Do asymptomatic patients attending genitourinary medicine clinics for a sexual health screen want to be examined? a pilot study

Abstract

Background: Screening for sexually transmitted infections (STI) traditionally involves genital examination in addition to obtaining genital swabs and blood tests. Another type of screening is evolving as a result of the ever-increasing demand on genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics. The latter screening includes testing the urine or self-collected genital swabs of asymptomatic patients in the community without genital examination. (Department of Health, choosing health document, 2004; Cohen and Kanouse, 2005; Department of Health, our health, our care, our say, 2006). Objectives: To investigate the preference of asymptomatic patients with regard to routine genital examination when they attend for sexually transmitted infections screening. Design: An anonymous questionnaire was used to explore the preference of two hundred asymptomatic patients (100 men and 100 women) attending the genitourinary medicine clinic with regard to routine genital examination. Setting: The genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic at the Newcastle General Hospital. Methods: In January 2006, two hundred asymptomatic patients attending the Newcastle GUM clinic for routine screening (100 men and 100 women) completed an anonymous questionnaire to explore their acceptability of routine genital examination. Results: The questionnaire showed that 98 (98%) and 91 (91%) of women and men respectively preferred to be examined when they attend for routine STI screening. Conclusion: This study showed that the majority of asymptomatic patients prefer to be examined when they attend the GUM clinic for routine screening. Future modernisation of GUM services aiming at screening asymptomatic patients without genital examination will need to educate patients and provide them with clear information on when an examination may be necessary so that patients will ask for the appropriate type of screening.