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.

Sexually transmitted infections on the rise in England

Britain on the whole, is not in particularly good shape when it comes to our weight or indeed our sexual health. Year on year we hear shocking news reports about teenage girls falling pregnant and annual figures on sexual health seem to always show increases across the board.

As it happens, statistics released this year from the Health Protection Agency show a 2% rise in new cases of sexually transmitted infection (STI) for England during 2011. Within this, there is a 10% increase in syphilis diagnoses – incidentally now at its biggest infection rate since the 1950s.

Worryingly, the percent rise of syphilis cases isn’t even the worst of the lot. In fact, gonorrhoea rates spiralled 25% during 2010-11 and there was also a 5% increase in cases of genital herpes. The latter may explain why we at Medical Specialists Pharmacy have been inundated with thousands of requests for genital herpes treatment in the subsequent two years.

In what is another problem that arises from failing to first buy condoms, and then to actually use them, the Depart of Health’s Framework for Sexual Health Improvement also paint a damning, alarming picture.

Abortion rates have gone up by 7.7% in the decade between 2001 and 2011, which is no surprise when more statistics show that up to 50% of pregnancies weren’t even planned.

The Government together with healthcare professionals are continually battling to reverse the trends on STIs and pregnancies and it is this reason why awareness days/events take place every year, such as Sexual Health Week, National HIV Testing Week and World AIDS Day – all of which Medical Specialists have proudly supported by giving away 1,000s of condoms with any sexual health product.

In fact pharmacies such as Medical Specialists are at the forefront of providing sexual health services to the many millions of people who need them.

These services are absolutely vital to people all over the UK and indeed the world, and include things such as medicine supply; this could be chlamydia treatment, genital herpes treatment, or treatment for gonorrhoea.

Also many pharmacies such as ourselves can offer pregnancy tests to be conducted in the comfort of your own home, a wide variety of condoms to suit different preferences, emergency hormonal contraception (morning after pill), other contraceptive pills, and even a chlamydia test you can take at home and post off for a quick analysis and result, saving you the time and embarrassment of having to personally attend a clinic for a check-up.

The role of pharmacy clearly has an important role to play in changing people’s attitudes to STIs, unplanned pregnancy, contraception, and other sexual health subjects. However, what is required is people to reach out and ask for help, don’t be afraid, know that there at pharmacies who will not judge and are purely there to help. Let’s make 2014 a healthy year…Together.

A quarter of university students get an STI in their first year

University life is not always a time for studying, as many former students will be aware of. However the phrase “work hard, play harder” may be taken to extreme lengths by many of today’s University students, to the extent that they are putting their health at risk.

Research suggests that almost of quarter of university students (23%) will contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI) even before completing their first year, and over half (54%) are unable to remember who could have given them the infection, according to the survey conducted by shagatuni.com.

From the respondents, nearly a third (32%) were only made aware of their STI after a sexual partner who had been diagnosed had then contacted them. An additional 27% found out after using a testing kit, such as the popular Clamelle chlamydia test kit.

In fact, it is chlamydia which is the STI most likely to be contracted, with 59% of those who had caught an STI having chlamydia – curable through antibiotic chlamydia treatment. Interestingly, three quarters of all chlamydia diagnoses in the UK are people aged between 15 and 24. After chlamydia, herpes (18%) and genital warts (14%) were the next common STIs to have been caught.

Herpes treatment includes antiviral drugs and creams such as Valtrex and Zovirax, whilst genitals warts treatment options include Aldara cream. All can be obtained today from Medical Specialists Pharmacy.

The results from poll of 2,177 young graduates alarming reckless attitude and a huge lack of regard for the practice of safe sex; 89% confessing that had not bothered to use a condom for most of their sexual encounters whilst at university.

Only those who had stayed single throughout university were quizzed, with other findings showing that 73% were under the influence of alcohol for the majority of the times they had sex.

Perhaps the most worrying stat was that 67% of the graduates claimed they would rather risk contracting an STI than wear a condom. It is an absurd finding especially when you do not need to walk into a shop, chemist, etc. anymore to buy condoms and online pharmacies such as Medical Specialists offer 72 individually wrapped Durex Performa condoms for just £60.

The survey also showed which university courses have the most ‘sexually free’ students within them. Those studying drama and dance seem to be the most promiscuous, averaging a respective 28 and 25 partners each while at university. The full top ten was:

1. Drama/Theatre Studies – 28
2. Dance – 25
3. Media Studies/PR – 22
4. Biology students – 19
5. Philosophy and ethics – 17
6. English – 15
7. Sports science – 13
8. History of Art s – 13
9. Law – 11
10. Geography – 10

The creator of the website which conducted the poll, Tom Thurlow, said he didn’t want to put students off sex, but hopes that young people will take safe sex a lot more seriously and start to use condoms.

He said: “I decided to carry out this study as the site always notices a huge increase in new members to the website during fresher’s weeks, as this is obviously when many of the members will be meeting up with individuals they have met on the site for casual sex. I do not believe that being promiscuous and having casual sex are bad traits, however I am passionate about promoting safe sex, as well as the use of condoms amongst the student population of the UK.”