32 years have passed since “Wear it, wear it” And things don’t seem to have changed much. Something yes. Note that in those days some pharmacies refused to sell condoms to minors. However, the current situation does not look good either. On Magnet, we talked about how the former Minister of Health warned of the increase a year ago. “very worrying” Sexually transmitted infections in young people. At that time there was talk of an annual increase of 26.3% and we are getting worse.

The numbers speak for themselves: a 1,073% increase in STIs for women over the past 10 years.

Yes, 1.073 percent more. An alarming number that will force organizations to rethink other strategies. Infections have skyrocketed in recent years, according to a new report (PDF) from the Bloom Observatory on sexually transmitted diseases in women. Specifically, there was growth between 2012 and 2019, reaching a record number of infections with 16,304 cases per year. This trend has alarmed doctors, and a lot of research has been done to find out where the problem lies.

The most common STIs. If we get the report, we will see that only 64.8% of the cases diagnosed during this period correspond to chlamydia. Then gonorrhea, 15.6% of cases. This is followed by HIV (8%), syphilis (5.6%), hepatitis C (3.6%), hepatitis B (2.3%) and lymphogranuloma venereum (0.1%). And while nearly all infections have increased in recent years, the trends are not equal for every single STI. For example, gonorrhea was the fastest growing gonorrhea since 2015: 729%. And chlamydia 480%. These are the figures that make your hair stand on end.

Development of STI cases in Spain | Bloom Observatory.

Why? Why? Mainly due to a general ignorance about STIs. As we already commented on Magnet in that article, the perception of low risk results in minimal use of protective measures such as condoms. Additionally, as the new research indicates, the way we engage in sex has changed: couples communicate with each other through dating apps, and sex life begins at a younger age. The number of purely sexual relationships (follamigos, as they are known in jargon) or exchange of partners also increased.

The most striking aspect of the report is that 70% of women think they have insufficient knowledge about sexually transmitted infections, and 13.46% do not know how to talk about them. The problem is clearly education.

profiles. Ages at highest risk are between the ages of 15 and 35. One of the reasons may be that couples from this age are more fixated and less changed. Recent studies also highlight the regional effect: there are reports of more STI cases where there is a higher population and tourism density. That’s why Catalonia is the leader with less than half of all STI cases in Spain. It is followed by Madrid, Valencian Community and Andalusia.

And men? While this study only provides data on women, the male case is just as devastating. In fact, the highest rates are seen in men, and gonorrhea infection is highest: 98.8 cases per 100,000 people in the population aged 20 to 24 years. Moreover syphilis and chlamydia. What happens is that women go to the gynecologist or doctor more often than men to get a check-up. In contrast, men hardly ever go through consultation. And considering that 50% of STIs have no symptoms (two out of three chlamydiae do not manifest), this is the perfect cocktail.

Goodbye Kondoma, hello “reverse gear”. Going back to the 1990 campaign, the legendary “Wear it, wear it”, we see that we have not learned anything. So prevention campaigns were closely linked to HIV, and in the 1980s and 1990s, when the crisis ended, authorities lowered the plunger and the general population forgot that STIs existed. now he condom use among young people, it has fallen from 84% to 75% since 2002.

Not only that: experts explain that one of the reasons for the increase in STIs is the lack of use of protection during oral sex. In addition, the Ministry of Health has long warned of the tendency to use unsafe methods such as “reverse” (no ejaculation into the vagina). A practice used by one in four women that does not protect against most STIs because it is contaminated with previous fluids.

Image: Pexels