From clinics to classrooms: physicians play an essential role in transforming comprehensive sexuality education

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Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) equips youth with knowledge, life skills and attitudes to achieve healthy respectful relationships, and reach their optimal life and reproductive goals. This paper provides an overview of the current state of CSE globally, explores the challenges and facilitators to CSE implementation, and discusses the untapped agency of clinicians and professional medical societies in improving CSE delivery. Best practice CSE is implemented within school-based curricula taking a life-course approach (from childhood and beyond). CSE is enshrined within the right to education, health and well-being. The aspiration is for all youth to have access to CSE to reach their full potential. Great gains have been made, but there are significant economic, geographic and cultural barriers to implementation globally, leaving youth at risk for unwanted pregnancy, sexual violence, sexually transmitted infection, adversely impacting their future productivity and independence. Physicians have the potential to play a significant role in multiple domains of CSE including policy, advocacy and research. However, there is a need for physicians to develop policy skills and experience through dedicated medical education. Leveraging health providers beyond the clinic space can deliver significant population benefits for policy and practice and can help build capacity in the next generation of providers for delivering CSE-solutions for the future. Comprehensive sexuality education is a program for adolescents and youth that exists at the intersection of health and education. It provides young people with skills, knowledge, and attitudes to achieve healthy, respectful relationships and reach their optimal life and reproductive goals. This includes reducing the risk of unwanted pregnancy, exposure to sexual violence, and sexually transmitted infections. It also enables completion of schooling and improves the ability to find paid work, enhancing a young person’s prospects. CSE is embedded within the basic human right to education, health, and well-being. The goal is for all youth to have access to CSE to reach their full potential. However, there are many barriers to implementing CSE, such as lack of resources, training, and effective policies. Physicians are an untapped resource in CSE implementation. Pathways for physicians to enter key public-policy roles are not well-established and need further development. For physicians to have an impact to effect greater access and implementation of school-based CSE, they need to i) expand their medical training to better prepare them to address clinical problems, inform policy and train future generations; ii) encourage research consortiums worldwide to find CSE solutions for underrepresented communities; and iii) better advocate for CSE when facing policies that could negatively affect youth. Overcoming these barriers and leveraging health providers beyond the clinical space has the potential to deliver significant population benefits for policy and practice and can help build capacity in CSE.

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