World Sexual Health Day, observed on September 4, highlights an important annual theme. This year, the theme is “Sexual Justice: What Can We Do?” It covers sexual health and reproductive rights for everyone, freedom from stigma and shame, and access to accurate, uncensored information about sexuality and health. Comparing H1 2024 to H1 2025, sexual health testing sales volume in US hospitals has decreased by 1.0 per cent, a smaller decline compared to H1 2023 and H1 2024, -3.3 per cent. However, this decline in sales is significant compared to the 21.2 per cent growth seen from 2022 to 2023, according to GlobalData.
GlobalData’s Sexual Health Tests Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) Tracker, which analyses purchasing records from 4,350 US hospitals, has highlighted testing decreases in popular test targets like chlamydia and gonorrhoeae (CT/NG) dual tests, showing a sales volume decrease of 1.7 per cent from H1 2024 to H1 2025, as well as a significant decline of 27.8 per cent in bacterial vaginosis tests.
Selena Yu, Senior Medical Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “The decrease in sales could be attributed not only to declining cases but also to cuts in funding for STI testing programs, like Planned Parenthood and organisations that serve marginalised communities, along with the decline in safe sex education. However, the GlobalData SKU tracker mainly tracks hospital and distribution sale invoices; thus, testing declines in these clinics could be more dramatic.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2,459,140 cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia in the US in 2023, a 1.8 per cent decrease from 2022 but a 32.5 per cent rise since 2014. These sexually transmitted infections (STIs) disproportionately impact young adults and teens aged 15-24, gay, bisexual, men who have sex with men, and Black and Indigenous communities. Therefore, emphasising equality in sexual and reproductive care regardless of sexual orientation and race is crucial for improving sexual health in the US.
Marginalised communities are more likely to contract STIs due to higher prevalence of STIs in their communities, due to stigma around testing, lack of sex education, and sexual health resources in general, regardless of sexual behavior patterns. When underserved communities, that desperately need more funding to combat illnesses outside of just sexual health, have more funding cuts, we have a vulnerable population that will remain vulnerable.
Yu concludes, “The steady decline of sexual health tests could be attributed to many aspects, from the Trump administration’s budget cuts around diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and ‘defunding’ of Planned Parenthood, to a decline due to a spike in sales from the COVID-19 rebound seen in 2022-2023. Regardless, screening for STIs is crucial for preventing disease spread that can lead to serious health complications like infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDs.”