Health experts call for renewed public health messaging amid condom stats and STI rises
A majority of young people know condoms can help to prevent STDs, but nearly half of men and a third of women do not use them.
Some 80 per cent said condoms are the best barrier to Sexually Transmitted Diseases – but 40 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women do not always use them. Report co-author Prof Anne Nolan warned there have been "recent rises in STI notifications among young people in Ireland" and claimed the condom use stats must prompt "renewed public health messaging about their benefits."
A report spokesperson said: "The study examined the factors associated with the timing, and circumstances, of first sex. Just over one-third of males and females first had sex by the age of 17, while a further 50 per cent first had sex before the age of 20. The remaining 15 per cent had not had sex by the age of 20. Young men and women who were more reliant on their friends for information about sex were significantly more likely to have sex earlier.
"There was no relationship between age of first sex and contraception use at first sex. Young women were significantly more likely to express regret over the timing of first sex than young men. A quarter of young women thought that it had happened 'too soon', in contrast to 10 per cent of young men who thought it had happened 'too soon'. Later age of sexual initiation was associated with a lower probability of perceiving that first sex had occurred 'too soon'.
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