Of course schools don’t always get the details right, but if the issue is politically weaponised, pupils will suffer the most Imagine travelling to work in the morning, listening to colleagues loudly marking your body out of 10. Imagine being groped in the corridor, catcalled, hearing rape jokes. A woman suffering this at work would surely leave, or sue. But teenage girls at school don’t have that option, although a horrifying report from Ofsted in 2021 found this is the environment in which many are trying to learn. Nine out of 10 girls said being sent unwanted explicit images happened “a lot ..read more

Running and pelvic floor exercises show promise in studies of the most common sexual dysfunction for men Running and pelvic floor exercises could be an effective way to treat premature ejaculation, according to a comprehensive review of previous research. Physical activity was found to have as beneficial an effect as drugs but without the associated side-effects, researchers who reviewed 54 studies found ..read more

Three years after mandatory sex education introduced, results show issue of unsafe relationships also not taught sufficiently Students are not being taught enough about the impact of pornography and dangerous relationships, even as the threat of online misogyny increases, according to a survey. Three years after the government introduced (SRE) the survey reveals that young people feel they have seen no improvement in the quality of sex education they receive, and current teaching fails to tackle modern harms ..read more

It took the LGBTQ+ community, educated by the trauma of HIV and Aids, to fill a vacuum left by government failure Harun’s nightmare began with a fever, a general sense of being under the weather. Maybe it was Covid, he thought. Then his temperature soared to over 40C, and his muscle aches soon became unbearable. A pimple appeared on his nose, and swiftly spread across his face. He called an ambulance half a dozen times, but none arrived. As his throat became covered in lesions, he could no longer swallow food. It was then he was finally admitted to hospital, and spent 11 days there in agonisin ..read more

Government warned it could be found liable over contraction of sexually transmitted diseases in only state still opposing distribution Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Queensland’s continued opposition to providing condoms to prisoners – at least a decade after all other states began doing so – leaves the state at enhanced risk of legal action, lawyers and health experts say. The World Health Organisation has long recommended that condoms be provided to prisoners. But Prof Basil Donovan, the head of Kirby Institute’s sexual health program, says a lack ..read more

Abortion, toxic masculinity, human extinction ... What’s the best way to talk to children about the big issues of the day? We ask the experts If they’re lucky enough to avoid them at home, children are nonetheless exposed to toxic relationships on TV and social media – Ofcom received more than 3,000 complaints about misogynistic behaviour in just one episode of Love Island in 2022, and TikTok hosted videos of teenage boys ripping girls’ clothes off ..read more

A routine sexual health checkup became an undignified ordeal – and underlined the accessibility issues people such as me face “It’s like they think we don’t have sex at all,” I complained down the phone to my friend, as I boarded the bus to go home from a sexual health checkup in which I’d been reminded, many times, that the service didn’t cater to the needs of people such as me. Ready to give my mate the full account of what had happened, I realised that maybe my fellow passengers didn’t want to be subjected to this story. So I reluctantly said my goodbyes, sat down and gathered my thoughts ..read more

Dr Türkei Michael Blees finds the idea that a healthcare professional would use the term ‘virgin speculum’ breathtaking, while Susannah Brown describes the pain and humiliation she felt at one cervical smear exam After working for 40 years as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, the term “virgin speculum” took my breath away (The ‘virgin speculum’: proof that medicine is still rife with outrageous myths about women, 19 January). Unprofessional and stupid. Unfortunately, most people are not able to use their own language with skill and precision. In German we call the small speculum the Kinderspe ..read more

The education resources I provide will, I hope, lead to greater equality and improved sexual health and rights ‘Are you a doctor, or are you a porn star?” When I first started creating judgment-free sex education content online, I got asked this question almost every day. In India, an ordinary woman talking about sex – knowledgably and without shame – felt unfamiliar, even transgressive, to most people. Sex remains a taboo topic in India. Victorian social norms and laws, established during British colonial rule, remain central to public attitudes. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in 2018 ..read more

Exclusive: National survey of young people also finds fewer than half used a condom during their latest sexual experience Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast More young Australians are sexually active than in previous years and, while many of them report positive experiences, a national survey of high school students found condom use is falling and there are still high rates of unwanted sex. The seventh federally funded national survey of Australian secondary students and sexual health on Thursda ..read more