scholarly journals Woman's Sexual Health Knowledge and Needs Assessment in Behavioral Clinics and Shelters in Tehran

Author(s):  
Katayoon Tayerih ◽  
Zahra Bayat Jozani ◽  
Haniyeh Golchehregan ◽  
Zohreh Rostam-Afshar ◽  
Leila Taj ◽  
...  

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the sexual health knowledge among females seeking consultation in behavioral clinics or shelters with emphasis on sexual routs of HIV transmission. Materials and methods: In this study 250 women who have attended behavioral clinics or shelters in Tehran were recruited and a standardized questionnaire which asked about demographics, sexual partner and knowledge about HIV/STDs was used. Results: The median age of our cases was 40.82% and among them 16% were married but lived alone. Among the total 250 cases, 56% (140) were sexually active in the last 30 days, 19.2% (48) had a history of a one-night stand and 2.4% had more than 1 sexual partner. 212 cases answered questions about condom use, 60% (127) of them did not use condoms at all. For knowledge about signs and symptoms related to STDs, 63% believed that abdominal pain has no relation to STDs. Also 44%, 43%, 37%,and 40% believed that dyspareunia, dysuria, malodorous vaginal discharge and change in color of vaginal discharge, respectively had no relation to STDs and 13%  of whom presented with these symptoms in the past 30 days had not seek medical evaluation. Conclusion: It is a necessity to emphasize the use of condoms among the male population however in this study it was a challenge to do so because it goes against the government’s campaign of pro-natalism. Improving the knowledge of protected sex should start from the teenage years and at school to have maximum STD prevention planning. Most women in our study did not know about healthy sexual lifestyle and this shows the need of sexual health education before marriage or even at school.

Author(s):  
Emily Osborne

  This research explores commonly overlooked intersections of disability and HIV/AIDS, theorizing that institutional desexualization of disabled students in educational settings is correlated with higher rates of HIV transmission later in life. Working primarily within the fields of disability studies, HIV/AIDS studies, and gender studies, this project targets the gap in research on disability and HIV/AIDS, understanding disabled individuals as being at a heightened risk for HIV transmission yet simultaneously being less likely to receive sexual health education than non-disabled peers, as seen in emerging research by Nora Grace (2003; 2004). This research theorizes a relationship between institutional desexualization and HIV transmission later in life. Specifically, this relationship may exist in the following pattern, beginning with early and continued desexualization of disabled individuals leading to social assumptions of universal asexuality, thus potentially causing a lack of sexual health resources and education due to this assumed sexual inactivity. A lack of sexual health resources may influence higher rates of engagement in high-risk sexual activity due to this lack of sexual health knowledge among disabled individuals, which could thus account for higher rates of HIV transmission within disabled populations. In establishing disabled individuals as at heightened risk for HIV and disrupting the desexualization of disability, I provide recommendations for future research and policy pathways in the aim of further exploring the intersections of HIV/AIDS and disability in order to reduce the rates of HIV transmission within disabled population.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Warner ◽  
Samantha Carlson ◽  
Renee Crichlow ◽  
Michael W. Ross

Sexual Health ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Dean ◽  
Marion Mitchell ◽  
Donald Stewart ◽  
Joseph Debattista

Background Forced migration is associated with sexual vulnerability. However, little is known about the sexual health literacy and needs of refugee-background youth post resettlement. Methods: Conducted in partnership with the Queensland Sudanese community, this study used a cross-sectional survey to explore the sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of a convenience sample of 16- to 24-year-old Sudanese-background youth in Australia (n = 229). Results: Sexually transmissible infection (STI) and HIV knowledge scores were generally low, although they were found to significantly improve the longer participants had lived in Australia (P < 0.001). Female participants reported significantly higher levels of both STI and HIV knowledge compared with the male cohort (P < 0.001). The aggregated sexual risk behaviour score suggests generally low levels of risk-taking behaviour. However, of the 140 sexually active participants, 3.1% reported a STI diagnosis, 9.0% reported sex leading to a pregnancy and 33.1% reported they had experienced unwanted sex. Participants also reported engaging in behaviours such as anal sex (33%) and sharing injecting drug equipment. Conclusions: Patterns of sexual behaviour among this predominately refugee-background group are not dissimilar to those of other young Australians. Nonetheless, the self-reported patterns of risk behaviour combined with the low and inaccurate levels of sexual health knowledge suggest this group of young people remain sexually vulnerable, particularly early within their resettlement experience. Culturally and contextually informed sexual health interventions are needed early within the resettlement experience.


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