Iran's Sexual Health Challenges and its Improvement Opportunities from Viewpoint of Policymakers and Experts

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual health has been considered as a basic condition to achieve reproductive health, rather than a component of it. This study aimed to identify the Iranchr('39')s challenges of sexual health and its improvement opportunities. Methods: In this qualitative study with the design of content analysis, individual semi-structured interviews were done to collect data. The selection of the participants was targeted to the experienced experts. After individual interviews with 16 experts, and theoretical saturation of data, data analysis was done by deductive content analysis method. Findings: In this study, five main themes of the taboo of sexuality and low public awareness; unconventional sexual behaviors and emerging social harms; stigma and discrimination; lack of governance political commitment; lack of statistical indicators and utilization of current capacities are emerged as the country challenges of sexual health, as well as opportunities and strategies to address them include educating and empowering the public with special focus on youth, adopting policies and revising related laws in line with social changes; advocacy for political support of governance; adopting policies and reviewing related laws to access key reproductive and sexual health services; educating and empowering the public with special focus on youth; promoting positive attitude with focus on the prohibition of stigma and discrimination against groups with high risk sexual behaviors; and promoting professional ethics and gender equity. Conclusion: Addressing the challenges and achieving the highest levels of sexual health requires political commitment of the governance and inter-sectoral collaboration to design and implement multidisciplinary and multidimensional interventions.