SPRING AWAKENING

Connor Mills

Spring Awakening: A Personal Journey into Sexual Health

Spring has sprung and with it the expectation of hopefully donning less layers, a “grand ol stretch in the evenings” and the constant urge to assemble at a beer garden and live life a little easier. (We’ll not talk about the abhorrent number of times I’ve used “it’s a wonder day” in group chats already this year).

With this change in season a lot of us look to physical health and with the ease of which we’re able to start taking advantage of the great outdoors, it seems like an obvious choice, but in this issues column I wanted to shine a light on health of a more intimate, nature.

In recent years the environment of sexual health has come on leaps and bounds. With Gum clinics set up around most major cities and towns with organisations such as The Rainbow Project running drop-in sexual health clinics, offering safer sex packs, and providing general advice / help.

My personal experience of sexual health and clinics has been one of shocking privilege and self-admitted ignorance, the only real thought I had given to sexual protection and health being borrowing a friend’s PREP before and after visiting a certain Belfast sauna. It’s the same story that I feel a lot of us relate to but maybe not so openly, knowing the correct sexual protection practices, but not employing these until after a learned moment. Of course, this is a generalisation and just a small example through talking to friends on their experiences, yet, with HSCNI reporting that in 2022 there was 42% increase in STI diagnoses in Northern Ireland alone it can be said that it’s not just a small number of isolated incidents.

Recently being run down made me want to understand my health more and through this I felt a want to take my first sexual health test, not being able to attend a GUM clinic in person without sacrificing a day’s wage, the at home test kits which can be ordered through SH:24 were a welcome solution. The test kits are free and are a great alternative for someone who may find it more difficult to travel or who would prefer to take a sexual health test from the comfort and confidentiality of their own home. I didn’t know what to expect at first and I won’t lie seeing all the different tests with specific instructions, it can feel slightly daunting, well for someone as scatterbrain as myself, definitely daunting, but every test was accompanied by a handy how to video which helped immeasurably. (Where’s all my visual learners at.)

Full disclosure the blood test one, yes it is a pain, I mean it’s a home test they can only do so much but nothing is quite as humbling as doing star jumps in order to try and get blood flowing enough to fill a vial and then dropping the blood you previously spent the past two minutes trying to cultivate on the kitchen worktops or even the COVID flashbacks when doing the swab test but honestly completing the tests took half an hour max and came with discreet packaging in which to return your well-earned bodily fluids. Maybe more if you’re like my partner and find it difficult to “pee with purpose” I’d consider pencilling in slightly more time.

It’s services such as this that really help to transform people’s outlooks on sexual health, I had always figured that I would have to travel to a clinic, and no Omagh is not the most rural community in all Northern Ireland but for those living in rural environments this particular service is an absolute game changer. Pop the tests in the post and await the results in a couple of days. It really helped shape my preconceived notions of what sexual health testing was and really helped me learn what was involved therein. I would say to those that haven’t been tested or are reading this and finding yourself curious to give it a go. Again for “big city” folks this may be coming across as trivial and routine but I’m more so speaking to those of us who don’t have sexual health services within walking distance or feel like it might not apply, there are so many sexual health services throughout N.I that offer a wide range of support and none of us are immune to less than healthy decisions. What I’m taking from the experience information is always power, assumptions aren’t always true, and it doesn’t matter your sexuality being in the know about your sexual health is always cute, so like let’s just all be super cute.