James Kavanagh teamed up with Let’s Get Checked medical director and Genito-Urinary Medicine physician Dr Dom to answer some of his follower’s sex ed questions

Irish Snapchatter James Kavanagh has teamed up with Dr Dom from Let’s Get Checked to help young LGBT people learn more about sexual health, STIs and safe sex practices.

For young LGBT people, sex eduction in Irish schools can be hit or miss as Emmet pointed out in the GCN Youth Issue last year. Without a focus on LGBT specific issues, younger LGBT people are turning to the internet to uncover information which has not been taught in class.

That’s where Snapchatter James Kavanagh decided to step in and do the LGBT community a service.

James receives tonnes of questions from his followers on Snapchat about sex-ed, and devotes one day a week to answering them as best he can.

Dr Dom

However, to answer some of the more difficult questions Kavanagh decided to bring in the big guns when it comes to sexual health knowledge, Dr Dom (aka consultant Dr Dominic Rowley).

“Usually I’m OK with answering most of the questions, but some of them I’m a bit out of my depth. So I’ve partnered up with LetsGetChecked.com […] and I’m going to talk to their Dr Dom about some of the questions I’ve been sent in to hopefully clear some stuff up,” Kavanagh said.

“I get the vibe that sex education in schools these days is really […] not being taught properly at all,” Kavanagh explains.

In the video, Kavanagh and Dr Dom talk broadly about the differences between STDs and STIs, STI testing stigma and the need for an updated public health campaign in Ireland before broaching more specific questions.

Check out the full video below to find out about which STIs can be passed by kissing and different types physical contact, whether two virgins can get an STI from their first time, asymptomatic STIs, dental dams and more.

Self-Testing

Let’s Get Checked offer the ‘Standard 6‘ testing kit service which tests for Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

For €120, this testing kit gets sent out to your address, you take the samples and send it back to get your results.

For those who have an aversion to queueing for a doctor in a waiting room, this service is a game changer.

Let’s Get Checked have an instructional video on how to collect finger prick and urine samples for their ‘Standard 6’ test, which you can watch below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTagNee-wA

There’s also an offer being run in conjunction with James Kavanagh for 20% off the first testing kit by using the discount code JAMES20.