In an effort to bring men’s reproductive health services up to par with those of women, the University Health Center is offering comprehensive annual exams for male students.
The health center has offered the upgraded exam since the beginning of fall term and is strongly encouraging men to come in annually for sexually transmitted infection screening and contraceptive counseling through the Family Planning Expansion Project, a government-funded program providing free birth control and access to low-cost reproductive health care to men and women whose incomes meet certain criteria.
While the services aren’t new to those who qualify for FPEP, they demonstrate an expansion of offerings for men in a program that has traditionally catered to women. The improved exams will be longer and will combine contraceptive counseling with STI screening, health history and education.
“FPEP is primarily for contraception,” said Annie Dochnahl, a health educator at the health center. “Since women have more options available through it and men only have one, men’s access has been a little more limited.”

The plan to improve men’s services has been in the works since last spring, when it became apparent that many men were using FPEP services to get condoms, University physician Ben Douglas said.
“We wondered if there was some kind of corresponding thing we could do for them,” Douglas said. “We looked at what we do for women’s annual exams, which we do once a year, and we kind of came up with a similar thing.”
From July 2000 through June 2004, 1,440 males enrolled in FPEP at the University, compared with 7,803 females, according to statistics provided by the health center’s medical billings clerk, Tricia Gregg.
Douglas said men have primarily used FPEP services in the past to get condoms and to be checked for symptoms of an STI. Now they can be screened if they have certain risk factors, and many college-age men do, he said.
While individuals who have HIV or use intravenous drugs are considered high risk for sexually transmitted infections, those who have had a new partner in the past two months and those who have had two or more partners in the past year are also considered at risk, Douglas said. By age 24, one in three sexually active people will have contracted an STI, according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Douglas said the most commonly found STI in both males and females at the University is chlamydia, which a person can have for a long time without showing symptoms. From 1990 to 2002, up to three-fourths of infected women and up to one-half of men with chlamydia were asymptomatic, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services 2002 STD data.
And while women’s exams screen for cervical cancer, men should be aware they are at risk for testicular cancer, Douglas said. The improved annual exams will also provide information on how to do testicular self-exams.
“It’s a good idea to have an annual checkup,” he said. “At least once a year you should think of your health, just to make sure everything’s OK.”
Douglas said it’s rare for students not to qualify for FPEP because it’s based on their personal income and not their family’s.

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