Public urged to stay vigilant against STIs during festive period

Olivia Kelleher

A sexual health specialist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin has urged revellers not to let their guard down when it comes to contracting STIs over the festive period.

Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine, Dr Aisling Loy, told Newstalk that the period leading up to Christmas and early New Year is an extremely busy time at their clinic.

“Mainly because I guess it’s that social time of year; when people go out, they take too much to drink and sometimes other substances and maybe make decisions that they normally wouldn’t make.

“And then wake up with symptoms or regret or worry or concerns and then come into us.”

Dr Loy says that there was a “huge peak” in people contracting STIs after the pandemic with the numbers declining in recent yers.

However, she warns that we are still up 30 percent on STI diagnoses in Ireland from pre-pandemic figures.

“But there’s been a decrease in the last year of around 10 percent which is a great thing.

“That could be because we’ve introduced lots of new measures, increased testing.

“Some people will be on DoxyPEP, that will prevent in the GBMSM (Gay, Bisexual, Men who have sex with Men) community.

“That might be adding to some of the decrease.”

Dr Loy stressed that while many people become symptomatic after two weeks of contracting an STI, some do not display any symptoms whatsoever.

“You could have something and not have any symptoms at all, so don’t let that put you off getting tested.

“But most appear within two weeks; if you were to get a symptom - unusual discharge, a lesion, a bump, a lump, pain on urination or having intercourse - mostly they’ll come up within two weeks.

“You can get symptoms sooner than that - a few days - but mostly within two weeks.

“But again, most STIs have no symptoms.”

Free STI home testing kits can be ordered from the HSE at https://sh24.ie/.