Purpose
Medical education is limited in addressing sexual health. Future physicians are provided education on sexually transmitted diseases and instructed on how to ask patients about their basic sexual history; are you sexually active, if yes, how many partners and sometimes with men, women, or both? From these questions it is evident that our physician education is lacking in addressing the importance of sexual health and its impact on individuals.
Methods
A Sexual Health Elective course was created to provide comprehensive sexual health education to medical students with a focus on small group discussions, confronting biases, and getting comfortable with discomfort. Course evaluations for the first two iterations of the course were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
Results
Results provide that medical students value the course content, believe this should be required content and incorporated into the primary curriculum, and feel safe and empowered practicing discussing these topics before doing so with patients. Students are also asking for a part two for the course as they have asked for additional topic coverage and want to hear from other experts in the field.
Conclusion
This research aims to provide a basis for the development and integration of sexual health education into medical curriculum. We aim to empower future physicians to engage with patients on the importance of sexual health, the diversity in sexual health, and the many colleagues across disciplines that can help.