It’s Valentine’s Day today, and people across the country will undoubtedly be thinking about romance and love, but as today is Think About Sex Day, they also have a ready-made excuse for thinking about sex!

And it’s not just the physical act of sex people should be thinking about today, it’s also sexual health. After all, encouraging people to think about sex is the first step towards ensuring the public’s sexual health and wellbeing.

Organised by the Sexual Advice Association, Think About Sex Day is designed to encourage everyone to think about the physical and psychological issues surrounding sexual activity.

The Sexual Advice Association provides information and support on all things related to male and female sexual health, and even offer a confidential helpline to respond to queries.

The association aim to open up dialogue about sex in order to identify and help with some of the commonly occurring issues, just like the sexual health team do right here at YourGP.

Led by Dr Lyndsey Myskow, one of Scotland’s leading experts, our team provide the complete range of STI/STD tests, with the highest level of care and with complete confidentiality.

In this blog, Dr Robert McFarlane explains how simple, straightforward and important Sexual Health Screens are. YourGP offers tests for all STIs/STDs, including HIV, Gonorrhoea, Chlamydia and Syphilis.

“We take STIs very seriously at YourGP, says Dr McFarlane, we take our time explaining the relevant information and discussing the reason why they want tested.  We regular see people who are entering long term relationships and both partners want peace of mind”.

“The process for a full sexual health screen is straight forward, taking a urine sample to test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, and a blood test for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B.”

But isn’t a sexual health screen painful and invasive?  Certainly not, according to Dr McFarlane.

He explains: “They’re not painful at all anymore. We used to do a very nasty swab which went halfway down your penis, now we test with blood and urine, only swabbing physical symptoms such as discharge or sores but we don’t do the very painful one that we used to do.”

So if it’s as simple as it seems, there really shouldn’t be any reason to be afraid of a sexual health screen. For Dr McFarlane, a sporting analogy sums up why it is so important for sexually active people to have regular testing.

“Sex is like a game of football,” he says. “If you’re out on the field, you’ve got to expect a few knocks”.

“We live in an age where people are fairly easy going with sex and contracting STIs is going to happen to a significant number of people, so you have to make sure you get checked out before it causes any problems for you or your partner.”

Do you want to find out more about our sexual health services? If so, simply visit our website, where you can find information about our Full Sexual Health Screen.

And if you have read this blog post and want further advice and assistance on sexual health, please get in touch on 0131 225 5656 or email us at reception@your.gp .

Remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too, as we provide lots of sexual health tips, information and advice.

Photo: Paul Keller.