Sexual Health at Christmas

An interesting thing about using tools such as Google Trends and Google Insights, is that you can review traffic patterns over the year for terms and wonder why that might be. Even your own Google Analytics is quite fascinating. There are often strong weekly patterns for example, job searches tend to disappear at the weekend and return at full strength on Monday mornings. Christmas and January are a particularly interesting time for search. Searches for all sorts of things increase in January from recruitment, to weight loss and stopping smoking. Search volume for subjects like garden sheds all but disappear in winter too.

Try entering search term like "STD Clinic" or "STI testing" and you will see that traffic dies away over summer and there is a peak in January. That suggests rather too many Christmas party incidents without, let us say adequate protection.

So first of all, prevention is better than cure. If you are considering going beyond an amorous clinch after your Christmas party, remember to stay safe. Male and female condoms, if used properly, will protect you from many Sexually Transmitted infections (STI's) and unplanned pregnancy.

However, if it's too late for that bit of sage advice, and you are worried that you have had unprotected sex, be on the look out for possible STI Symptoms. For women this could include passing urine more frequently or painfully, itching or swelling around the vagina or abnormal bleeding. For a man this may include itching or swelling around the penis and painful or more frequent urination.

If in any doubt, contact your most convenient sexual health clinic. Prevention May be better than Cure - but, Cure is still a pretty good option!