It’s two years this month since the morning-after pill went on sale over the counter. How did our sexually active young people fare since? Suzanne Harrington reports

The number of women attending sexual health clinics has plummeted, with emigration as well as the availability of emergency contraception over the counter a factor in the reduction.

The cost of doctors appointments is continuing to put women off visiting their doctor, with many resorting to the internet for prescription drugs.

WOMEN are putting off gynaecological check-ups and skimping on contraception to save money as the recession bites, a leading sexual health clinic has warned.

A new report the Dublin Well Woman Centres has found women are avoiding sexual health check-ups in a bid to save money.

A WOMEN’S health clinic is concerned that a crucial high uptake of the cervical cancer vaccine may be difficult to maintain when it is rolled out nationwide in September.

RESTRICTIONS to the state’s free cervical cancer screening programme has seen a fall in the number of women availing of the possibly life-saving test, new figures reveal.

The results of a new survey have found that 55% of Irish people do not use contraception when having sex for the first time.

POORER women are more likely to have abnormal smear test results than those who are better off, new figures reveal.

Schoolgirls will be given the life-saving cervical cancer vaccination in a pilot scheme launched today by a family planning clinic.

A women's welfare group is criticising the Government's plans to abandon the HPV vaccination programme.

A LEADING health charity has called for a national screening programme for one of the most common sexually transmitted infections after discovering that one in five young people attending one of its clinics had the fertility-threatening bug.

FEARS that the outsourcing of cervical smear tests for analysis in the United States may have caused some abnormal tests to slip through the net were dismissed yesterday by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Health Service Executive (HSE) tonight moved to allay fears doctors were making judgment calls on results from cervical smear tests carried out in the US.

Doctors are being forced to make judgment calls on cervical smear tests analysed in the US putting thousands of women at risk, a leading health lobby warned today.

THE new cervical cancer vaccine could be lulling women into a false sense of security, a medical expert warned yesterday.

THERE has been a significant increase in the number of detected cases of the sexually transmitted infection, Chlamydia, in recent months, according to the Well Woman Centre.

A co-ordinated national sexual health strategy is now essential to promote safer sexual health practices and achieve early disease detection, according to the Well Woman Centre.

The Well Woman Centre has called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to take immediate action to prevent what the organisation has called ‘rogue pregnancy counselling services’ from operating in the State.

WOMEN are being duped by bogus pregnancy counselling agencies purporting to offer non-judgmental advice, a report by the Well Woman Centre warns.

Dan Buckley

The Alliance for a No Vote has called for the morning after pill to be made available in secondary schools.