Correlations have been made for a long time between the effects of the increasingly popular erectile dysfunction medications and the simultaneously increasing number of cases of sexually transmitted infections. Now we have the figures to prove it. With data taken from a recent report by the Health Protection Agency, it seems likely that this hypothesised correlation is a valid one.

The spread of sexually transmitted infections among those between the ages of 50 and 90 years is growing rapidly and is being described as a small epidemic.  The number of new cases of HIV among those over the age of 50 years had doubled over a period of ten years in 2009.

This is indicative of people not taking the necessary precautions when it comes to the use of condoms and sex. It is thought that the responsibility to get tested is as much down to the patient as it is the GP in that GPs are simply not recognising the symptoms of sexually transmitted infection in the older generations these days and are assuming symptoms are associated with something else. The truth of it is that men and women are having sex well into their nineties today with the help of Viagra and other such medications and curbing the rise of infection rates is something we all have to consider including those in the medical community.

The Department of Health in the UK is being put under pressure to review the national HPV immunisation programme following a dramatic rise in oropharyngeal (throat) cancer cases that have been linked to HPV. Over 70% of these cancers are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) according to the latest evidence. The figures were collected by the Institute of Head and Neck Studies, which surveyed various countries, including the UK on the topic of cancers and their relationship to HPV. 10 years ago, less than one third of throat cancers were caused by HPV, indicating the need for a decision to vaccinate boys as well as girls.

Research shows that boys are more prone to developing cancer of the throat since there is a higher concentration of the HPV virus found in the female genital tract. Studies show that there is a very strong link between oropharyngeal cancers and oral sex and the average age of patients presenting with it is getting lower.

The same old argument prevails however regarding the cost of this expensive vaccine. We don’t know if administering the vaccine to boys is worth the expense but it seems that the medical evidence is coming down on the side of a widened vaccination programme. We have already seen the recommended HPV vaccination change to a more expensive but wider spectrum vaccine, so we would not be surprised to see a change in the recommendation regarding vaccinating boys on this latest evidence.

There has been a swathe of news reports highlighting the misunderstanding surrounding the HPV vaccine among the girls who have received it. In a recent survey carried out in the US it was found that almost 1 in 4 of those questioned thought that the vaccination would lower their risk of contracting other sexually transmitted infections in addition to HPV and a number of these girls had not used a condom the last time they had engaged in sexual activity. The results of the survey are published in the Archives of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The HPV vaccine is offered to young girls at a stage in their lives when there is possibly much confusion surrounding the topic of sexual health and so the message needs to be clearer and education must start earlier, at least at the point of administration. The average age of the girls questioned were 17, having completed the three doses of the vaccine.

There is really no excuse for this level of ignorance amongst this population group. Girls of that age should not be vaccinated against anything without the healthcare provider explaining exactly what the vaccine will protect against.

If there wasn’t already enough reason to practice safe sex consistently, we have recently been reminded that there is a natural weakness in female immunity as ovulation occurs, more than at any other time throughout the menstrual cycle. This is thought to occur in order to allow sperm to survive a potential immune response once inside the body of the female and go on to fertilise an egg. According to a recent study, this has the potential to make women more susceptible to a sexually transmitted infection while ovulating.

A study was carried out at the Laboratorio de Inmunobiologia Moleculare at the hospital Gregario Maranon and Complutense University, Madrid, and the team used mice for the purposes of the study. They found that estradiol, a sex hormone, which is mostly made in the ovaries and the placenta (in pregnancy) decreased the immune response in female mice leaving them more exposed to potential infections including yeast infections and sexually transmitted bacteria and viruses.

Since the mice were only tested using candida albicans (the cause of yeast infection), this is not enough proof to suggest that women would be more susceptible to all sexually transmitted infections during ovulation and so further investigations will be carried out in this area although the scientists behind the study are confident that their finding will translate to other infections.

The Alcohol and Sexual Health Working Party is speaking out against the way the NHS is dealing with sexually transmitted infections and young people - they suggest that the NHS is missing an opportunity to tackle the problem of STIs considering the existence of statistics highlighting strong links connecting the abuse of alcohol and sexually transmitted infections in those aged between 15 and 24 years.

Almost half of all sexually transmitted infections are diagnosed among young people in this age bracket and according to a 2009 British probability survey, those who consume a lot of alcohol are more inclined to have unprotected sexual activity and with many partners compared with those who drink moderately.

The Alcohol and Sexual Health Working Party’s reports suggest that over 1.5 million 15 to 24 year olds attend sexual health clinics annually and among this number, a shocking 1 in 5 young people consume what is considered to be a dangerous amount of alcohol.

The working party thus ask that all clinicians dealing with young people be trained to ask about the individual’s drinking behaviour and also that during any visit to the doctor, questions regarding diet, drinking and smoking are asked alongside questions regarding the patient’s initial complaint. A report commissioned by the Health Secretary will be published this month and will set guidelines for future consultations..

According to the Daily Mirror, alcohol is directly associated with unsafe sex. The results of 12 studies were analysed and it was revealed that each time the level of blood alcohol increased by 0.1mg/ml, the likelihood that unprotected sex would occur would increase by approximately 3%.

Participants were divided up and depending on the group they were allocated, had to drink certain amounts of alcohol or a placebo. They were then asked about whether they would have unprotected sex. The study hardly provides with any new platform from which to raise awareness and considering the study was based on intention and not real life situations, the results and conclusions are of little weight.

A spokesperson for the Terrence Higgins Trust states that we already know that alcohol allows us to make bad decisions and take risks and advises that if people suspect that they will get tipsy and make an unwise decision over the Christmas break, that they carry condoms with them in case. This is much better advice than the advice of NHS earlier this month which involved stocking up on the morning after pill before it becomes too difficult to obtain over the festive period!

The latest in a long line of reasons why not to get vaccinated against the HPV virus has been proved wrong. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has carried out a survey which showed that females who have been vaccinated against the virus are not more likely to have unprotected sex than those who are not vaccinated, contrary to popular opinion. 1,200 young women between the ages of 15 and 24 were surveyed.

In fact, the sexually active women in the group who had been vaccinated against HPV were more likely to use a condom during sex consistently than women who were not vaccinated.

The CDC also say that this is the case for now however the survey does not suggest that the HPV vaccination would not have such an effect over time.

Gardasil has now been announced as the new first line vaccine against the virus in the UK from next September, protecting young women against both cancer causing strains of the HPV virus and those causing genital warts. If campaigners get their way, Gardasil might be made available to males on the NHS as well but we think that this is unlikely to happen soon.

Just like in the animal kingdom, it looks like human beings are also able to sniff out healthy partners. The recent research giving credence to this theory is published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Certain sexually transmitted diseases appear to be accompanied by an odour, which seems to have been detected by women in a small clinical trial.

34 men participated in the Russian study at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics. 16 men were healthy and 13 of them were infected with gonorrhoea. 5 men had been diagnosed with the infection but had since taken treatment to get rid of it. All of the men wore cotton pads under their armpits beneath a tight t-shirt and worked up a sweat over the course of an hour. The women later smelled the pads, assessing how attractive or not the odours were. Women disliked over one third of the odours however over half of the samples from infected men were described as ‘putrid’ by the women.

It has been known for a long time that female mice and rats are not attracted to the scent of others that are infected with disease. The research according to the study’s author concludes that the unpleasant body odours of men who are infected can reduce the likelihood of a dangerous partnering. We would caution that this study was based on a small number of participants so we do not believe that any scientific conclusion can be drawn from this without further investigation.