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.