International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

CONTEXT: Women's concerns about contraceptive-induced menstrual changes can lead to method discontinuation and nonuse, contributing to unmet need for contraception. Research on women's perceptions of amenorrhea related to longer acting methods and in low-income countries is limited. METHODS: Data were from nationally representative household surveys and focus group discussions with women of reproductive age conducted in Burkina Faso and Uganda in 2016-2017. Bivariate cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics associated with women's attitudes about contraceptive-induced amenorrhea (n=2,673 for Burkina Faso and 2,281 for Uganda); menstrual health determinants were also examined for Burkina Faso...

CONTEXT: Providers' and women's characteristics are associated with postpartum copper IUD (PPIUD) outcomes, but the relationship between providers' level of experience and PPIUD expulsion and discontinuation has not been established. METHODS: Data on 1,232 women and 118 providers who took part in a randomized trial of a PPIUD counselling and provision intervention in Nepal between 2015 and 2017 were used to identify associations between providers' and women's characteristics and PPIUD outcomes...

COVID-19 has compromised and disrupted sexual and reproductive health (SRH) across multiple dimensions: individual-level access, health systems functioning, and at the policy and governance levels. Disruptions to supply chains, lockdown measures and travel restrictions, and overburdened health systems have particularly affected abortion access and service provision. The pandemic, rather than causing new issues, has heightened and exposed existing fractures and fissures within abortion access and provision. In this viewpoint, we draw on the concept of "structural violence" to make visible the contributing causes of these ruptures and their inequitable impact among different groups...

Induced abortion is common: In 2017, an estimated 56% of all unintended pregnancies worldwide ended in abortion. Despite the frequency with which women terminate pregnancies, however, 135 countries impose restrictions on induced abortion beyond gestational age limits, which lead some women to seek unsafe abortion. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy carried out by individuals who lack the requisite training and skills, in a setting that does not meet minimum medical standards, or both...

CONTEXT: Telemedicine clients wishing to confirm a successful medication abortion outside of a clinic setting are commonly instructed to use high-sensitivity urine pregnancy tests, which can take up to four weeks to yield accurate results. Multilevel urine pregnancy tests (MLPTs), which provide accurate results in one week, are a promising alternative, but their use has not been evaluated within telemedicine services. METHODS: From November 2017 to May 2018, 165 eligible and consenting pregnant people who contacted safe2choose-an organization providing telemedicine abortion services internationally-for medication abortion were enrolled in a pilot study and mailed a package containing medication abortion drugs, two MLPTs and instructions...

The need for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care can be especially acute during humanitarian crises, as women and girls are at increased vulnerability of experiencing sexual violence, unintended pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications. However, in such settings, the chaos of displacement and basic survival may supplant the importance of SRH care, and individuals may also have diminished access to safe services. Abortion and abortion-related care may be particularly limited in humanitarian contexts because of a number of barriers beyond the lack of infrastructure, supplies and trained staff: For example, abortion care practitioners in emergency settings may perceive or face legal complications or loss of funding due to their provision of abortion services, insititutions and governments may lack timely data on and underestimate the true volume of abortion demand among refugees, and providers may hold a perception that providing abortion care in crisis settings may be too difficult to attempt...

CONTEXT: In Mexico, first-trimester abortion is legal in Mexico City and is available in the public and private sectors. Understanding subsequent contraceptive uptake and method mix among first-trimester abortion clients relative to that of women who deliver a live birth at a health facility could help identify where improvements in care following an obstetric event can be made across the health system. METHODS: This article uses a retrospective cohort study to compare uptake of contraception prior to discharge between abortion clients in Mexico City's public abortion program and postpartum women from urban settings...

CONTEXT: In 2017, Chile reformed its abortion law to allow the procedure under limited circumstances. Exploring the views of Chilean medical and midwifery faculty regarding abortion and the use of conscientious objection (CO) at the time of reform can inform how these topics are being taught to the country's future health care providers. METHODS: Between March and September 2017, 30 medical and midwifery school faculty from universities in Santiago, Chile were interviewed; 20 of the faculty taught at secular universities and 10 taught at religiously affiliated universities...

CONTEXT: Abortion is particularly difficult to measure, especially in legally restrictive settings such as Pakistan. The List Experiment-a technique for measuring sensitive health behaviors indirectly-may minimize respondents' underreporting of abortion due to stigma or legal restrictions, but has not been previously applied to estimate abortion prevalence in Pakistan. METHODS: A sample of 4,159 married women of reproductive age were recruited from two communities of Karachi in 2018...

CONTEXT: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) decriminalized abortion under certain circumstances in 2018 through the Maputo Protocol. However, little is known about the readiness of the country's health facilities to provide comprehensive abortion care. METHODS: Data on 1,380 health facilities from the 2017-2018 DRC Service Provision Assessment (SPA) inventory survey were used to assess readiness to provide abortion care in four domains: termination of pregnancy, basic treatment of postabortion complications, comprehensive treatment of postabortion complications and postabortion contraceptive care...

Following the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of self-care, abortion self-care is the ability of pregnant individuals to manage their unwanted pregnancies with or without the support of health care providers-particularly, in the early weeks of pregnancy (up to 12 weeks' gestation). The advent of medication abortion (MA) has made this possible, as early self-managed MA at home is a safe, acceptable and cost-effective method of pregnancy termination. The drugs currently available for MA are mifepristone and misoprostol, as well as the two packaged together (also known as the combipack), which is more efficacious than misoprostol alone in evacuating the uterus and is considered the first-line medication for MA...

CONTEXT: Evidence shows that laws that restrict abortion do not eliminate its practice, but instead result in women having clandestine abortions, which are likely to be unsafe. It is important to periodically assess changes in the legal status of abortion around the world. METHODS: The criteria for legal abortion as of 2019 for 199 countries and territories were used to distribute them along a continuum of six mutually exclusive categories, from prohibited to permitted without restriction as to reason...

CONTEXT: Hygienic use of absorbent products during menstruation is a challenge for young women in India, especially among the underprivileged, who lack knowledge and access to resources. Reuse of menstrual absorbents can be unhygienic and result in adverse health and other outcomes. METHODS: Data from the 2015-2016 National Family Health Survey-4 for 233,606 menstruating women aged 15-24 were used to examine levels and correlates of exclusive use of disposable absorbents during menstruation...

CONTEXT: Improving women's empowerment is pivotal to public health and development programs; however, inconsistent definitions and lack of cross-cultural measures compromise monitoring efforts. METHODS: Data collected in 2017-2018 in Ethiopia, Uganda and two sites in Nigeria were used to develop a cross-cultural index of women's and girls' empowerment in sexual and reproductive health (WGE-SRH). Item development was grounded in qualitative interviews, and informed by a conceptual framework that included domains of existence of choice and exercise of choice related to sex, contraceptive use and pregnancy...

CONTEXT: In Indonesia, maternal mortality is high and abortion is restricted. Reliable information on induced abortion is needed; however, the difficulty of measuring abortion in settings where it is legally restricted and highly stigmatized calls for innovation in approaches to measuring abortion incidence. METHODS: The data were from three original surveys conducted in Java among health facilities, knowledgeable informants and women aged 15-49, fielded in April 2018-January 2019...

CONTEXT: Induced abortion is legally restricted and highly stigmatized in Indonesia, and is thus extremely difficult to measure. Indirect methods leveraging women's social networks, such as the Confidante Method, have shown promise in estimating hidden behaviors, including abortion, in similar settings. METHODS: A community-based survey was conducted among 8,696 women aged 15-49 in Java, Indonesia, in November 2018-January 2019. Data were collected via in-person interviews with respondents about their own abortions and those of up to three of their closest confidantes...

CONTEXT: Extreme weather events cause large-scale population displacement in Bangladesh. It is important to know how household displacement due to such events might affect women's antenatal care (ANC) service utilization. METHODS: In 2017, a cross-sectional household survey was conducted in 25 rural villages in either displacement prone or non-displacement prone areas of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 611 respondents (a woman or her husband) who reported having had a live birth in the past three years; of those, 289 had experienced household displacement due to an extreme weather event...

CONTEXT: Male contraceptive options are limited; however, product development efforts tend to focus on female methods. Research on attitudes toward methods for men-particularly in regions of low contraceptive prevalence, such as Sub-Saharan Africa-could inform the development of new male methods. METHODS: Qualitative data were taken from focus group discussions with 80 men aged 23-67 and 398 women aged 15-50 conducted in Burkina Faso and Uganda in 2016. Transcripts were analyzed thematically to explore support among men and women for male contraceptive methods, and to extract suggestions about ideal method characteristics...

CONTEXT: Having one's first sexual intercourse be a positive and satisfying experience may be critical to healthy sexual development. Few studies, however, have examined adolescents' sexual satisfaction and the factors associated with enhancing or diminishing it, especially in Mexico. METHODS: Data from 4,504 heterosexual, sexually experienced 15-20-year-olds living in three Mexican states (Morelos, Jalisco and Puebla) were taken from the 2014 Survey on Dating, Empowerment, and Sexual and Reproductive Health in Adolescent High School Students...

CONTEXT: Despite the extensive literature on women's perceptions about contraceptive methods, distinctions between specific methods have rarely been investigated, men have often been excluded and comparable data for contraceptive users and nonusers have typically not been collected. The lack of such information may limit family planning programs' effectiveness. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey data from 1,162 women and 621 men were used to examine perceived barriers to and facilitators of use of contraceptive methods (the pill, injectable, subdermal implant, IUD and male condoms)...