Improving men’s sexual health: a challenge for today
- Correspondence to: Dr D A Lewis Head of STI Reference Centre, National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Private Bag X4, Sandringham 2131, South Africa; david.lewisnhls.ac.za
Assistant editor Dr David Lewis introduces this special themed issue of the journal
This special issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections, which addresses men’s sexual health, contains contributions from every continent of the world and has proved very popular. Among the issue’s themes are sexual behaviour of men having sex with other men (MSM), sexual health services for young men, reasons underlying non-use of condoms, and male commercial sex work. All of these are important facets of men’s sexual health. This editorial seeks to highlight some of the main observations and findings relating to these themes from among the published contributions.
Before these are addressed, it is perhaps worth highlighting a few important issues that should be considered by everyone working in the field of men’s sexual health. These include the need to acknowledge and understand men’s macho attitudes and masculinity, men’s concerns over clinic confidentiality and mistrust of professionals, men’s perceptions as to whether specific sexual health services are for them or more geared towards women, misinformation about services from peers, and the fact that men’s healthcare seeking behaviour often differs from that of women.1 In addition, projected staff attitudes towards men may be less than ideal in terms of dealing with boisterous young men presenting in groups, acceptability of MSM sexual behaviour, and the outward presentation of the stereotypical image of men as “the problem” behind spiralling increases in STIs [see page 484 …
