Abstract
The majority of medical students and medical healthcare providers do not feel comfortable when addressing sexual problems. It was suggested that more courses in sexual health are needed at medical schools to overcome this shortcoming. To assess medical students’ interest in and attitude about sexual health education at medical schools in Germany, a 13-item online questionnaire was developed. The link to the questionnaire was distributed at all medical schools in Germany. In total, 3264 medical students (69.9% female) from all 37 medical schools in Germany participated. Students from all universities indicated that contents related to sexual health are taught at their university. The majority (n=1809; 62.1%) answered that courses in sexual health should be mandatory. The types of educational experiences that were viewed as most appropriate were lectures (n=2281, 78.3%) and seminars without patient contact (n=1414, 48.5%). Students were most interested in child sexual abuse and sexually transmitted infections. It should be ensured that all medical students have acquired basic knowledge in diagnosing and treating frequent sexual problems at the end of their medical studies. Suggestions are made about how to improve current efforts of sexual health education at medical schools.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 8 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $32.38 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson RM . Positive sexuality and its impact on overall well-being. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz 2013; 56: 208–214.
Nusbaum MRH, Hamilton CD . The proactive sexual health history. Am Fam Physician 2002; 66: 1705–1712.
Frank E, Coughlin SS, Elon L . Sex-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of U.S. medical students. Obstet Gynecol 2008; 112: 311–319.
Malhotra S, Khurshid A, Hendricks KA, Mann JR . Medical school sexual health curriculum and training in the United States. J Natl Med Assoc 2008; 100: 1097–1106.
Wittenberg A, Gerber J . Recommendations for improving sexual health curricula in medical schools: results from a two-arm study collecting data from patients and medical students. J Sex Med 2009; 6: 362–368.
Coleman E, Elders J, Satcher D, Shindel A, Parish S, Kenagy G et al. Summit on medical school education in sexual health: report of an expert consultation. J Sex Med 2013; 10: 924–938.
Criniti S, Andelloux M, Woodland MB, Montgomery OC, Hartmann SU . The state of sexual health education in U.S. medicine. Am J Sex Educ 2014; 9: 65–80.
Barrett M, McKay A, Dickson C, Seto J, Fisher W, Read R et al. Sexual health curriculum and training in Canadian medical schools: a study of family medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and undergraduate medicine programs in 2011 with comparisons to 1996. Can J Hum Sex 2012; 21: 63–73.
Solursh DS, Ernst JL, Lewis RW, Prisant LM, Mills TM, Solursh LP et al. The human sexuality education of physicians in North American medical schools. Int J Impot Res 2003; 15 (Suppl 5): S41–S45.
Reader FC . Training in human sexuality in United Kingdom medical schools. J Sex Marital Ther 1994; 9: 193–200.
Wylie K, Hallam-Jones R, Daines B . Review of an undergraduate medical school training programme in human sexuality. Med Teach 2003; 25: 291–295.
Turner D, Jopt K, Nieder TO, Briken P . German medical students’ interest in and knowledge about human sexuality in 1972 and 2012. J Sex Med 2014; 11: 1914–1926.
Bovill C . Students and staff co-creating curricula: an example of good practice in higher education? In: Dunne E (ed). The Student Engagement Handbook: Practice in Higher Education. Emerald Group Publishing: Bingley, UK, 2013, pp 461–476.
Cook-Sather A, Bovill C, Felten P . Student Faculty Partnerships in Higher Education: A Practical Guide to Pedagogical and Curricula Collaboration. Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2014.
Carini RM, Kuh GD, Klein SP . Student engagement and student learning: testing the linkages. Res High Educ 2006; 47: 1–32.
Bovill C, Bulley C, Morss K . Engaging and empowering first-year students through curriculum design: perspectives from the literature. Teach High Educ 2011; 16: 197–209.
Krause K, Coates H . Student engagement at university. Assess Eval High Educ 2008; 33: 493–505.
Dunn ME, Alarie P . Trends in sexuality education in United States and Canadian medical schools. J Psychol Human Sex 1997; 9: 175–184.
Moreira ED, Glasser DB, Nicolosi A, Duarte FG, Gingell C . Sexual problems and help-seeking behaviour in adults in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. BJU Int 2008; 101: 1005–1011.
Shindel AW, Ando K, Nelson CJ, Breyer BN, Lue TF, Smith JF . Medical student sexuality: how sexual experience and sexuality training impact U.S. and Canadian medical students’ comfort in dealing with patients' sexuality in clinical practice. Acad Med 2010; 85: 1321–1330.
Turner D, Driemeyer W, Nieder TO, Scherbaum N, Briken P . "How much sex do medical studies need ?” – A survey of the knowledge and interest in sexual medicine of medical students. Psychother Psychosom Med Psychol 2014; 64: 452–457.
Shindel AW, Parish SJ . Sexuality education in North American medical schools: current status and future directions. J Sex Med 2013; 10: 3–17.
Hawton K . A human sexuality course for Oxford University medical students. Med Educ 1979; 13: 428–431.
Rufino AC, Madeiro A, Girão MJ . Sexuality education in Brazilian medical schools. J Sex Med 2014; 11: 1110–1117.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the Federal Representation of Medical Students in Germany for their support in data collection. We also want to thank the Dean’s office of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf for supporting the present study with a grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turner, D., Nieder, T., Dekker, A. et al. Are medical students interested in sexual health education? A nationwide survey. Int J Impot Res 28, 172–175 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijir.2016.25
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijir.2016.25
This article is cited by
-
The skills and experiences needed to enhance fellowship training in reproductive urology
International Journal of Impotence Research (2023)
-
Child sexual abuse among medical school students: experiences and perceptions
International Journal of Impotence Research (2021)