Sexual Health

The pleasure-positive approach to sexual health

Last April The Guardian published an article by Doortje Braeken with the title ‘Let’s be more open about the joy of sex’ (guardian.co.uk). Doortje is senior adviser on adolescents and young people at the Central Office of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in London (ippf.org). She wrote: ‘To work in sexual and reproductive health and rights is to be drip-fed a diet of warnings, doomladen data on violence, population and epidemics; no wonder we have forgotten a central truth about sex – namely that it is pleasurable’. It is an interesting point. Especially when she frames this within the current process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), based on the wellknown Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This discussion challenges all of us to re-examine the issue of sexual health and rights as the key to alleviating poverty and empowering women. The IPPF is already beginning to reframe the debate on sexual rights and health in terms of pleasure and confidence. I recommend reading the 2020-vision of IPPF (ippf.org). In this issue the pleasure-positive approach will be difficult to spot. Iris Shiripinda shares with us the current difficult situation in Zimbabwe. Life on the ground, with the lack of a woman and child friendly legal and social welfare system and the gender imbalance, shows us the darker side of Sexual Health, but with some sparks of hope on how to empower women. From his experience Steven Smits focuses on sexual education and the need for small-scale projects. Esther Jurgens emphasizes the importance of engaging men in sexual and reproductive health, which seems to be a long forgotten territory; this is illustrated by the example of a recently launched programme on how to include men in SRH. Janneke van de Wijgert, Professor at the Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology of the Institute of Infection and Global Health in Liverpool provides us with the current situation on reducing HIV incidence and prevalence. Koos Sanders of the University Medical Center in Utrecht provides a concise update on clinical aspects of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). The next issue of MT will include insights on ‘Urban Health’, that is also the theme of the NVTG Annual Symposium which will take place in October at the Royal Tropical Institute. I am confident that many readers would like to contribute to this exploration of the many dimensions and challenges of staying in good health in a rapidly expanding global urban environment. Hans Wendte Chief editor To work in sexual and reproductive health and rights is to be drip-fed a diet of warnings, doomladen data on violence, population and epidemics; no wonder we have forgotten a central truth about sex – namely that it is pleasurable.

Doortje Braeken