The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has pointed out that young woman in their 20’s lack the confidence to negotiate safer sex and hence report an increased number of women infected by sexual transmissions, often termed as STI.

An increase by almost 12,000 cases has been seen in sexual health clinics, which reported 482,696 cases in the year 2009. And very noteworthy is the fact that there has been a two-third increase in the number of women suffering from STI, and their age is seen to be below 25. While 66% of new cases of genital warts have come up, gonorrhoea was reported in 73% of women.

There have been cases when women have got re-infected with an STI within one year of being treated for a previous one, and this has often been noted for 16 to 19-year-old women in England.

There has been an ever rising concern about a common type of STI in the UK, namely chlamydia, which has 88% new cases coming up. Chlamydia can lead to infertility if it is not treated on time. Another worry for the HPA is about the young adults and gay men, as there is an increased probability of these people having unsafe sex.

HPA's Gwenda Hughes said, "Many studies have shown that young adults are more likely to have unsafe sex and often they lack the skills and confidence to negotiate”.