Sexual health
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Consensual sharing of personal sexually explicit imagery (SEI) is part of young people's sexual practise; however, harms arise if content is shared without consent. Australians aged 15-29 years were recruited for an online survey. Participants indicated if they had ever sent SEI of themselves to someone else, received SEI directly from the person in the imagery and whether they thought it was illegal to forward SEI without consent. ⋯ In multivariate analysis, sexual identity, age group, gender and knowledge were not significantly associated with victimisation. Among participants who experienced non-consensual sharing of personal SEI, 63% told friends, 10% told family, 93% made no official report and 94% reported no consequences for perpetrator(s). Initiatives are needed to promote legal rights and enable young people to seek support.
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Background Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective tool to prevent HIV infection for at-risk individuals, but access requires medical providers to be aware of and comfortable with prescribing PrEP. Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) was started to support hepatitis C virus treatment in rural New Mexico, but has since expanded to train health practitioners to treat other medical conditions in other locations.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is revising its diagnostic manual, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). At the time of writing, and based on recommendations from its ICD Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health, WHO is proposing a new ICD chapter titled Conditions Related to Sexual Health, and that the gender incongruence diagnoses (replacements for the gender identity disorder diagnoses used in ICD-10) should be placed in that chapter. WHO is proposing that there should be a Gender incongruence of childhood (GIC) diagnosis for children below the age of puberty. ⋯ Trans community groups, as well as many healthcare professionals and others working for transgender health and wellbeing, have criticised the proposal on the grounds that the pathologisation of gender diversity at such a young age is inappropriate, unnecessary, harmful and inconsistent with WHO's approach in regard to other aspects of development in childhood and youth. Counter proposals have been offered that do not pathologise gender diversity and instead make use of Z codes to frame and document any contacts that young gender diverse children may have with health services. The author draws on his involvement in the ICD revision process, both as a member of the aforementioned WHO Working Group and as one of its critics, to put the case against the GIC proposal, and to recommend an alternative approach for ICD in addressing the needs of gender diverse children.
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Background Young adults, aged 18-30 years, comprise the largest proportion of sexually transmissible infection (STI) notifications in Australia compared with other age groups. Understanding the influence of partner and friendship networks on their STI testing practices may enhance health promotion efforts to increase testing for this group.
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It has previously been shown that there is a significant demographic variation in sexual health literacy (SHL) in university-level students in Tasmania, Australia. ⋯ As hypothesised, differences in attitude significantly explained much of the demographic differences in SHL found previously. These results suggest that sexual education and orientation efforts need to bear cultural framing in mind to enhance uptake by students.