Sex without taboo: report of a community action focused on health promotion for teenagers in a technical high school in the city of São Paulo.

Abstract

Although sexuality has an evident importance in health promotion, it is rarely discussed during undergraduate courses or assessed by health professionals during clinical practice. The aim of this article is to describe the “Sexo sem Tabu” project, a community action realized by first year medical students from the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, during the course “Primary Care I” (“Atenção Primária à Saúde I”). After establishing project design and adequate literature review, we realized two days of community action. Based on dynamics proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, we discussed sexuality and other related health topics within small groups of students from a technical high school in the city of São Paulo. Among high school participants, 115/117 (98.3%) considered that they had their doubts solved during the discussion and 114/117(97.4%) found the information was relevant for their lives. First year medical students documented the opportunity to train several cognitive and affective abilities such as communication, resourcefulness, and how to interact in uncontrolled situations. Furthermore, they recognized that sexuality was not restricted to sexually transmitted diseases, but included emotional, ethical and physiological issues. Concluding, this community action, focused on health promotion for teenagers assessing themes on sexuality, brought positive results for high school students and for the training of medical students.