Older women get sex ed lesson
A new sex health campaign, which aims to curb the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in older women, was launched last week. Family Planning NSW launched the Little Black Dress Campaign – aimed at women aged 40 years and over – which will seek to promote safe sex.
A new sex health campaign, which aims to curb the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in older women, was launched last week.
Family Planning NSW launched the Little Black Dress Campaign – aimed at women aged 40 years and over – which will seek to promote the message: “Safe sex is an easier conversation to have with your clothes on”.
The campaign was developed after a survey revealed 40% of women aged over 40 years were as likely as younger women to have met someone online in the previous year and were more likely to have sex without condoms.
Medical director, Dr Deborah Bateson, said sexual health was a “two-way street”.
“There are issues here relating to a lack of education and awareness – people feel embarrassed or judged raising sexual health with GPs as well as their sexual partners – but it’s also the concept of the ‘condom generation’ coming into play.
“For people in their 60s now, it may be 40 years since they were first negotiating their sexual relationships, many years before the public’s sexual health consciousness was raised with the grim reaper campaign and various other measures,” Dr Bateson explained.
She added changes such as menopause also played into the equation, with many women not linking condoms to sex beyond the need for contraception, as well as a sense of invincibility that came with age.
However, a professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Terence Hull, said a wider and more positive message about condoms needed to be communicated to both women and men.
Professor Hull added condom campaigns needed to show people how to use them as many did not know how to put on a condom – regardless of their age.
The Little Black Dress campaign will see safe sex packs containing a condom, lube and instructions on how to use condoms distributed to Family Planning NSW’s partner organisations.
The complete series of campaign videos and articles will be released on the Family Planning NSW website: www.fpnsw.org.au
