{"id":52740,"date":"2025-03-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=52740"},"modified":"2025-03-05T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T12:00:00","slug":"phac-dare-to-talk-about-sexual-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=52740","title":{"rendered":"PHAC: Dare to talk about Sexual Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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OTTAWA, ONT.:<\/strong> Do you feel uncomfortable talking about sexual health?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s time for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sexual health is part of overall well-being, but it’s often left out of conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet it is essential to talk about it openly and get informed to make empowered choices when it comes to preventing, testing for and treating sexually transmitted infections (STIs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, despite being both preventable and curable, syphilis rates have been rising<\/a> in recent years, which is a cause for concern among public health representatives in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Between 2018 and 2023, infectious syphilis cases nearly doubled, rising from 6,371 to 12,135 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congenital syphilis cases (when the infection is passed to a baby during pregnancy) have more than tripled, rising from 17 cases in 2018 to 53 cases in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other STIs such as chlamydia or gonorrhea are also on the rise in the country, particularly among people aged 25 years or younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Talking might feel a bit awkward at first, but it doesn’t have to <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take control of your sexual health, having honest conversations and building trust with your partner(s) is an important step. You can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7         Bring the subject in a relaxed, private moment, and ask questions: “How do you feel about using condoms or getting tested together?”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7         Start over text or write down what you want to say first, if talking face-to-face feels difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7         Focus on mutual care, to create a safe space to share boundaries and explore what works between partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way to know for sure if you have an infection is to get tested as many STIs often have no symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can also reduce your risk of getting an STI and passing it on to your partner(s) by considering getting vaccinated against HPV, hepatitis B and mpox, using barrier protection (condoms and dental dams), and learning about safer sex methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sexual health is about so much more than conversations and STIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also about feeling safe, confident and informed when it comes to your body, relationships and choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more resources and tips, consult Your sexual health matters<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[adrotate banner=”126″] [adrotate banner=’127″] OTTAWA, ONT.: Do you feel uncomfortable talking about sexual health? It’s time for a change. Sexual health is part of overall well-being, but it’s often left out of conversations. Yet it is essential to talk about it openly and get informed to make empowered choices when it comes to preventing, testing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[50,2416,7810,7870,7871],"class_list":["post-52740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-halifax","tag-ontario","tag-phac","tag-public-health-agency-of-canada","tag-sexual-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}