A new study shows the benefits of incorporating ‘sexual pleasure’ as an element in sexual and reproductive health, suggesting that we should rethink our approach to sex in our societies.
Mondays rarely feel particularly romantic. Nevertheless, this Monday was supposedly the most romantic day of the year, St Valentine’s day. Incidentally, the day before was International Condom Day.
Anyway, Valentine’s day is about love, warmth, passion and pleasure. All (or at least the last two) are the primary motivators behind many people’s favourite pastime: sex.
Weirdly, but not surprisingly, passion and pleasure are not often part of sexual health interventions. And apparently, that is a big mistake, according to a recent review published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE highlighting the added value of incorporating pleasure in sexual health interventions.
According to the review, “programmes and education which better capture a full working understanding of sexual health, which acknowledges that sexual experiences can be ‘pleasurable’, have been demonstrated to improve not only knowledge and attitudes around sexual health, but also safer sex practices.”
They say this could also help us all reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) regarding sexual and reproductive health, namely 3.7 and 5.6.
“Future research or work should consider ways to incorporate pleasure within their programming because these interventions provide a lot of added value and they’re very effective,” said Mirela Zanera, co-author of the study, while presenting its findings at an event hosted by the WHO on Monday (14 February).
Sex is good, sex is healthy
“Sex is good. Sex is healthy. Sundhedsstyrelsen [the Danish Health Authorities] are in favour of sex. We are sexual beings, so of course, you should also have sex as a single person during a time with corona.”
These are the words of Søren Brostrøm, director of the Danish Health Authorities, from a press conference at the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown.
The review applauds the different national and subnational authorities who issued recommendations for corona-safe sex during the pandemic for addressing “the reality and common questions around pandemic-safe sexual activity, and in doing so acknowledged links between sexual activity and intimate connection, sexual desire and sexual pleasure.”
In other cases, things do not happen quite like that.
For instance, informing about the use of condoms, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tends to be considerably more negative: “programmes highlight the dangers and risks of unprotected sex or so-called ‘sexually-risky behaviour’, messages warn of disease burden from HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and reflect an assumption that rational health considerations drive sexual decision-making.
By contrast, concerns about sexual pleasure or perceived reductions in libido are often cited as reasons for not using condoms or discontinuing contraception.
Are we any good at it in the EU?
To answer that, we would need much more information than what is currently available. But what we do have indicates: no.
Some of the programmes studied in the review targeted young people in school. It turned out that presenting sexuality as positive and a source of pleasure increased condom use amongst these young people compared to those in control groups.
When it comes to schools in Europe, it’s not an easy task to map how we teach sex education.
That did not stop the European Commission from trying, and they had help from a senior analyst at RAND Corporation, Natalie Picken, in putting together a policy memo on the topic. Unfortunately, the memo did not include sexual pleasure as a topic in the mapping, Picken told EURACTIV.
The obvious reason for this is that it simply does not take up much of a role in sex education in European schools. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has tried to map it in an overview called “sexuality education in Europe and Central Asia”.
Out of 25 countries, 13 are in the EU, and either only includes sexual pleasure briefly or not at all in their sex education. Only Spain does it “sometimes”. Generally, sexual pleasure is only addressed “sporadically”, and the IPPF recommend it as an important topic that should not be neglected.
While it’s not in the EU, Norway is a close neighbour to the north. Here focus groups were conducted with a group of 15-16-year-olds about “week six” – pronounced in Norwegian it sounds like ‘Week Sex’ – which is supposed to provide the pupils with sexuality education during the sixth week of the year. The same campaign is run in Denmark.
Norwegian teenagers reviewed the week like this: “we expected more about sex in the sex week” and said they learned mainly about negative aspects of sex. These aspects included preventing incidents such as STIs and unwanted pregnancies.
“They felt that sex was presented as a technical matter and that the contents failed to present desirable aspects of sexuality.”
One of the informants said: “Sex is not supposed to be a negative thing. But they make it seem like it is.”
By Amalie Holmgaard Mersh
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EU news
Grenoble Declaration. French health minister Olivier Véran announced that a ‘Grenoble Declaration’ would soon be signed by his European counterparts to “mark a time that counts in the history of European health.”
Healthier Together Initiative. The European Commission launched a call Tuesday (15 February) inviting governmental and non-governmental actors to submit proposals for best practices focusing on preventing and managing non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health and neurological disorders, and health determinants.
100 million for the African medicines agency. The EU has teamed up with the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation to mobilise more than €100 million over the next five years to support the recently established African Medicines Agency (AMA). This support to strengthening regulatory capacity will improve health security in Africa, says the Commission in a note.
COVID
Administering COVID-19 vaccines. Administering COVID vaccines is now a priority in Africa for EU top executives. Too many doses of vaccines delivered to Africa are wasted, according to both the French EU Council presidency and the European Commission. They now want to strengthen local health systems to ensure that these doses are administered to the population.
COVID-19 and air pollution. As science reveals more and more links between air pollution and the effects of COVID-19, the pressure is mounting on the European Commission to set high ambitions in the upcoming revision of the EU’s Air Quality Directive.
Vaccine tracking. EU countries need to develop tracking tools further to monitor vaccine rates, the director of the EU’s infectious disease agency (ECDC) said, amongst talks of centring the role of digital health in preventative care.
Treatments for COVID-19. WHO prequalifies the first monoclonal antibody to treat COVID-19. The treatment is called Tocilizumab, and the prequalification is part of the aim to increase access to recommended treatments for COVID-19.
Contraception
New contraception ranking shows differences between East and West. Western Europe performed well in the latest ranking on access to contraception and information about it. On the other end, Poland remained the laggard for the second year running, scoring lower than ever and underscoring the growing east-west divide.
Transplantation
After the first successful animal-to-human organ transplant, hopes are high that this could offer a way to tackle the chronic global organ shortage. While it is slowly becoming a reality in the US, the EU is close on its heels.
Digital health
Legal barriers stand in the way of health data potential, says Danish analysis. The full potential of health data will not be realised until specific legal obstacles standing in the way are overcome.
Pharmaceuticals
Save colistin for humans. A group of 150 European health professionals called on the European Commission to reserve the last-resort medicine colistin for human use to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The life-saving medicine is also used in European food production, such as early weaning in piglets, while the health professionals supported by the Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) network advocate banning any use in the EU food production and imports.
Drug to treat lupus approved. The EU has approved medicine to treat moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the most common form of lupus. The drug Saphnelo developed by the manufacturing company AstraZeneca is the first biologic for SLE approved in Europe with an indication that is not restricted to patients with a high degree of disease. There are approximately 250,000 people with SLE in Europe, and most are women diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 45.
Endocrine disruptors
A majority of EU countries agreed on identifying the chemical Resorcinol as a substance of very high concern (SVHC) due to its endocrine disrupting properties for human health. The news was welcomed by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) as the first compound added to the SVHC list due to tits thyroid disrupting properties.
The Capitals
DUBLIN
Ireland to map out COVID restrictions of the future. Ireland’s National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will meet soon to discuss COVID-19 moving forward, weeks after most restrictions were lifted. By Molly Killeen | EURACTIV.com
PARIS
French ‘freedom convoys’ now heading to Brussels. After the self-proclaimed “freedom convoys” protested COVID-19 measures and the vaccine pass in Paris and across the country on Saturday (12 February), some have now decided to continue the protest in Brussels. By Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr
PRAGUE
Czech government under fire for pandemic law. The government – which has eased COVISD-19 restrictions to the minimum – has come under fire for its proposed amendment to the Pandemic Law. By Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz
VIENNA
Vienna bans Canada-style ‘freedom convoy’. Vienna police have banned a motorcade protesting mandatory vaccines planned for last Friday in the city amid fears that participants would cascade out and block traffic. By Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de
PRAGUE
COVID-19 to become a ‘normal disease’ in Czechia. The government has decided to abolish most of the county’s measures against COVID-19, with vaccination certificates no longer mandatory in restaurants and other facilities from 18 February. By Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz
ATHENS AND SOFIA
Greece and Bulgaria top EU COVID death list. While the spread of the Omicron variant has led to record-high infection rates across Europe, many governments are scaling back restrictions and declaring that the end is in sight. But the reality is that some states are still suffering from disproportionately high mortality rates. By Sarantis Michalopoulos|EURCATIV.com
HELSINKI
Canadian-inspired trucker convoy rolls into Helsinki. Inspired by the recent truckers’ Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, truckers over the weekend gathered outside parliament and at Citizen’s Square, demanding the abolition of all COVID-19 restrictions, reductions in the price of fuel, and the government’s resignation. By Pekka Vanttinen | EURACTIV.com
BUDAPEST
Hungarian governments’ move to keep press away from hospitals ‘shocking’, says international media. The International Press Institute (IPI) on Tuesday (8 February) slammed the Hungarian executive’s decision to override a court ruling that struck down the blanket ban on independent media accessing health institutions amid the pandemic. By Vlagyiszlav Makfszimov | EURACTIV.com with Telex
Upcoming events
17-18 February | European Union/African Union summit
17-18 February | Meeting on market surveillance for medical devices organised by the French EU presidency
21 February | European Health Union – not wishful thinking, but a reflection of Europeans’ real concerns, EURACTIV event
22 February | Green and sustainable Pharmacy in Europe organised by the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU)
23 February | Developing a framework for evaluating new COVID-19 vaccines
23 February | All.Can “Building efficiency in cancer care” policy blueprint launch event hosted by MEP Tomislav Sokol
28 February | Ministerial Conference on Research and Care Pathways: For a European policy on rare diseases
[Edited by Alice Taylor]