Public health interventions for sexual health promotion can benefit from using new technologies, such as conversational agents, by engaging users in personalised, intelligent and evidence-based dialogue using natural language. As this is a young, but rapidly growing, field, this review summarises both the effectiveness and user acceptability of available sexual health interventions using conversational agents. The results support the potential of these interventions, and inform their design and evaluation for future research.

Telecontraception is a novel method that aims to address existing barriers associated with obtaining birth control, yet research examining user experience with these apps is lacking. User reviews from two telecontraception platforms were analysed. Findings indicated similar themes across both platforms: access and timeliness, clinician interaction, cost and affordability, support for the idea of telecontraception, and platform experience. Results illustrate telecontraception alleviates barriers related to access and timeliness but falls short in addressing cost and reach.

This study examines how 20 adjectives describing adults’ most recent sexual experience (e.g. boring, playful, romantic, etc.) illustrate underlying dimensions of sexual experiences. Our exploratory factor analysis reveals two important components: (1) sexual pleasure; and (2) sexual danger. These two factors were correlated with sexual health outcomes including sexual wantedness, orgasm, self-rated sexual health, meaningfulness of sex, and pain during sex. Findings suggest that the pleasure dimension is important for both genders, and especially for women, in experiences where the sex was wanted, orgasmic, meaningful, healthy, and without pain.

Understanding the perceptions and concerns about unplanned pregnancy compared to sexually transmissible infections (STIs) of youth representing marginalised populations is crucial in planning effective prevention strategies. We found that most youth were more concerned about pregnancy than STIs, and they identified a range of issues that differentially influenced their concern for both, including perceived long-term consequences, visibility, and stigma. Sexual health programs and policies should be tailored to meet the specific needs and concerns of different youth populations.

Previous research has demonstrated health disparities by race/ethnicity in the sexual health of US adolescents and young adults. This study examines changes over time in racial-ethnic disparities in sexual risk behaviours among US high school students, finding that trends in adolescent sexual risk behaviours statistically differ by race/ethnicity. Although disparities in sexual risk behaviours may be shrinking for many behaviours, work is still needed to achieve health equity in risks associated with HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy.

HIV-self testing (HIVST) and facility-based HIV rapid diagnostic testing (HIV-RDT) are acceptable and effective ways to test men who have sex with men. We found a community-based organisation-led HIVST program was cheaper and more effective than HIV-RDT in Zhuhai, China. The mean cost per person tested was USD10.38 for HIVST and USD41.45 for HIV-RDT.

Repeat chlamydia infection after treatment is common, and testing for reinfection is recommended at 3 months post-treatment, but retesting rates in Australia are low. Sydney Sexual Health Centre introduced an automated, home sampling process for chlamydia reinfection screening in 2019 to help increase retesting rates. This study evaluated home sampling in a real world setting, and found a lower uptake than previously demonstrated in a clinical trial.

In response to the report by Abraham et al., we present our observations of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) detection in men tested at a public hospital laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, using a multiplex PCR. These studies provide valuable information about TV prevalence in urban communities.

The Cervical Screening Test (CST) replaced the Pap smears in 2017 in Australia. Some sexual health clinicians used CST and Pap smears interchangeably because they believed the clients, particularly older women, did not understand the differences between these two terminologies.

Delayed pressure urticaria, a dermatological disorder, may be associated with dyspareunia rarely, thus impairing the patient’s quality of life.