Unit 1 – Introduction to STIs and Sexual Health History
This unit explains how to initiate STI screening conversations, including opportunistic screening, normalising the topic, and integrating offers of testing into routine consultations. It covers preparing patients for sexual health discussions, asking sensitive questions, identifying anatomical exposure sites, assessing risk, and deciding which tests to offer based on symptoms, syndromes, or population factors. The unit emphasises culturally safe, non-judgmental communication and practical one-liners clinicians can use in their consultations.
Unit 2 – What Has Changed in the Guidelines
This unit reviews major updates to the Australian STI Management Guidelines. Key changes include routine inclusion of HIV and syphilis in asymptomatic testing, updates to chlamydia treatment, caution around routine Mycoplasma genitalium testing, and antimicrobial resistance considerations. It also outlines new advice on gonorrhoea treatment, sex-associated diarrhoea, and testing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people who inject drugs, and pregnant patients. The unit provides clear reasoning behind each guideline change to support evidence-based clinical practice.
Unit 3 – STI Screening in Special Groups
This unit focuses on priority populations: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, young people, and pregnant patients. It covers increased STI risk in First Nations communities, recommended test panels, culturally safe care, and when to consider trichomoniasis or donovanosis. For young people, the unit discusses confidentiality, inclusive language, HEADSS assessments, and reducing cost barriers. For pregnancy, it outlines essential antenatal testing for hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, hepatitis C, chlamydia, and gonorrhoea, and explains why these infections require early detection to prevent fetal and neonatal complications.
Unit 4 – Cervical Cancer Screening: Principles and Pathogenesis
This unit explains HPV transmission, cervical carcinogenesis, and how persistent high-risk HPV leads to CIN and cervical cancer. It provides practical ways to discuss HPV with patients in a sensitive, destigmatising manner. The unit outlines global elimination goals, Australia’s screening history, and the shift from Pap tests to HPV-based screening. It introduces the risk-based screening model, partial genotyping, and the management pathways that guide when to repeat, monitor, or refer for colposcopy.
Unit 5 – What Has Changed in Cervical Screening Guidelines
This unit details guideline updates from 2022–2025, including the expansion of self-collection, restrictions on who can self-collect, and management of HPV-positive results. It explains updated post-treatment pathways for HSIL/HCIL, simplified recommendations after hysterectomy, revised surveillance for adenocarcinoma in situ, and the introduction of MAGICapp as the national decision-support tool. The unit clarifies how to manage patients who do not return for cytology after a positive non-16/18 result and reinforces key safety considerations when offering self-collection.
