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What does a sexual health doctor actually do?

I know this might seem like a stupid question from the title, but I and everyone I know who has visited a sexual health clinic has been seen by a nurse. I start medicine at Uni next year, and sexual health is an area I'd be really interested in going in to, but I don't feel like I understand what a doctor in this area actually does compared to a nurse in this area- I can only find very limited info on this area that distinguishes the difference in a nurses/doctors role in a sexual health clinic.
Thank you!


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Not all clinics are nurse-led, and it depends what specialist nurses are available and the local provision setup. Most hospital clinics will at least be overseen by a GU consultant, while nurse specialists in my experience tend to deal with the 'barn door' type cases of the large number of e.g. chlamydial infections.

Sexual Health/GU doctors tend to be more involved with:

- HIV. Lots and lots and for ongoing care. In fact they tend to be responsible for HIV in general in many hospitals, even when the method of infection wasn't sexual, as they're the specialists in the area.
- Repeat infections and 'complicated' cases - e.g. those with issues around abuse, consent, mental capacity etc., and when chlamydia manifests as lymphogranuloma...
- Rarer infections (Chancroid, syphilis?)
- Pelvic inflammatory disease and the complications of infections that have become more advanced and done more damage
The above explanation is good. Basically they're for complicated cases/to help the nurse when they're not sure what to do.
Reply 3
Avatar for Sarky
Sarky
18
I was a sexual health doctor for a year. What Friar Chris describes is pretty accurate although we also did a lot of contraception/family planning too.

I also had experience of specialist clinics for:

Sex Workers
Teenagers
Follow up patients for test of cures
Herpes
Syphilis
Sexual assault victims

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