reduced, the national sexual health and teenage pregnancy strategies have ended, the NHS is being radically reformed and there are attempts by a small vociferous minority to undermine women’s reproductive rights. By working with the public to understand the true scale of the problem, this campaign will help to protect the improvements made in recent years so everyone can access the contraception and advice they are entitled to. We simply cannot and must not go backwards.”

The FPA and Brook are now urging people in the UK to embrace the scheme and also to discuss and rate their own personal experiences of contraception services, both good and bad. This can be done via the interactive online sexual health map at www.wecantgobackwards.org.uk.

However it is not only the UK who is involved in promoting sexual health this week. Australia are also doing their bit for Sexual Health Week, with many public health experts speaking out and encouraging everyone to ask their doctor for regular sex health check-ups as well as to continue with safe-sex practices such as making sure to wear a condom.

Health authorities over in Australia have initiated a scheme called ‘Check it Out’, aimed at targeting the high spreading of the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia, which also happens to be the most common STI in the UK too. The decision to focus the majority of their efforts on chlamydia may have something to do with the recent publication of figures that show that chlamydia rates are continuing to increase by an average of 15% every year among 16 – 25 year olds in the South Eastern Sydney region of Australia.

Director of Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Dr Anna McNulty, commented that though increased rates of diagnosis may be due to more testing for the STI, notification rates continued to remain high amongst gay men. She said, “This is largely due to increased testing for Chlamydia, but also due to increased Chlamydia notification rates, which are unfortunately still high amongst gay men, and more so, men who have sex with men. Many people who have an STI do not have any obvious symptoms or signs, particularly with Chlamydia, which often has no symptoms. Chlamydia is easy to test for with a urine test and, like many STIs, is easily treated with a simple dose of antibiotics.  But it is better to have never had it at all. Chlamydia is easily prevented by using condoms. We encourage young people who are sexually active to use condoms and to see their GP, local sexual health clinic or youth health service to check out their sexual health and regularly test for STIs, in particular Chlamydia.”

If you do suspect you may have chlamydia, Medical Specialists Pharmacy can provide the Clamelle chlamydia test kit from just £24.85, which can be used in the privacy of your own home to avoid an embarrassing trip to the doctor. Or, if you have been confirmed as having this or gonorrhoea, the antibiotic Azithromycin can prevent the spread of the bacteria so that your body’s natural defences can fight back and remove the infection from your system. We also have the antiviral prescription medication Valtrex which helps to slow the spread of the herpes virus.

To minimise the risk of catching and spreading an STI, men must always wear condoms, and this is where we come in. We have a massive selection of condoms at fantastic prices such as the highly sought after Durex Performax Intense. This particular condom benefits both partners. It contains a lubricant – benzocaine 5%, which will prolong his climax, whilst the outside of the condom is ribbed and dotted to heighten her orgasm. On top of this we have a huge range of different condoms in our expanding chemist shop such as Durex Play Vibrations, which can be used in conjunction with a condom to add to the pleasure!