SexRurality Conference 2025 Wrap Up
In June 2025, The Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health welcomed 130 delegates to the DRH Shepparton Campus for the biannual SexRurality Conference – Australia's only rural and regional sexual health conference.
The conference provided a platform for knowledge sharing on a wide range of sexual and reproductive health topics, with a focus on the unique strengths and challenges of rural and regional Victorian communities. Over two days, delegates were provided with quality presentations, networking opportunities, and service engagement.
Read the Conference Handbook.
Scenes from SexRurality
Conference Plenary
The conference plenary speakers explored topics such as abortion advocacy and access, preventing violence against trans women, sexually transmissible infections epidemiology, masculinity and respect, and cultural knowledge sharing across Indigenous communities. A panel discussion featured medical students from the Sexual Health Across Clinical Contexts Discovery subject.
Follow the links to view videos of our Plenary speakers:
- Jill Butty- Department of Health
- Professor Frederic Hollande- University of Melbourne
- Anne-Marie Kelly- CERSH, University of Melbourne
- Lauren French- Churchill Fellowship
- Dr Louise Manning- Rural-based GP
- Starlady- Zoe Belle Gender Collective
- Professor Barbara Baird- Flinders University
- Professor Jane Hocking- University of Melbourne
- Dr Paddy Moore- Royal Women's Hosptial
- Jack Muscat- Wise Ed
- Associate Professor Siobhan Bourke- CERSH, University of Melbourne
Conference Streams
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The Creating Solutions stream highlighted solutions to challenges within systems, clinical contexts, training pathways and models of care. This stream featured presentations on:
- Sexual health clinical mentorship models
- Older Australians’ sexual healthcare
- Cervical screening initiatives
- Qualitative evidence of rural women’s experiences of care
- Screening tool for reproductive coercion
- Integrating sexual health promotion into Aboriginal organisations
- Abortion deserts
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The Building Resilience stream focused on planning for and responding to new and mounting challenges. This stream featured presentations on:
- Enablers and barriers to abortion care from clinical and social perspectives, including qualitative data on women’s experiences accessing abortion
- Prevention of child sexual abuse
- Innovative education initiatives
- Strategies to support LGBTQIA+ communities in the face of anti-LGBTQIA+ activism
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The Empowering Through Education stream showcased innovative, inclusive approaches to sexual health education tailored to rural communities. This stream featured presentations on:
- Educating young people from alternative education and non-English speaking settings
- Using a whole of school approach to RSE
- Values based messaging in SRH
- Cervical screening and self-collection
- Pop-up STI testing initiatives
- Menopause
The Education stream also included two workshops. One on understanding and teaching affirmative consent, and another on using the Cliterate model in practice.
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This stream focused on sexual and reproductive health research in a rural Australian context. Presentation topics included:
- Methoxyflurane effectiveness and tolerability for outpatient IUD insertion
- Abortion care
- Online STI testing models
- Partner delivered bacterial vaginosis treatment
- Supporting LGBTQIA+ Australians who have experienced miscarriage
- Comparison of sexual activity and contraception choices of young people in metro and rural setting
