Skip main navigation

Military Health System

Clear Your Cache

Health.mil has undergone a recent update. For the best user experience we recommend clearing your browser cache.

DOD initiatives address the sexual health of our military

Image of a bacterium. What looks like a Kraken rising from the ocean’s depths is actually - Treponema pallidum, the spirochete (spiral-shaped) bacterium that causes syphilis. (Photo by Dr. David Cox, Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.)

When it comes to sexual health statistics and the military, there is promising news – and concerning news. However, the Department of Defense has initiatives in place to address the concerning news with broad efforts to promote sexual health among all personnel.

“Rates of viral infections like human papillomavirus [HPV] and genital herpes have been trending down in recent years,” explained Dr. Jose Sanchez, deputy chief of the Defense Health Agency's Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division, about the promising news.

Sanchez noted that from 2011 to 2019, the incidence of HPV infection decreased by almost 50 percent among all active component service members, likely as a result of the introduction of the HPV vaccine. Although the vaccine can be started as young as age 9, it’s typically recommended for children between 11 or 12 and everyone through age 26. In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for men and women up to age 45, based on their risk of infection.

In the military, the HPV vaccine is encouraged and recommended, but not mandatory. Sanchez said the percentage of eligible service men who initiated the HPV vaccine increased to about 3.1% in 2017 from almost zero in 2010. But the percentage of eligible service women who initiated the HPV vaccine declined over that same time – to 5.7% from 10.3%, he said.

“This could be due to more women receiving the HPV vaccine prior to military service,” Sanchez said. “But if fewer service women are initiating and completing the HPV vaccine prior to and during military service, this could result in a resurgence of infections.”

Another good news story is that the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus infection among service members has remained low in recent years, at around 2 per 10,000 tested, Sanchez said. This might be due in part to DHA’s initiatives to provide information and promote sexual health among all service members through their different clinical communities.

The concerning news is that rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea have generally been on the rise in the U.S. military. According to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch’s Medical Surveillance Medical Report from March 2019, the incident rates of infection of chlamydia and gonorrhea among active U.S. military members between 2010 and 2018 showed an increase among both males and females in the latter half of the surveillance period.

“But at least rates in the military recently leveled off or decreased between 2018 and 2019, which is promising,” Sanchez said.

Military health personnel preparing tools for a medial procedure
Angelica Lopez, a medical assistant assigned to Naval Medical Center San Diego’s OB-GYN, prepares for a contraception procedure at the hospital Sept. 14. (Photo by Navy Seaman Luke Cunningham, Naval Medical Center San Diego.)

Sanchez said sexual health is highly relevant to the military because service members tend to be young – the most likely to be affected by sexually-transmitted infections. However, STIs are not unique to a specific age group or gender.

“STIs are increasing in older populations, when risk of pregnancy is gone, but the knowledge of safer sexual practices may not be as well known,” said Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Erin Keyser, the Army representative for DHA’s Woman and Infant Clinical Community (WICC) at Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio. “Education and screening related to STIs should occur across all the years of sexual activity.”

STIs are important to identify and treat because they can impact service members’ health and readiness, as well as their ability to perform their duties. DHA’s clinical communities work together to provide outreach, information, and educational material about common health concerns – such as STIs and overall sexual health – to ensure everyone gets the same message.

For example, the Military Specific Clinical Community, the Primary Care Clinical Community, and WICC work in partnership to share leading practices and standardized practice models on health issues common to all service members, such as sexual health. PCCC – with a mission to support routine and required screening of health care effective measures – identifies and treats STIs, including HIV, hepatitis C, and HPV, explained Keyser.

WICC leverages technology to provide information resources to beneficiaries more broadly. The Deployment Readiness Education for Service Women mobile application and handbook, anticipated for release in the fall, will make DRES content applicable to all services on Android and Apple platforms.

“The DRES app is designed to enhance the knowledge of women’s health and provide education on topics throughout the female lifespan, to include sexual health and safe sex practices for all types of couples,” said Keyser.

WICC has also partnered with the DHA Connected Health Branch to create a series of podcasts on women’s health issues to be released in the spring.

“The podcasts target providers taking care of active-duty female service members and female beneficiaries and focus on clinical and deployment readiness, including information on the HPV vaccine, female deployment, breastfeeding, postpartum depression, and infertility, among others,” said Keyser.

WICC’s focus is mainly for female beneficiaries, with an emphasis on empowering women through knowledge. “When we teach women and empower them about sexual health, women can then share and discuss this knowledge with all those around them including their partners, friends, colleagues, and communities,” said Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Larissa Weir, Air Force representative for WICC at BAMC.

“Sexual health is an individual responsibility and a shared responsibility within a couple. Empowering both partners expands knowledge and healthy behaviors,” added Weir.

Community-based care

To make this knowledge available to all MHS beneficiaries, there are over 30 DOD walk-in contraception clinics across MHS. These provide STI screening and treatment as well as allow women immediate access to a full spectrum of contraception.

Additionally, many of the military treatment facilities provide local sexual health awareness and services. At Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune, in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the Community Health Clinic (CHC) provides STI testing, treatment, and prevention services, including medication such as HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for active-duty service members at moderate to high risk, said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kameron Jacobs, hospital corpsman at the clinic who leads the command’s Sexual Health Awareness and Responsibility Program.

Image of a stack of IUDs in round containers
An intrauterine device, shown at Naval Medical Center San Diego. There are more than 30 DOD walk-in contraception clinics across Military Health System that provide STI screening and treatment as well as allow women immediate access to a full spectrum of contraception. (Photo by Navy Seaman Luke Cunningham, Naval Medical Center San Diego.)

“This walk-in clinic has provided high-quality disease intervention and care to over 6,000 patients since its opening in April of 2019,” said Jacobs. “Additionally, SHARP regularly conducts trainings for health care providers and others to ensure medical teams are proficient and equitable in their practice.”

Following the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Talk. Test. Treat.” campaign for decreasing instances of STIs, the CHC offers tailored in-person preventive counseling and education to each patient who walks in the door, preventive “conscious checks” or screening testing for active-duty service members to check-up on their sexual health, and highly effective treatment as soon as possible to significantly reduce their chance of spreading STIs and preventing chronic, irreversible conditions from developing.

“Taking the time to talk with service members about their sexual health and identifying areas where risk can be reduced is an essential step in disease prevention,” said Jacobs. “Service members come from all over the United States with a variety of sexual health education backgrounds. Establishing a baseline of knowledge and encouraging safer goal behaviors continues to be the primary mission of community health at both the personal and enterprise level.”

MARSH Study

For Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Ryan Landoll, assistant dean for preclinical sciences at the Uniformed Services University for Health Sciences and principal investigator of the Military Active-duty Reproductive & Sexual Health (MARSH) research program, inclusivity is another important aspect.

“It’s very important that we think of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health that is considerate of all our service members,” said Landoll. “The focus is on total force health.”

The MARSH study broadly focuses on working to decrease STIs and unplanned pregnancies using a mobile health intervention application to target health risky sexual behaviors. Landoll and his team developed the innovative Mission Wellness mobile app to provide all service members an array of interactive educational tools and information on sexual health with a focus on motivation and behavioral skills, such as future-oriented thinking.

The app includes narrative videos and interactive activities to facilitate difficult conversations surrounding sexual health with a partner, a supervisor, or a health care provider and to spur users to think about the consequences that unhealthy sexual behaviors today could have on their lives and careers. While the app is only available for download for participants in the MARSH study, the hope upon completion is that it will serve as an equitable resource where all service members can anonymously and in their own time advocate for their own sexual health.

“The user has the ability to design their own avatar to walk through the app with, and all the education elements have been designed with a very intentional focus on inclusivity,” said Landoll. “Our app is always focused on behaviors, understanding that there are risky behaviors, not risky identities or individuals.”

You also may be interested in...

Photo
Jan 31, 2023

FLOTEX-22

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman Dante Horner, a corpsman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division, performs tactical combat casualty care during Spanish FLOTEX-22 near Rota, Spain, June 9, 2022. This exercise features tactical level actions ashore, combined with joint training and planning, aimed at increasing overall bilateral interoperability between nations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Megan Ozaki)

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman Dante Horner, a corpsman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division, performs tactical combat casualty care during Spanish FLOTEX-22 near Rota, Spain, June 9, 2022. This exercise features tactical level actions ashore, combined with joint training and planning, aimed at increasing overall bilateral ...

Photo
May 27, 2022

Walter Reed Service Dogs

Luke is a German Shephard facility dog.

Luke, a German Shepherd facility dog at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, stays with wounded warrior Heath Calhoun at the Military Advanced Treatment Center facility while Calhoun undergoes rehab therapy. Luke is officially a Navy Hospital Corpsman Third Class.

Photo
Feb 11, 2022

Heart Attacks Infographic

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack can differ between women and men. If you have any of these symptoms, call 911 quickly.

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack can differ between women and men. If you have any of these symptoms, call 911 quickly.

Photo
Dec 21, 2016

Drive-Thru Flu Shots

Medical staff at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia, immunized nearly 1,200 people recently with their drive-through flu vaccination event. (U.S. Army photo by John Corley)

Medical staff at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia, immunized nearly 1,200 people recently with their drive-through flu vaccination event. (U.S. Army photo by John Corley)

Photo
Sep 30, 2016

Exiting an A-10C Thunderbolt

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Judith Bulkley, an electrical and environmental systems specialist deployed from the 23rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga., exits an A-10C Thunderbolt II after performing an external power operations check on the aircraft at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Because service members in particular are often exposed to high noise levels, hearing protection is crucial, especially with a TBI. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephen Schester)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Judith Bulkley, an electrical and environmental systems specialist deployed from the 23rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga., exits an A-10C Thunderbolt II after performing an external power operations check on the aircraft at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Because service members in particular are ...

Photo
Sep 29, 2016

Sunrise Yoga Class

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Tara Paradiso participates in a sunrise yoga class on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. If you’re thinking of adding exercise to your pain management plan, consider the following types: aerobic, strength, and flexibility. But make sure your exercise program is specifically tailored to your needs. Some exercises might be easier or more difficult to complete depending upon the type and location of your pain. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chris Liaghat)

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Tara Paradiso participates in a sunrise yoga class on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. If you’re thinking of adding exercise to your pain management plan, consider the following types: aerobic, strength, and flexibility. But make sure your exercise program is specifically tailored to your ...

Photo
Sep 28, 2016

Battlefield Medicine Course

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Michael Triana, left, 347th Operations Support Squadron independent duty medical technician-paramedic, addresses injuries on a simulated patient during a tactical combat casualty care course, in Okeechobee, Florida. The course tests and reinforces participants’ lifesaving medical skills while they are in high-stress, combat scenarios. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Callaghan)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Michael Triana, left, 347th Operations Support Squadron independent duty medical technician-paramedic, addresses injuries on a simulated patient during a tactical combat casualty care course, in Okeechobee, Florida. The course tests and reinforces participants’ lifesaving medical skills while they are in high-stress, ...

Skip subpage navigation
Refine your search
Last Updated: February 25, 2025
Follow us on Instagram Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on YouTube Sign up on GovDelivery