According to a study by the World Health Organization, talking about the pleasure of sex in education programs can make the messages for safe sex more effective.
Research has found that educational programs that take this approach are more successful than other programs that focus solely on the dangers of unprotected sex.
Accordingly, emphasizing pleasure rather than fear is more effective in promoting safe sex.
In the study published in the journal Plos One, the results of different safe sex programs were evaluated by scanning the medical literature.
It was observed that in some of the projects, pleasure was also encouraged, and these projects increased the use of condoms.
One million people worldwide are infected with sexually transmitted diseases every day. Most of them have no symptoms.
The use of condoms is also important in terms of preventing these diseases besides preventing pregnancy.
Although billions of dollars are spent on sexual and reproductive health each year, programs for safe sex often fail to mention one of the main reasons for sex, that people have sex for pleasure.
Public health expert Anne Philpott, founder of the group The Pleasure Project, who works with the World Health Organization team, says she founded the group in 2004 “because she’s sick of the endless AIDS meetings where no one talks about the motivations of sex.”
“Pleasure is one of the biggest goals of having sex, but it’s never included in sex education and sexual health programs,” says Philpott.
Philpott says condoms should be marketed as pleasure products.
“The message is simple,” says Dr Lianne Gonsalves, WHO official and author of the study.
“Programs that better reflect the reasons people have sex are more successful in terms of health.”