Yahoo LifestyleA quarter of students contract an STI in their first year
New students exercising their sexual freedom when they arrive at uni are likely to spread more than heartbreak in their first year
Freshers' Week and its accompanying pub crawls, cheap-as-chips drinks deals and alcohol-fuelled hook-ups may have been and gone for another year, but it seems new university arrivals are likely to pick up more than a few traffic cones in their first year as students.
A new survey has discovered that a staggering quarter of first years will contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI) before the summer holidays roll round.
As well as being a bit ick, results from a poll of more than 2,000 young graduates revealed a staggering lack of safe sex practices, with 89 per cent admitting that they didn't use condoms for the majority of their sexual encounters while at university.
More than half added that they couldn't remember who they caught their infections from.
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The most common STI caught was chlamydia (three quarters of all chlamydia diagnoses in the UK are in the 15-24 age group), which was reported by 59 per cent of those polled, followed by herpes, an incurable condition, which affected 18 per cent.
The findings came as a result of surveys conducted by the team behind student hook-up website Shag At Uni. And unsurprisingly its creator Tom Thurlow insisted that he didn't want to put youngsters off exercising their sexual freedom when they arrived at university, but hoped the findings would make students think twice before forgetting about the condom.
“I decided to carry out this study as the site always notices a huge increase in new members to the website during fresher’s weeks, as this is obviously when many of the members will be meeting up with individuals they have met on the site for casual sex," Tom said.
"I do not believe that being promiscuous and having casual sex are bad traits, however I am passionate about promoting safe sex, as well as the use of condoms amongst the student population of the UK.”
Here's hoping the newest generation of future graduates use their noggins and practise safer sex than their predecessors.
