Following the recent figures released by the Health Protection Agency regarding sexual health, the FPA (Family Planning Association) will launch a new advertising campaign targeting the over 50s and will deal with the increasing number of instances of sexually transmitted infections amongst this age group.
The advertisements will depict men and women of the sixties and seventies posing in clothing relevant to the times. The caption accompanying the picture will ask the viewer if they remember wearing such items and what follows is the suggestion that they should remember to wear a condom, ‘Well, then remember to wear this’.
This follows those hard hitting numbers by the HPA which reveal that the 45 to 64 year old age bracket displayed the greatest rise in genital warts, chlamydia, syphilis and herpes from 2000 to 2009. The cases of gonorrhoea fell in all age groups but for the over 45s.
It is high time that control was taken over the situation. An increasing number of middle aged men and women are coming out of long term relationships and embarking on relationships with new partners but ignoring the risk of catching STIs as they associate condom use with contraception rather than infection protection.