Sexual and Reproductive Health
The Sexual and Reproductive Health SIG will provide a forum for Faculty of Public Health (FPH) members, establish an advocacy resource and identify and share good practice in this critical public health area. It will also coordinate FPH responses to government and professional consultations and develop the evidence-base for practitioners built on active horizon-scanning of key developments in the field. This SIG directly contributes to several themes of the FPH manifesto, and it will deliver its aims through:
- A clear business plan based on FPH and sexual health colleagues’ priorities, the evidence and expert testimony
- Identifying the most important sexual and reproductive health issues for the UK, the needs of FPH members, the impact of inequalities, examples of good practice and the best ways to share them
- Providing an expert resource for members, informing the annual conference, raising the profile of these issues through existing networks (if necessary, developing new ones), and agreeing the most effective FPH products including advocacy, research, and training
- Process outputs which will include an annual report of activity to the FPH Board and regular briefings for members.
A copy of the SIG's workplan for 2023-25 can be found here.
The SIG is co-chaired by Natalie Daley: natalie.daley@barnardos.org.uk and Rachel McCarthy: rachael.mccarthy1@nhs.net.
Join the Sexual and Reproductive Health SIG
FPH members can join this SIG by logging into their FPH members’ portal account, selecting the ‘Committees/SIGs’ button and choosing the correct SIG. You will then be asked to provide a few details, following which your application will be automatically approved. Further details on FPH membership are available here.
Sexual and Reproductive Health SIG Lunch and Learns
The Faculty of Public Health’s Sexual and Reproductive Health SIG recently launched a series of lunch and learn sessions discussing sexual and reproductive health topics through a public health lens and exploring how these relate to clinical practice.
In this webinar, Dr Will Nutland, co-founder of Prepster, discussed the use HIV PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medication by HIV-negative people and the fact that it has a significant impact on HIV acquisition in the UK, but not across all groups that could benefit from PrEP.
Watch the webinar recording to learn more about the evidence around PrEP inequalities and suggestions on what might be done to address them.
This session, the SIG's second Lunch & Learn event, took place on 28 November 2023 and was open to everyone with an interest in sexual and reproductive health.
The presentation slides from this session are available here.
The first lunch and learn was held on Tuesday 4 July, on the topic of 'Decolonizing post-colonial sexuality in education - the case of Sri Lankan Tamil young people in the UK.' In this session, Dr Theeba Krishnamoorthy shared her PhD research, which explores the sexuality educational experiences of young Sri Lankan Tamils in the UK, across diasporic space and time. Insights from this research have implications for sexual health educators and service providers in the British-Sri Lankan Tamil context, but may also be relevant to other post-colonial diaspora groups in the UK.
A recording of the session can be found here and below. To provide feedback on this session, please complete this form.
Regulation of online STI testing
The SIG has been working with the Bacterial SIG at the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) to tackle the issue of unregulated online sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and inappropriate treatment. Demand for accessible STI testing services has increased, alongside advances in molecular diagnostic testing. As a result, there are now a large number of online and private providers in the UK offering STI testing and treatment. Unfortunately, the quality of these services varies significantly. People who access these services may receive the incorrect advice; be tested for organisms of questionable significance; be tested when this is not indicated; and/or be asked for inappropriate specimens to test for particular infections. Furthermore, not all online providers offer first line treatment that is in line with national clinical guidance and tests may be insufficiently validated and have poor sensitivity and specificity. Such practice is not only a public health risk, contributing to rising antimicrobial resistance, but is morally wrong and can result in considerable financial cost to the public.
To raise awareness of and gain support for action on this issue BASHH has authored a letter, which has been co-signed by the Faculty of Public Health, to the Chief Medical Officers of the UK nations and England’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer; BASHH has also produced a position statement which you can view on their website.
Useful Resources
If you would like further information relating to sexual and reproductive health, please see the links below:
- The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH)
- British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH)
- British HIV Association (BHIVA)
- Sexual and reproductive health and HIV: applying All Our Health (PHE guidance)
- NICE impact sexual health (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence report)
