AN INNOVATIVE mobile phone text service will be launched on Monday to provide sexual health advice to young men.
The service, funded by the County Durham Teenage Pregnancy Board, will be confidential and anonymous.
Ady Davis, a young men's sexual health worker at End House Young People's Centre, in Durham, has been appointed to provide the advice.
Mr Davis said yesterday: "Sexual health services have traditionally been seen as services for women, even though the introduction of the Condom Card scheme across County Durham has proved successful in bringing young men into contact with sexual health support services.
"Most transactions for young men are still focused around condom provision, and it is difficult for a young man to ask the questions that really matter."
To use the service, men aged between 13 and 25 simply text TP(space)Lads(space) followed by their question and send the message to 60003.
They will then be contacted via text with the information, support or advice required.
Telephone numbers are only kept long enough to reply to messages, and standard texting charges will apply.
Gail Thompson, County Durham's teenage pregnancy strategy co-ordinator said: "Logically, young men provide half the solution to tackling Britain's high rate of teenage pregnancy, but until now little has been done to proactively engage them within sexual health services."
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