THE reader will recall my report of some 15 year old young women in a big school party being G strung on the busy prom at Swanage about a month ago. But first - I am no prude. I easily remember the power of sexual attraction, and of actual physical beauty, writes retired consultant Doctor David Halpin.

I had a crush, remotely, on a pretty girl I saw when we were taken from Shaftesbury Grammar School to Gillingham for our A level tuition in biology and chemistry. And later there was an elegant Norwegian girl at Shaftesbury High School whom I actually got to meet on the allowed Sunday walks together. My attraction for her lead me in my first year at Medical School to hitch hike round Sweden, and stay with her good parents in Drammen, Norway – but to no avail! She went on to higher things.

If you have a computer you might like to read this - https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/4-articles/letters-to-the-media/75-hpv-immunisation-qhelping-keep-the-girls-healthyq

The title was ‘HPV immunisation: Helping Keep The Girls Healthy’ and I posted it 14 years ago. It was a plea to the BBC via Ms Mountjoy, a mother of three children, who was the health correspondent for BBC South West. The BBC was promoting, both at a national and regional level, the ‘vaccination’ of girls down to age 12 with material which was intended to keep them safe from cervical cancer by preventing infection with the human papilloma virus - HPV.

There were two products ‘on the market’ - Cervarix and Gardasil. The inadequate trials had as usual been done in poorer countries. The BBC showed a mother standing by her 12-year-old daughter being injected with the stuff at a school in Exeter which was supposedly good at the ‘arts’. The mother was saying how good it was that her offspring was being protected - in fact by OUR NHS. 

I have now just skimmed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine having searched ‘hpv vaccines’. Some of what I emphasised then has now been shown to be true.

 eg ‘Vaccinating a large portion of the population may also benefit the unvaccinated.’ (I imagined that herd immunity might be a benefit). ‘However, there are other high-risk HPV types that are not affected by the vaccine.’ Now know that there have been successful and massive pay outs in the US for the terrible harms done to some females with Gardasil. And know too, that with your taxes OUR NHS is still actively injecting this material into young girls and women - and boys!

To cut things short, my main points for the promotion of sexual health in young people were the following.

That in the prevention of sexually transmitted disease, good education was of the essence. But I gathered from speaking with fifth and sixth formers that sex education was often inadequate.

That in casual or especially promiscuous sexual intercourse, a barrier was essential. That is a condom, or for older generations a ‘French letter’, the origin of which name I know not. The use of this is played down by our health authorities - especially the risk of pregnancy if poorly used. 

Instead the responsibility is placed entirely on the female – the ‘pill’ usually. This has a profound effect on metabolism, the chemical workings, but is not highlighted because the state is more interested in limiting population. I judge that the minority of the girls who were flaunting their bodies on Swanage prom might not be that responsible, especially with alcohol or cannabis added in the mix.

There is of course much more to all this; my good education at St Mary’s W2 included sexually transmitted disease.  The Special Clinic in Praed Street was very busy, and lead by by two excellent consultant physicians. Such disease is on the rise, the organisms have become resistant to more ordinary antibiotics, and public ignorance deepens whilst sexual appetite is increasingly stimulated, as by the TV channels and TV adverts.

Know that infection with Chlamydia is very common in our young women, and this leads untreated to scarring of the Fallopian tubes and infertility.  It infects quietly, causing what we called earlier on ‘Pelvic Inflammatory Disease’. These women then go on to complicated and intrusive ways to have babies they yearn for, often with limited success.

The answer is not a jab x 2 or 3. But education, and being inspired to respect the health in a partner’s body and one’s own, - the wonder of our intricate bodies