Young men need more services
The April 23 article [“For Boys, a Checkup Just Isn’t Macho”] highlights challenges in ensuring the sexual health of young men.
California has one of the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rates, and recent L.A. statistics show that 49% of high school males are sexually active. In working to ensure the health of our youth, comprehensively addressing the barriers around effective reproductive healthcare for young men must be a crucial part of our efforts.
As a public health professional and UCSF student nurse, I have worked with many teens. Many young men I have worked with still hold rampant misconceptions and misunderstandings about pregnancy and prevention of sexually transmitted infections and are less likely to access reproductive healthcare than young women.
Effective intervention with young men must include increased accessibility of teen- and male-friendly reproductive health services, screenings, accurate sexual health information from appropriate sources within the school, community and home, as well as efforts to change the social norms surrounding young men about their risks for sexually transmitted infections and men’s role in pregnancy prevention.
VINO GOONEWARDENA
San Francisco
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