Medical training provides students and residents with various skills, but often lacks comprehensive education on sexual healthcare. Less than half of US medical schools offer a formal curriculum in sexual medicine, leaving many medical trainees feeling unprepared to provide sexual healthcare [1]. Treating and understanding men’s sexual health problems is more challenging without proper education in reproductive health practices. The approaches to men’s reproductive health and residency expectations are significantly different between renowned health organizations like the American Urological Association (AUA) and the European Association of Urology (EAU). The two organizations agree on basic practices and trainings on sexual health medicine but have discrepancies when it comes to Andrology as a specialty, calling for expert opinions [2]. For example, in Europe, Andrology is a subset of the Urology program, but in the United States (US), Andrology is regarded as a study separate from Urology [2]. Additionally, clinical conditions during training vary between Europe and the US, with the former inviting a wider range of specialists to gain andrology certification and the latter dedicating post-residency training and fellowships to those who choose to specialize in male infertility [2]. Thus internationally, there is a disconnect on men’s sexual health studies, and a lack of standardized academic resources for andrology.

The University of California Irvine (UCI) is addressing this issue by hosting a forum with global experts to clarify sexual health guidelines for medical trainees. The forum offers international, standardized, and accessible sexual health education that is imperative to the medical field today to further develop sexual medicine didactics. UCI offered their sixth Annual Advanced International Men’s Health course, a free virtual 2-day course approved for the American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award (AMA PRA) Category 1 credit (a verification of a physician’s participation in continuing medical education activities). The course provided training for specialists in men’s health, urinary incontinence, and andrology, and will be offered again next year.

Link: https://www.urology.uci.edu/uci-advanced-international-mens-health-course.shtml.