Reproductive Health Matters back issues from May 2004:
Sexuality, rights and social justice.(Editorial)
May 01, 2004; ... THE term "sexual rights" consists of the little discussed and poorly understood combination of the concepts of "sexuality" and "rights". Perhaps the unease about sexual rights would be lessened if it were clear that the concept does not mean "the right to have sex", just as "reproductive ...
Implementing the ICPD Programme of Action: what a difference a decade makes.(Viewpoint)(International Conference on Population and Development)(abortion management-consequences)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: The Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 was conceived as a 20-year programme. Now, at its mid-point in 2004, we have reached a time for assessment and re-commitment to its goals. This paper is a reflection on ...
Psychosexual development among HIV-positive adolescents in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Some 84,000 children with HIV/AIDS live in Cote d'Ivoire, where very little therapeutic or psychological help is available to them. The Yopougon Child Programme of the "Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida" was launched in Abidjan in October 2000. It provides services for ...
"Peer" educator initiatives for adolescent reproductive health projects in Indonesia.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Since the ICPD in 1994, the Government of Indonesia has struggled with the challenge of providing sexual and reproductive health education to adolescents. Following an attempt at a family-centred approach, a pilot project was carried out in Central and East Java to train peer ...
Youth, sexuality and sex education messages in Indonesia: issues of desire and control.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the need for sexuality education for youth has been articulated, and numerous activities in Indonesia, especially Java, have been directed at young people. However, many parents, teachers and religious leaders ...
Sex workers in Kenya, numbers of clients and associated risks: an exploratory survey.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: In Kenya in 1999, an estimated 6.9% of women nationally said they had exchanged sex for money, gifts or favours in the previous year. In 2000 and 2001, in collaboration with sex workers who had formed a network of self-help groups, we conducted an exploratory survey among 475 sex ...
Searching for justice for body and self in a coercive environment: sex work in Kerala, India.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Sex workers in Kerala, India, live in a coercive environment and face violence from the police and criminals, lack of shelter, lack of childcare support and have many physical and mental health problems. This paper documents the environment in which women have been selling sex in ...
Sexual torture of men in Croatia and other conflict situations: an open secret.(dsexual abuse)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Sexual torture constitutes any act of sexual violence which qualifies as torture. Public awareness of the widespread use of sexual torture as a weapon of war greatly increased after the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Sexual torture has serious mental, physical ...
Sexuality and women's rights in armed conflict in Sri Lanka.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: The discourse of human rights in armed conflict situations is well adapted to respond to violence and violation, invoking internationally agreed principles of civil and political rights. However, in areas where the subject or domain of rights discourse is contested or ...
"Yes" to abortion but "no" to sexual rights: the paradoxical reality of married women in rural Tamil Nadu, India.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: This study in rural Tamil Nadu, India, explored the reasons why many married women in India undergo induced abortions rather than use reversible contraception to space or limit births in terms of women's sexual and reproductive rights within marriage, and in the context of gender ...
"The cut above" and "the cut below": the abuse of caesareans and episiotomy in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: In the last 50 years, a rapid increase in the use of technology to start, augment, accelerate, regulate and monitor the process of birth has frequently led to the adoption of inadequate, unnecessary and sometimes dangerous interventions. Although research has shown that the least ...
The prosecution of Taiwan sexuality researcher and activist Josephine Ho.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: In April 2003, following a newspaper report of a hyperlink to a website on bestiality on the Sexuality Databank website of the Center for the Study of Sexualities, National Central University, Taipei, Taiwan, 14 conservative NGOs filed charges against the Center's founder, ...
Betrayal.(Commentary)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Equality for women was non-existent in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Today, although girls and women in Kabul and some other cities are free to go to school and have jobs, this is not the case in most parts of the country Armed local warlords have their own rules and ...
Holy hatred.
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: There are at least 83 countries where homosexuality is condemned in the criminal code; 26 of these are Muslim countries and in seven the death penalty for persons presumed guilty of homosexual acts makes sexual minorities extremely vulnerable. In spite of such obstacles, same-sex ...
Sexual and Bodily Rights as Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa.(Conference Report)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: A regional workshop on sexual and bodily rights as human rights in the Middle East and North Africa was held in Malta in 2003, attended by 22 NGO representatives from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan and USA. The meeting aimed to ...
A, B and C in Uganda: the roles of abstinence, monogamy and condom use in HIV decline.(Bookshelf)
May 01, 2004; ... Uganda is often cited as a role model in the fight against HIV/AIDS because of its success in reducing both prevalence and incidence of HIV infection since the late 1980s. Although an increase in sexual abstinence has been highlighted as a primary cause of the declines, large increases ...
Beyond slogans: lessons from Uganda's experience with ABC and HIV/AIDS.
May 01, 2004; ... Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, at a time when HIV/AIDS was well on its way toward ravaging sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda achieved an extraordinary feat. It stopped the spread of HIV/AIDS in its tracks and saw the nation's rate of infection plummet. As word of the "Uganda miracle" ...
Intrauterine contraceptive devices and risk of pelvic inflammatory disease: standard of care in high STI prevalence settings.(Issues In Current Service Delivery)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: The intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) is highly effective and cost-effective. IUD use is limited in some regions, however, due to concerns about increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and subsequent complications such as infertility and ectopic pregnancy ....
Women's autonomy, education and employment in Oman and their influence on contraceptive use.(Issues In Current Service Delivery)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: Since 1970 political and economic changes have brought about great improvements in health and education in Oman, and since 1994 the government has provided free contraceptives to all married couples in primary health care centres. Despite rapid socio-economic development, the ...
Meeting the contraceptive needs of unmarried young people: attitudes of formal and informal sector providers in Vientiane Municipality, Lao PDR.(Issues In Current Service Delivery)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: In Lao PDR, evidence is emerging of considerable sexual activity among unmarried youth, but contraceptive services remain inadequate to meet their needs. This study explored the attitudes of formal and informal sector providers in serving the contraceptive needs of unmarried ...
Listening to "felt needs": investigating genital prolapse in western Nepal.(Issues In Current Service Delivery)
May 01, 2004; ... Abstract: The global prevalence of genital prolapse is estimated to be 2-20% in women under age 45. In Nepal, genital prolapse appears to be widespread, but little published evidence exists to buttress this claim. This paper presents findings of two studies, one ethnographic and one ...
Are people using condoms: current evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.(Round up: condoms)
May 01, 2004 ... Condom use has greatly increased in the last ten years. This study aimed to summarise evidence on current levels of condom use in different relationships in different settings in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. It documents levels of condom use achieved after HIV prevention interventions, and ...
Reliability of self-reported condom use in HIV discordant couples in Zambia.(Round up: condoms)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... This study of 963 HIV-discordant couples who attended a voluntary testing and counselling [VCT] centre in Lusaka, Zambia, investigated the reliability of self-reported condom use. Biological markers such as sperm on vaginal smears, pregnancy and evidence of sexually transmitted infection ...
Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in women of unknown HIV status.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)
May 01, 2004 ... Single dose intrapartum and neonatal nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) has been available free of charge to the developing world from the manufacturer since 2000. Yet only 189,000 courses have been distributed to the developing world, less than 5% ...
Contradictory evidence on whether or not hormonal contraceptives increase the risk of HIV acquisition in women.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)
May 01, 2004 ... Two studies contain contradictory evidence on whether or not the use of hormonal contraception (in the absence of condom use) increases the risk for women of HIV infection. A ten-year prospective study in a cohort of 1,272 HIV negative sex workers in Mombasa, Kenya, who attended a sexual ...
Yeast infections in HIV-positive women.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)
May 01, 2004 ... The yeast Candida albicans is carried in the genital tract of between 10% and 55% women. The change from asymptomatic infection to clinical disease is usually associated with factors such as pregnancy, diabetes, antibiotic use, high oestrogen oral contraceptives and tight synthetic ...
Placing HIV testing at the centre of prevention and care.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... As HAART drugs begin to become available, it is possible that a serostatus approach to HIV/AIDS in Africa, where every African adolescent and adult knows their own status, could improve current programmes in prevention and health care. For example, HIV risk reduction strategies are of more ...
Free antiretrovirals for Thailand's AIDS patients.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... The Thai government has launched a 1 billion baht (US$25 million) programme to provide free ADS drugs and decrease the spread of HIV. The programme should reach 50,000 people and is aimed particularly at post-partum women and children. It will focus on those whose clinical symptoms are ...
Priority-setting exercise for health care interventions in Uganda: PMTCT ranked lower than other major health problems.(Round up: HIV/AIDS)
May 01, 2004 ... Health care interventions come with both a financial and a political cost which influence policy. Deciding which interventions to prioritise is particularly difficult in countries with a very low income. Five groups of stakeholders--members of the general population, health workers, ...
Separating sexual rights from reproductive rights.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Sexuality per se is worthy of rights protection but currently sexual rights are usually considered along with and often as a subset of reproductive rights. This results in the exclusion of people with non-conforming sexual identities and of non-reproductive sexual practices, thus leaving ...
Destruction of the vagina in violent rape a war crime in Congo.(Round up: law and policy)
May 01, 2004 ... Vaginal fistula, the rupture of the vaginal wall which can cause urine and faeces to leak uncontrollably, are not uncommon in poor areas of the world where childbearing starts at an early age. Fistulae can also occur as a result of very violent rape. In the eastern Congo, gang rape has ...
Rapists in Switzerland may be jailed for life.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a new law requiring that rapists and other violent criminals deemed incapable of reform are imprisoned for life without parole. The measure will become law after it was backed by 56.2% of ...
Confronting sexual abuse and violence in Namibia.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... An eight-year-old girl forced into sex with her father, a woman used as a slave by her stepmother when her father was away, a girl gang-raped by her 'boyfriend' and his friends, a mother brutally attacked in front of her child--these are some of the stories revealed in short essays on ...
Legalising sexual services.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... A Korean survey of sex workers has shown that more than half (56.8%) of 1,655 prostitutes surveyed want their trade to he legalised. They hope that changes in the law would benefit them in terms of medical and psychological health care. The majority cited financial hardship as the reason ...
Brazil seeks to eliminate child sexual exploitation.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... In Brazil, an estimated 70,000 women aged 15-25 are trafficked abroad for prostitution every year, and there are networks across the country "supplying" night clubs, hotels, internet pornography and sex tourism. The extent of commercial sexual exploitation of children is not known, but ...
Discussing sexuality in China: yes and no.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... In the autumn of 2003, Fudan University School of Public Health in Shanghai, China, ran an accredited post-graduate course on "Homosexuality, health and social sciences". The course took a multi-disciplinary approach and addressed theories of sexuality, sexual behaviour and social science, ...
Policy for ensuring contraceptive supplies in developing countries.(Round up: law and policy)
May 01, 2004 ... A number of factors are contributing to the shortfall between contraceptive supply and demand in developing countries. The HIV epidemic has resulted in a massive increase in demand for condoms for protection against STIs in addition to contraceptive use. Younger populations who have been ...
US adolescents who pledged abstinence nearly as likely to have STIs as others.(Round up: law and policy)(Sexually Transmitted Infection)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Since 1996, federal and state governments in the USA have spent about US$ 1 billion on so-called abstinence programmes, which are endorsed by some church organisations and the Christian right. Some 2.5 million US teens have been through such programmes in recent years. These programmes ...
Belgium's youth to get subsidised contraception.(Round up: law and policy)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... The Belgian government is planning to give monthly vouchers towards the cost of contraception to almost a quarter of a million adolescents aged 15-20, due to concerns about the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Reactions to the scheme have been mixed. Some believe it is a step ...
Enforcing vs. promoting the two-child norm in India.(Round up: law and policy)
May 01, 2004 ... The attempt to slow India's population growth has replaced the sterilisation programmes of the 1970s with a voluntary "two-child norm" that encourages couples to adopt a permanent method after their second child, with disincentives for those who do not comply. The Supreme Court of India ...
Using embryo DNA for bone marrow transplants.(Round up: law and policy)
May 01, 2004 ... The technology exists to take DNA from embryos which have been fertilised in vitro and use it to detect characteristics such as sex, chromosomal abnormalities and tissue type, or "match" it to other DNA samples. The procedure requires the removal of a cell from a developing embryo, a ...
UK women refused legal permission to use or donate frozen embryos.(Round up: law and policy)(1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act )(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Two women who have frozen embryos fertilised by partners from whom they are now separated have lost their legal fight to have the embryos implanted as their ex-partners had withdrawn their consent. The 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act says embryos cannot be implanted in women ...
Sexual and reproductive behaviour and attitudes in Australia.(Round up: research)
May 01, 2004 ... The Australian Study of Health and Relationships, Australia's first survey of sexual behaviour and attitudes, has collected and collated data from telephone interviews of 19,300 respondents aged 16-59. Mean age at first vaginal intercourse has declined from over 19 among men and women born ...
Coercive sex in rural Uganda.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... In a study of coercive sex in a rural area of Uganda, 24.2% of the 4,262 women questioned had been forced to have sex at least once by their current sexual partner. Of these 10.3% reported a single incident of coercive sex, 73.4% said it occurred occasionally, 16.1% frequently and 0.2% ...
Sexual behaviour among married rural Vietnamese women.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... This study regarding sex and sexuality in Vietnam among 25 rural northern Vietnamese women shows that they believe men should be initiators of sexual relations, and women remain passive. These women had almost never initiated sex. Many of them believed they had no right to refuse the ...
What people tell their sexual partners.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... A youth-focused survey of 150,000 people in 34 countries in all world regions found that 45% of people would not tell their long-term partners if they were currently suffering from an STI, a figure that varied between 10% in Hungary and 90% in Malaysia ....
Sex differences in infant mortality in India.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... There are more men than women in India, and this reversal of the male:female sex ratio compared to elsewhere in the world is partly due to sex selection but also to high levels of mortality in female infants. Of 7,012 live births (3,752 boys and 3,260 girls) in this study, there were 442 ...
Proportion of children living with a single mother in 17 western countries.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... This study investigated patterns and periods of time children aged 0-15 have spent with a single mother, using data from the Fertility and Family Surveys of 17 western and eastern European countries, the USA, New Zealand and Canada. The estimated proportion of children living ...
Prospects of a vaccine to prevent malaria in first pregnancies.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Malaria infection in pregnancy commonly results in high parasitaemia and anaemia in the mother and low birthweight in the baby, and may lead to the death of up to 370,000 infants a year worldwide. Women who live in endemic areas, and who have therefore developed partial immunity, are more ...
Cardiovascular diseases the biggest killer of women.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Although emphasis is put on women's health problems such as breast and cervical cancer, death in childbirth, and infections such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, the latest findings from the WHO MONICA project are that cardiovascular diseases are the biggest killer of women worldwide, ...
Breast cancer incidence varies with socio-economic status in Denmark.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the western world, with a lifetime incidence of 1 in 10. The incidence in Denmark rose from 43 per 100,000 women in 1945 to 83 per 100,000 women in 1996, although mortality increased less during the same period, from 23 to 27 per 100,000 ...
Varicocele repair fails to improve pregnancy rates.(Round up: research)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Varicocele (varicose veins in the scrotum) is often quoted as a well-established cause of male subfertility, and varicocele repair is widely used as a treatment for male subfertility. This systematic review of seven studies on such repairs records a total of 61 pregnancies among 281 (22%) ...
Ethical considerations in teaching intimate examination procedures to medical students.(Round up: service delivery)
May 01, 2004 ... The balance between the educational needs of medical students and ethical obligations towards patients has always been difficult to achieve, but it is a particular problem where intimate medical examinations are involved. To begin with, there is no consensus as to what constitutes an ...
Using peer educators to deliver sex education.(Round up: service delivery)
May 01, 2004 ... Peer-led health education is commonly believed to have distinctive features, such as increased empathy with and similarity to students, which lead to increased student satisfaction and learning compared to teacher-led education. The RIPPLE study in the UK of the effectiveness of sex and ...
Sex and Drugs touchscreen game for school students.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... A Sheffield-based marketing and communications company in the UK has created an interactive computer touchscreen game, called Selector, which uses animation and different genres of music to navigate students through information on sexual health, drugs, relationships and self-esteem. The ...
Health needs of lesbian women: UK data.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Most health needs of lesbian women are not significantly different from those of other women. In common with all women, around one in five lesbians carries human papillomavirus and needs a regular cervical smear. Although lesbian women are less likely to contract most STIs, 10% of women ...
Sexuality and intersex conditions.(Round up: service delivery)
May 01, 2004 ... When babies are born with ambiguous genitalia, the medical profession moves along a path towards sex-reassignment using various degrees of genital surgery and hormonal treatment. Which sex a baby is assigned depends on the underlying condition and local policy. Thus, one hospital in the ...
Sensory disabilities and sexuality.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... The understanding of one's own sexuality is a continuing process arrived at using a range of direct personal experiences, written information, and communication with and observation of others. Those with sensory disabilities--varying degrees of blindness or deafness--can have problems ...
New rapid test for chlamydia.(Round up: service delivery)(Firstburst)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Chlamydia is one of the most common STIs, with almost 100 million reported new cases a year worldwide. There are no symptoms in over half the cases of infection but chlamydia can cause tubal blockage leading to infertility and ectopic pregnancy. The disease is easily treated with a single ...
Helping auxiliary nurse-midwives to live locally in Rajasthan.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... One of the keys to reducing maternal mortality is the provision of a skilled attendant at birth. In India, auxiliary nurse-midwives (ANMs) can play this role, particularly in rural communities, but it is less useful if they cannot easily attend deliveries at unsocial hours or have ...
Greater sensitivity of ultrasound in pregnancy poses new clinical decisions.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Ultrasound screening of pregnant women has become so sensitive that it can detect minor anatomical variations in the fetus, and this is creating some difficult clinical decisions. These variations may indicate an increased likelihood of a chromosomal abnormality such as trisomy 21 (which ...
Donor eggs and cryopreserved ovarian tissue for infertile women.(Round up: service delivery)
May 01, 2004 ... Despite considerable advances in assisted reproductive techniques, the options for infertile women and those facing loss of fertility are still limited. One possibility is the use of donor eggs, but the cryopreservarion of donor eggs, unlike with sperm and embryos, is still an experimental ...
Donating semen in Sweden.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... The laws regarding anonymity for semen donors vary from country to country. In Sweden, following a change in policy several years ago, donors know that they will be identified on request to any offspring who ask for the information when they reach maturity. A recent study of 30 Swedish ...
Contraceptive implants 20 years on.(Round up: service delivery)
May 01, 2004 ... In 1983 the first contraceptive implant, Norplant, developed as a more convenient and long-term way to administer contraceptive hormones, was approved for use. Norplant and two other, more recently licensed brands, Jadelle and Implanon, are now used by 11 million women worldwide. The ...
Tamoxifen in the prevention of breast cancer.(Round up: service delivery)(Brief Article)
May 01, 2004 ... Treatment of early breast cancer with tamoxifen and chemotherapy is a clinically proven method of significantly reducing mortality in patients. Now, tamoxifen and similar substances such as raloxifene are being considered for prophylaxis against the development of breast cancer. Studies ...