Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are increasing around the world. That’s almost not news anymore. Dozens of studies confirm this. Catalonia and, especially, Barcelona do not escape this trend. In this city, diagnoses of gonorrhea and a type of chlamydia increased last year, according to data from the Health Agency. The latest cases rose 49%; the first, 34.8%.
These figures make one thing clear: risk behaviors have increased, young people use condoms less and changing partners is more frequent.
But this increase in cases is also explained by the improvement in screening and detection of these STIs. This was stated by the director of the ITS unit of the Puigvert Foundation, Álvaro Vives, during a very technical conference held yesterday in Barcelona on this topic.
At that event, it was reported, among many other things, an increase in anal cancer in women – gynecologists are already beginning to worry about this issue in their examinations to detect this disease in time – or the still unresolved doubts about the most appropriate treatment. Ideal for pregnant women with an STI.
Although the most innovative point in STI research was put forward by Francisca Molero, president of the Spanish Federation of Sexology Societies. This doctor opened, before a forum of experts on these infections, a front that is little addressed in this type of conference.
Francisca Molero spoke of the other toll – the social and psychological – suffered by people who suffer from one of these infections and encouraged specialists to empathize more with these patients, “running away from our beliefs about sex or from that historical, more professional vision.” ”.
The stigma with which people infected with any of these viruses come to consultations “is very great,” this sexologist stressed, and we must never forget, she added, that these people “carry a great feeling of guilt.” After becoming infected ” Many will find it difficult to enjoy the pleasure of sex again or to confidently start a new relationship if a good job is not done in the consultations in that regard.
Molero advises doctors to ask themselves some questions when one of these patients arrives for their consultations: What do we think about STIs? What are our sexual beliefs or habits? And our vision as professionals of this reality? “This is going to help us understand these people much better, who most of the time cannot believe that it was their turn to go through this situation,” reveals this sexologist.
It is no secret that the vast majority of times contracting an STI will cause problems with your partner, if they are stable, because that is interpreted as “a betrayal, a total loss of trust,” added this sexologist. So the work of doctors with these patients “has to go beyond the mere scientific report and should never be judged,” Molero emphasizes.
The feeling of guilt in a person affected by an STI most often goes in two opposite directions: “this patient usually blames himself for not having taken protective measures and, at the same time, feels guilty for the possibility that he may have been contagious, after infecting other people.”
Sexually transmitted infections “leave three of the basic pillars of sexuality affected: pleasure, erotic communication and reproduction,” reveals Molero. And returning to the point of origin, after going through one of these experiences, requires extra help, beyond the medical, from the specialists. “These patients have to feel welcomed and very well advised,” concluded the president of the Spanish Federation of Sexology Societies in these conferences organized by the Puigvert Foundation.