Sexuality and reproductive health

The problem of infertility became aggravated in Russia from the depopulation beginning in the 1990th when 15-17% pairs of reproductive age fixed inability to the birth of own children (80% female, 45% male factor). Inclusion in practice of public health care Assisted Reproductive Technologies allowed to solve essentially this question and by 2010 apprx. 0,5% of all newborns were born after conceptions with help of In Vitro Fertilisation. ART – the only way of treatment of often meeting forms of man's infertility therefore «classical» IVF (46,4%) and IKSI (33,6%) are most demanded, and in every seventh or eighth case are supplemented with a cryopreservation of cells or embryos that allows parents to choose time of repeated childbirth. Availability of ART raised after introduction of the state financial support (2007 - quota from the federal budget on hi-tech treatment in state hospitals, 2013 - payment on system of obligatory medical insurance working). New problems – multiple pregnancies as result of transfer more than 1 embrio (25-30% twins, 3% triplets), «hereditary infertility», «hereditary subfertility», ART application in not medical purposes, refusal of customers of children in case of surrogacy, unreasonable Cesarean section.

In Mexico, despite the overall increase in contraceptive use among women in reproductive ages (68.5% in 1997 and 72.5% in 2009); there are no in-depth studies of regional differences and changes over time.
The study shows regionally unmet needs for contraception of married women of reproductive age and changes between 1997 and 2009, using logistic regression models with information from national surveys.The regionalization identifies nine forms of exclusion measured as a percentage of the population that does not participate in the enjoyment of essential goods and services.
The proportion of women with unmet needs for contraception in 1997 was 12.2% and 9.8% in 2009. For both years (1997 and 2009), women with higher unmet needs are those belonging to the age group 15-19 years (27% and25%). Indigenous language speakers (26% and 21%), those living in rural areas (22% and 26%). Disparities persist on women with lower educational attainment (22% and 17%) and living in highly marginalized regions. It is concluded that there were no changes in the levels of women's unmet needs between the twelve years of study, after controlling certain socio-demographic variables. Changes showed are due to larger population groups with lower unmet needs for contraception in 2009.

Various studies in Africa have shown that about 3 million children in developing countries die and many more are crippled, blinded, or otherwise disabled from six major diseases that are preventable through immunization (WHO; UNICEF, 2010). These six diseases are: measles, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. Meanwhile, for all these six diseases, vaccines and the means to provide them are readily available, relatively inexpensive, and of proven effectiveness in saving lives. In Nigeria, despite the creation of the National Programme on Immunisation (NPI), the situation over the years has not improved. Currently, Nigeria is among the ten countries in the world with vaccine coverage rates below 50 per cent (WHO, 2010), having been persistently below 40 per cent since 1997 (WHO, 2003). Currently, immunization coverage is approximately 23% which is almost double that of 2003 rate of 13%. The observed level of full childhood immunization rates across the years therefore suggest that these indicators may not have been responding to prior policy and technical interventions. This study therefore aimed to examine the influence of mothers` health seeking behaviour as well as some selected socio-economic factors on childhood immunization, using the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

The aim of the present study is to estimate the women empowerment index value in Bangladesh. Since women's empowerment is a matter of basic human rights which has during the last decade become a panacea for Third World development. For this purpose BDHS 2007 data have been used which reveals that empowerment level of women increases up to age group 30-34. Moreover, a mathematical model has been fitted to the mean score of women empowerment index which shows that women empowerment index follows a quadratic polynomial model. However, the role of women’s decision-making in reproductive health cannot be overemphasized. In this study, different dimensions of women’s decision-making autonomy and their relationship to maternal and child health-care are examined. The study shows that most autonomy indicators are important predictors of maternal and child health-care utilization although the strength and statistical significance vary by health-care utilization outcome and in some cases significance is lost when socio-economic indicators are held constant.

In response to the Plan of Action of ICPD , a shift of focus from family planning to reproductive rights and reproductive health, found in the national policies and programmes during post-ICPD era in Bangladesh. A series of policies and programmes has undertaken by the government of Bangladesh as a follow-up action, addressing the issues of reproductive health. The issues addressed in existing policies, plan and programmes are reviewed in the following themes of reproductive health: maternal morbidity and mortality, adolescent reproductive health, management of STD/RTI, IEC and advocacy. The present Policies and programme on maternal health has replicated most of the targets and objectives from the previous policies with few changes and to some extent based on the principles of ICPD,1994 and objectives of MDGs. The increasing demand maternal health services and slow pace of growth of infrastructure make a big challenge to manage maternal morbidity and mortality as early as possible in Bangladesh. Establishment of private hospitals/clinics, more emphasis to the development of skill of doctors/Nurse through training (on new health issues) than the infrastructural expansion could be the probable way to deliver better health care as early as possible.

This analysis presents the major demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors which are more responsible for active sexual life among the Indian ever married women. Using the NFHS-3 dataset for nationally representative samples of women. These bahavioural pattern are relevant to birth and pregnancy rates as well as the incidence of STI, including HIV (the virus that cause AIDS).
The analysis is done on the based on the age group 35 and above age groups as in the lower age groups it is assumed that sexual activity is high among the couples. The data is restricted to married women who haven’t give birth in the last two months from the date of interview and women whose husband lives with her.
This study examines the contextual, household wealth, gender empowerment, socio-economic and demographic factors responsible for better sexual health.
Logistic regression shows that place of residence, caste, religion, wealth status, media exposure, presence of other wife and presence of son and daughter more than 15 years and perceives degree of empowerment are important predictors of sexual behaviour.
Such finding suggests that sexual behaviour is embedded in local norms and values specific to different geographical areas. Therefore sexual health research and programs should take into these locally patterns cultures seriously.

The present paper is part of a larger study conducted by first author for academic purpose among 414 male tribal youth of two Underprivileged Tribal Groups in the state of Orissa, India namely, Juang and Lodha. Findings reveal that sexually transmitted diseases are very much prevalent among the underprivileged tribal groups. Among the factors responsible for the problem, people’s sexual behaviour is the most crucial one. This is crucial in the sense that it is simply not a segregated or individual behaviour. It is mainly shaped by their age-old culture and tradition. For example, their early age marriage, prevalence of pre-marital and extra-marital relations, and above all their perception about the disease itself are socio-culturally moulded to a great extent. Besides these, non-scientific or traditional perceptions have been transformed along with the knowledge about sex by various means. Majority of youth who have STD symptoms do not have knowledge about it, while some have incorrect perceptions. Multiple sexual partners remain one of the major causes of STD among the tribal youth. External factors also have definite plays a definite role.

The present paper is an attempt to study the utilization of maternal and child health care services in rural areas in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand in India. The data have been analysed from National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-3). The findings reveal that the utilization of maternal and child care services is not uniform in the state of Uttarakhand. In rural areas of Uttarakhand only 10.5 percent of women received full antenatal care in compare to 33.3 percent of urban women. Only 26.4 percent of births were delivered in a health facility and 31.8 percent of births were assisted by a health professional. In rural areas of Uttarakhand only 28.7 percent of mothers received postnatal check-up. Thus the state has witnessed a higher proportion of high risk pregnancies. After controlling the demographic and socio-economic factors we find that the factors related with the women are the most important predictor in explaining the use of maternal health care services. Women’s age at birth, birth order and education level of the mother found to be the most important predictors for explaining the utilization of maternal and child health care services.

The objective of the study is to focus the selected morbidity pattern among the married women (15-49) and their treatment seeking behaviors of eastern states of India. Data have been used for this study obtained from the DLHS (2007-08). Bi-variate and Multivariate analysis have been used for this study. Result shows that the women from rural background are more suffer from menstruation and reproductive tract infections. Education has a positive impact on reproductive morbidity. Less than 10 years of education menstruation (24.4%) and reproductive tract infection (20.2%) both are high than women having above 10 years of education. Result of binary logistic regression shows that women residing in urban area are about 13% and 12 % less likely to have menstruation problems and RTI respectively. Women’s caste and education also found significant in this context. Women marring bellow 18 years shows higher chances to have menstruation and RTI related problems.

Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa remains the highest in world and the decline in birth rates in the region has slowed further over the past decade. Yet, the average contraceptive prevalence in Africa is the lowest in major world regions and there has been limited investigation of contextual influences on contraceptive use in the region. Using data from the 2003 Mozambique Demographic and Health Survey, we estimate random intercept logistic regression models to examine the mechanisms through which community context influences women’s use of a modern method of contraception in Mozambique. We find that community context influences the use of modern methods of contraception by shaping the social and opportunity environment in which women live. In particular, we find that residing in a community with higher levels of female education, higher average age at first sexual intercourse, higher percentage of women who were told about family planning at health facility has a significant effect on a woman’s use of a modern method of contraception. We also find that living in a community where polygyny is common and where there is higher proportion of women who have not a final say on own visit to family or relatives has a significant negative effect.