Sexual history taking: a dying skill?
BACKGROUND
Many adolescents are having sex and adolescents with life-limiting illnesses are no exception. It is therefore important for health care professionals to take a sexual history and provide advice about sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, and ways of reducing high-risk sexual behaviors. Consultations should provide a forum for discussion and education. A literature review revealed no previous studies on this topic.


OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to review medical consultations between adolescents with life-limiting illnesses and pediatricians to establish whether sex was discussed.


METHODS
The clinical medical notes of 25 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, under the care of a community team specializing in patients with nonmalignant life-limiting conditions at a District General Hospital in the United Kingdom (UK) were selected at random. Researchers retrospectively reviewed handwritten notes and typed letters in the medical records with a view to establishing whether a sexual history was taken on any occasion.


RESULTS
None of the health care professionals took a sexual history from any of the adolescents on any occasion despite multiple clinic attendances.


CONCLUSIONS
Sexual health is described by the World Health Organization as a basic human right. Clinicians may struggle to accept that adolescents with life-limiting illnesses may want to talk about sex, and this study has highlighted it as a topic that is generally ignored. Health professionals should include sexual health in routine palliative assessments. Adolescents with life-limiting illnesses should not be denied the right to holistic health care.
1 Department of Pediatrics, Royal United Hospital , Bath, United Kingdom .
Nwanneka N
NN
Sargant
Natasha
N
Smallwood
Fiona
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Finlay
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010372:Pediatrics; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D060728:Reproductive Health; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D006113:United Kingdom