Investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls to reach HIV and UHC goals

The sexual reproductive health of women: unfinished business in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region

“…In order to design and implement effective SRH strategies and to empower women, we must learn from women's lived realities and expressed priorities. Patriarchal norms that prevent good sexual and reproductive health -such as non -consensual, age disparate sexual relationships, violence against women and disregard for women's rightsneed to be addressed [7,24].…”

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Each year, 200 million women have an unmet need for modern contraception, more than 45 million women receive inadequate or no antenatal care, 1 million women and girls acquire HIV, and 25 million abortions are unsafe. These numbers illustrate the huge gap in access to basic sexuality and reproductive health services, posing serious challenges to achieving universal health coverage [7].

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Sexual and reproductive self care among women and girls: insights from ethnographic studies

“…A disproportionate burden of sexual and reproductive ill health falls on women and girls. 8 Globally, almost all 4.3 billion people of reproductive age have inadequate sexual and reproductive health services; an estimated 200 million women report an unmet need for modern contraception; 45 million lack adequate antenatal care; and an estimated 266 000 women die each year from cervical cancer that could have been prevented through screening or vaccination. 9 …”

Risky sexual behavior and knowledge about sexually transmitted infections among the young people

“…Although this study did not examine the income level of the respondents and people who supported them, the common thing among them was that they attended the same grammar school, so they had the same level of education. However, some studies have shown that there are significant differences within the same socio-economic group in knowledge about STIs, but also in the level of individual activity and their tendency to engage in risky sexual behavior [7]. The aforementioned differences can be the result of individual personality traits, but also of possible family violence and other traumas that a person experienced during childhood or youth [24].…”

“…In recent years, there has been a growing global trend in the number of people with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the number of people with clinical manifestations of STIs. The number of people seeking medical help due to problems caused by STIs has also been on the rise for years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There are more than 20 species of STI-induced microorganisms.…”