Frequent Complaints of Testicular Lumps by Young Prisoners

Abstract

The definition of the age of young offenders was changed by an Act of Parliament (The Crime and Disorder Act 1998), which was implemented by the Home Office on 1 April 2000. This Act brought down the upper-age limit of young offenders from 20 to 17. Our objective was to investigate the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among this redefined group of young offenders. Among various types of STIs, we observed that a significant number of young prisoners had complaints of testicular lumps (35%), which were not reported in the past. We tried to find out the reason for this common complaint and believe that this was due to extra vigilance, and testicular self-examination in conjunction with sex and relationship programmes which ran alongside other programmes developed as a joint venture by Prisoner Learning and Skills Unit, Prison Health Policy Unit and Sex Education Forum.