Venereal Diseases on the Rise: The Growing Trend of Unprotected Casual Sex

Venereal diseases are back with a vengeance. Statistics Netherlands’ Lifestyle Monitor shows that the percentage of risky sex with casual partners is increasing in almost all age groups in the Netherlands, reported Het Parool last weekend. People in their twenties in particular ignore condoms.

It is a trend that can also be seen in other countries. In England, not so many cases of syphilis were reported in 75 years and the number of gonorrhea cases was also at an all-time high, meldt The Guardian. The number of STIs decreased in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona measures. But due to the widely predicted ‘Summer of Love’, there is now a clear increase again. For example, the number of gonorrhea diagnoses in England increased by 50 percent last year to 82,500.

Structural trends also play a role. Due to reduced concerns about HIV/AIDS, safe sex today means something different than at the end of the last century, psychologist and sexologist Sanderijn van der Doef notes in Het Parool. “Young people now find it more important to prevent a pregnancy than an STI. In the 1990s, sex education focused massively on stopping the HIV epidemic. Young people were taught that they should always use a condom when having sex with a new partner.”

With the arrival of Rutte I, the emphasis on prevention decreased, writes Het Parool. “The lifestyle campaigns came to an end when a new wind started to blow. At about the same time as the first Rutte cabinet took office, the campaigns disappeared to make way for the liberal idea that citizens should be allowed to decide for themselves, also to lead an unhealthier life.”