Category Archives: Uncategorized

I couldn’t help but wonder: how can we go beyond performative social media alliances, and bring about a deeper educational and structural change in society, sexual health and beyond in regards to anti-racist work? In order, to be anti-racist, silence cannot be assumed. This is a passive way to respond to the urgencies of theContinue reading “Anti-racism and sexual health: anthropological reflections”

I couldn’t help but wonder: what was the deal with periods? Why is there so much taboo around them?  Prerequisite: although this article will refer to ‘women’ based on surveys and research done, it is imperative to understand… The average menstruator, having their period for roughly 5 days every 28, from the average ages ofContinue reading “Talking periods”

I couldn’t help but wonder: will quarantine change how we think about sex forever? It’s May 2020. In the UK, we have been locked down/quarantining/self-isolating for 2 months. Some of us may have crawled inside before then, and with a lift of restrictions last week (go to work, don’t go to work, be safe, goContinue reading “Locking down sex”

I couldn’t help but wonder: Are women simply ‘indecisive’ about their contraception, or has there been some miscommunication? Research shows that 70% of British women have tried the contraceptive pill, with around 3.5 million women currently using it (Fiennes, 2019). This accounts for nearly 90% of contraception use. In recent years, other forms of contraceptionContinue reading “Contraception: pick and mix?”

My heart sinks. I’m teaching consent to a classroom of year 9s, and a large cluster of them move to the true side of the classroom: the myth goes something like ‘if two people have had sexual activity together before, they don’t need to ask for consent again’. It’s false. Luckily, after lots of mythbusting,Continue reading “Starting with consent”

This week I will attempt to demystify STIs! Wooow, I’ll tell you; what a task. I work in sexual health in education and wellbeing, but not in the clinic. This took a lot of trawling through ins and outs of symptoms, treatments etc. (I knew a big proportion of it but definitely scrubbed up onContinue reading “Demystifying Sexually Transmitted Infections”

This blog post describes the various main types of STI’s, symptoms, testing and treatment. They are generally categorised as bacterial, viral or parasitic. Lets start with the most common… Chlamydia: bacterial. Represents 49% of all new STI diagnoses in the UK in 2018, and is most prevalent in the under 25s age group. Testing at leastContinue reading “STIs: types, testing and treatments”

With a UK focus… Why sexual health? Sexual health is something that we are all encouraged to engage in and might have been taught to most of us in some skeletal form of sex education. Which at worst would have been scaremongering and misleading (n.b 2010 circulations of a ‘blue waffle disease’ which was actuallyContinue reading “A Comprehensive History of Sexual Health”

Hey there: for anyone who doesn’t know me personally, my name is Francesca! So: why did I decide to write this blog? The title, Sexual Health and the City, describes many things for me. I would say excuse the pun, but since my impossibly cool twin Sicily approves, we’re running with it.  Firstly, I currentlyContinue reading “Introduction”