Men, bodily change and urethritis: a qualitative study
M. K. Pitts A C , A. M. A Smith A , A. Mischewski A and C. Fairley BA Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia.
B Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, 580 Swanston Street, Carlton, Vic. 3053, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: M.Pitts@latrobe.edu.au
Sexual Health 2(1) 25-28 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH04018
Submitted: 17 June 2004 Accepted: 24 January 2005 Published: 22 March 2005
Abstract
Objectives: To describe how men narrate the process of bodily change as a trigger to presentation for a suspected sexually transmissible infection. Methods: The study was qualitative with 18 men presenting at a specialist sexual health centre in an urban setting. Results: All men gave narratives that included accounts of bodily changes prior to presentation. The nature, severity and persistence of those changes were unrelated to subsequent diagnosis. Men responded particularly to visual changes as cues to action. Conclusions: The men exhibited limited skills in understanding the significance and the specifics of bodily change as they may relate to a sexually transmissible infection. While these men identified a broad range of changes as potentially indicative of a sexually transmissible infection, their ability to act on visceral rather than visual cues appears constrained in that they were less able to respond to the feel of their body than the way that it looked.
Additional keywords: masculinity, STIs, symptoms.
[1] Safer M, Tharps O, et al. Determinants of three stages of delay in seeking care at a medical clinic. Med Care 1979; 17 11–29.
| PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[2] Cameron L, Leventhal E, et al. Symptom representations and affect as determinants of care seeking in a community-dwelling adult sample population. Health Psychol 1993; 12 171–9.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[3] Barth KR, Cook RL, et al. Social stigma and negative consequences: factors that influence college students' decisions to seek testing for sexually transmitted infections. J Am Coll Health 2002; 50(4): 153–9.
| PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[4] Pitts M, Woolliscroft J, et al. Factors influencing delay in treatment seeking by first-time attenders at a genitourinary clinic. Int J STD AIDS 2000; 11 375–8.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[5] Smith AMA, Mischewski A, Gifford S. ‘They just treat you as a number’ Aspects of men’s experience in a Melbourne sexual health service. Venereology 1999; 12 15–19.
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[6] Group CE. National guideline for the management of non-gonococcal urethritis. Sex Transm Infect 1999; 75((supplement 1)): S9–S12.
| PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
[7] Quinn Patton M. Qualitative research and evaluation methods. London: Sage; 2001
[8] Seidler V. Unreasonable men. London: Routledge; 1994