Better Health, Better Care - Anticipatory Care (1)

Collette Douglas Home has written a very thoughtful piece today on the introduction of vaccination for the HPV virus;a virus that can cause cervical cancer in women. This was one of the SNPs promises for health and it is in this particular chapter of 'Better Health'.So all credit to the SNP for bringing it in.

However, I wondered why another common STD was not mentioned, which in its own way can be just as devastating to a woman - chlamydia. This is one of the commonest STDs in Britain, is symptomless, and causes inflammation of the fallopian tubes, leading to infertility.One estimate that I saw was that one in ten women have it.If that is the case then we have problems. But the amazing thing about it is that outside of medical circles, very few people know about this disease. Why?

Some time ago, I had the misfortune to have the tv on when a public health advert came on. It consisted of a guy sitting in a shower crying, with flashbacks to 'the night before'. The theme of the advert was that he had given his girlfriend an STD. But the disease wasn't mentioned, the effects weren't mentioned, treatment wasn't mentioned. It was useless. And here's the odd thing. In an age where we will quite happily have 'FCUK' blazoned across a T shirt that we're wearing, talking about STDs is done in whispers. There is a taboo attached to this subject that there isn't to other areas of sexuality.

There are a number of options for combating chlamydia. One would be to include a swab for the disease along with the cervical smear test at Wellwoman clinics.As chlamydia is symptomless (until it's too late)I would say this is essential. Chlamydia can be treated, and caught early enough,it will not cause infertility. The other thing that the government should seriously consider, is liasing with some of the programme makers for the likes of Eastenders and River City and asking them to run some story lines on chlamydia. It would get the message across in a way that a thirty second advert that's preaching to you, doesn't.

One in four couples in this country now have problems with their fertility. For the sake of our future, we must do something to change this.