Abstract

Abstract:

Sex Sense, a service provided by Options for Sexual Health in Canada, offers a telephone and online information service in which people can confidentially ask questions concerning sexual health. To analyze data over 16 years of the Sex Sense services (2000-2016) and to identify primary client concerns according to gender, age, and region and how the frequency of these concerns may have changed over time we analyzed the database where all data were stored. Descriptive analyses and Pearson's Chi-Square tests were performed. Among our sample, more women contacted the service, and most clients were aged 17-29. Contraception was the main reason for contact; however, the proportion of contacts about this decreased over the years. When genders were compared, women were more concerned about contraception, emergency contraceptive pills, and pregnancy, while men asked about sexually transmitted infections, general sexual health, and pleasure. Contraception was the main reason for contact among all age groups except for people over 40 years, who asked more about sexually transmitted infections. Some reasons differed with the region from where people were situated, and this may relate to services available in those regions that might eliminate the need to contact Sex Sense. These findings revealed some of the main concerns about sexual and reproductive health among the Sex Sense service users. Furthermore, analyses showed that concerns differed by gender, age, and region. The findings are important for informing health care professionals and policy makers, government leaders, and stakeholders on the provision of sexual information and services.

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