Reproductive health "taboo for many countries"

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Millions of women have no access to family planning and undergo unsafe abortions each year because sexual and reproductive health is a taboo subject in many countries, researchers said on Wednesday.

Although there are cheap, effective methods to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unwanted pregnancies and to help women give birth safely, they are not available in poor countries because of the increasing influence of conservative political and religious forces.

"Sexual and reproductive health issues have fallen off the international health agenda," said Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal.

"In fact, they are taboo for many governments today and sadly taboo for many public health institutions today. That exclusion from the agenda puts millions of women's lives at peril," he told a news conference.

In a series of studies on sexual behaviour and reproductive health in the journal, an international collaboration of scientists highlight the problems and what needs to be done.

Each year, 80 million women have an unwanted pregnancy, 19 million have an unsafe abortion and 70,000 -- approximately eight every hour -- die because of complications.

More than 340 million new cases of STIs are diagnosed and 120 million couples do not have access to family planning methods.

"In 18 of the poorest countries in Africa, only 1 in 10 women or less is actually using a method of contraception," said Anna Glasier of the University of Edinburgh.

BELIEFS

Religious, political and cultural beliefs have hampered progress in addressing sexual and reproductive rights and in providing services in many countries, according to the researchers.

"The United States used to be a major donor for sexual and reproductive health and a major supporter for family planning programmes but now, because of the U.S.'s discomfort with sex, sexuality and sexual behaviour, their contribution to sexual and reproductive health has dwindled," said Glasier.

"In fact, you could argue that their policies now make access to sexual and reproductive health services and to contraception more difficult in many countries around the world," she added.

The researchers argue that other countries or agencies now need to act as champions to ensure women have access to reproductive health services.

In the first global study of sexual behaviour, which is part of the series, researchers found that couples are marrying later and having more premarital sex.

But the research from 59 countries showed there is no universal trend towards earlier sexual activity and that monogamy is still dominant in most regions of the world.

Contrary to common belief, married couples have the most sex and the mid-to-late teens is when both sexes become sexually active.

Professor Kaye Wellings, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, and her colleagues who analysed the data said developed nations reported comparatively higher rates of multiple partners than nations that have higher rates of STIs and HIV/AIDS.

Condom use was lower in non-industrialised countries.

"Men and women have sex for different reasons and in different ways in different settings. This diversity needs to be respected in a range of approaches tailored to whole societies and individuals within them," she said.

The Lancet's Horton said he hopes the series will help to scale up interventions to improve reproductive health and to mobilise political commitment to a neglected area of global health.

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