Culture, Health & Sexuality最新文献

Unsafe abortions contribute significantly to maternal mortality and morbidity in Ghana. To reduce this, in 1982 abortion laws in Ghana underwent reform to broaden the conditions under which abortion is accessed. Although, evidence in other contexts highlights the contribution of violence to women's experience of unwanted pregnancy and abortion, such evidence is limited within the Ghanaian abortion literature. This study aims to fill that gap. Informed by phenomenology, interviews were conducted with 10 women who had experienced various forms of violence leading to unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions. Participants were recruited between June 2017 and March 2018 in the Ashanti region of Ghana where they sought hospital care for unsafe abortion related complications. Participants mentioned intimate partners as the main perpetrators of violence. Financial challenges were also identified as important in increasing women's vulnerability to violence. Verbal abuse from health workers contributed to denying women access to safe abortion. This paper advances dialogue about the ways in which women's experience of violence from intimate/non-intimate partners and healthcare workers impacts their overall abortion experience. It advocates the empowerment of women to enable them to leave violent relationships, and the retraining of health workers to enable them to adopt respectful and empathetic care practices.

While some barriers for managing menstruation have been mitigated for cisgender women, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people still struggle to navigate menstruation in a gendered society. With an increasing number of young people identifying outside of the gender binary, there is an immediate need to identify and address the barriers to managing menstruation. This review sets out to explore how trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people experience and navigate menstruation. Using critical interpretive synthesis methodology, nine pieces of literature including peer-reviewed journal articles, graduate theses, a book chapter, and a conference poster presentation were reviewed using thematic analysis. Four primary themes were identified: (1) menstruation is strongly gendered; (2) there exists inadequate trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming education and healthcare training; (3) the gendering of public toilets/washrooms poses a barrier to the management of menstruation; and (4) there exists a lack of diverse participants and attention to intersectional menstruation concerns. A set of recommendations, specific to a variety of stakeholders is provided, and implications for future research are discussed.

This study aimed to understand the experiences that trans, masculine presenting, non-binary and gender diverse (TMNG) people who menstruate have with period product packaging and marketing, and identified opportunities for improvement through an inclusive communication design framework. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with nine TMNG consumers, allies and advocates. These revealed positive and negative experiences with the current design of period product packaging and marketing throughout the entire 'user journey', including purchasing, use and disposal. A thematic analysis of the interviews confirmed that problems exist with the lack of representation through imagery and language on period product packaging and marketing. The resulting three themes were engaged with to develop an inclusive communication design framework that included: the need for an improvement in the physical experience of periods; the need for improved mental health and emotional relationship to periods; and the need for the consideration of broader social issues such as sustainability and accessibility in relation to period product packaging and marketing.

A history of colonisation and corresponding traumas has resulted in disparate rates of violence and sexual health inequities among many Native American populations. As a result, Native American adolescents and young adults specifically, experience higher rates of STIs, HIV and unintended pregnancy relative to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. To address these inequities, sexual health education programmes should reflect Native American cultural values and traditional teachings to align with community assets and protective factors. The objective of this study was to describe sexual and reproductive health professionals' perspectives on how trauma collectively affects the sexual health of older adolescents and young adult Native American women between the ages of 15-25 years. We purposively sampled sexual and reproductive health professionals who worked with members of this priority population. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. The themes identified in the interviews include the impact of trauma and colonisation on sexual health, strategies for combatting trauma, promoting sexual health, and supporting the development of culturally congruent sexual health education curricula. Findings point to the need for culturally relevant, trauma-informed sexual health education interventions to help promote sexual and reproductive health equity for Native American adolescent and young adult women.

High profile data breaches and the proliferation of self-tracking technologies generating bio-feedback data have raised concerns about data privacy and data sharing practices among users of these devices. However, our understanding of how self-trackers in sexual health populations, where the data may be sensitive, personal, and stigmatising, perceive data privacy and sharing is limited. This study combined industry consultation with a survey of users of the world's first biofeedback smart vibrator, the Lioness, that enables users to monitor and analyse their sexual response intensity and orgasm duration over time. We found users of the Lioness are motivated to self-track by both individual and altruistic goals: to learn more about their bodies, and to contribute to research that leads to better sexual health outcomes. Perceptions of data privacy and data sharing were shaped by an eagerness to collaborate with sexual health researchers to challenge traditional male-centric perspectives in biomedical research on women's sexual health, where gender plays a crucial role in defining healthcare systems and outcomes. This study extends our understanding of the non-digital aspects of self-tracking by emphasising the role of gender and inclusive healthcare advocacy in shaping perceptions of data privacy and sharing within sexual health populations.

Advertisements for menstrual products and how they are perceived by viewers vary culturally. In Hungary, where menstrual education is a neglected field, the role of the media in conveying menstrual knowledge is particularly important. Comments from adult menstruating women on three different menstrual product advertising videos were analysed using thematic analysis. The first video focused on how women can get on with their everyday lives during their periods. The themes were pain and suffering, leaking and white shorts, and adjusting to menstruation. The second video conveyed an 'empathising, sensitising' type of message and used a menstrual-realistic approach. Identified themes within it were experiencing femininity, gender-roles and stereotypes, periods and childbirth, and intimate moments. The third video utilised a feminist-empowering narrative and led to the development themes of empowerment and open communication. The findings reflect the divisions that characterise women's rights issues in Hungarian society. While several menstruating adult women recognise and consciously resist menstrual shaming and tabooing, fear of violating privacy, and anxiety about openly expressing one's menstrual status remain tangible, causing taboo-busting videos to provoke resistance.

Worldwide, too many sexuality and gender minority individuals face significant danger due to their identity(ies), compelling them to seek refuge in another country. This qualitative study explored the pre-migration trauma and post-migration health burdens of sexuality and gender minority forced migrants in Sweden. Between April and June 2023, 34 participants were recruited using convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling and interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews. Inductive qualitative content analysis was conducted collaboratively by two researchers and two sexuality and gender minority forced migrants. The findings reveal the deep impact of societal oppression and violence in participants' home countries, where they endured physical violence, torture, conversion attempts, and death threats, often from both community members and family. Escaping these dangers was filled with further risks. During resettlement, participants continued to face significant challenges, experiencing both mental and physical health issues, as well as profound loneliness.

Provision of and access to HIV prevention, treatment and care among young gender and sexuality diverse people living with HIV in Zimbabwe occurs in a context characterised by stigma and discrimination based on HIV status and gender identity or sexual orientation. Little is known about the experiences and impact of intersecting stigma on adherence to anti-retroviral treatment (ART) among members of this group. To fill this gap, we conducted a concurrent mixed methods study to collect data through self-administered questionnaires and in-depth interviews among young men who have sex with men and transgender women. More than one-third of the participants scored above 10 on the CESD-10, with 5% in the highest band (>20), indicating the potential for a significant mental health burden. Experiences of intersectional stigma were common, impacting participants' mental health. Experiences and anxieties regarding the potential for stigma and discrimination contributed to threats to ART adherence and influenced commitment to staying on treatment. However, despite the many potential risks to adherence, participants utilised various means to remain adherent. Programmes to alleviate intersectional stigma among young gender and sexuality diverse people should seek to strengthen existing intrapersonal and interpersonal resources and enhance mental health.

The objective of this study was to provide a better understanding of representations and behaviours related to sexual pleasure and orgasm among women in Dakar, Senegal, measure their frequency, and analyse some of their determinants. We used a mixed methods approach with data being collected from a qualitative sample (N = 10) and a quantitative convenience sample (N = 155). Data were analysed separately and integrated only at the interpretative stage, with equal weight being given to each type of data. As in Western societies, sexual pleasure, satisfaction and orgasm were interconnected among women in Dakar. Quantitative data revealed a pleasure gap similar to that observed in Western societies: 63% of women claimed to orgasm 'often' or 'always' during intercourse. However, closer analysis as well as the discourses elicited indicated that its magnitude could be greater in the general population. Several of the findings indicate how economic factors shape sexual well-being in Dakar, with there being a significant association between socioeconomic status and sexual satisfaction (r(153df)=0.208; p < 0.01). The role of religious prescriptions in respect of women's sexual pleasure remains complex.

The study explores sexuality discourses among young people with migration experience in Sweden. Using a qualitative design and a combination of convenience, snowball and purposive sampling, twenty interviews were conducted between October 2021 and August 2023. Participants self-identified as women (8) and men (12), were aged between 17 and 26, and had migrated to Sweden between two months to 16 years ago. Drawing on concepts of cultural and bio-sexual citizenship, discourse analysis was used to identify their interpretative repertoires regarding discourses of sexuality. Three interpretative repertoires were identified. First, there was the positioning repertoire, in which sexuality appears as a border marker for belonging, reflecting how participants positioned themselves regarding discursive constructions of sexuality in mainstream Swedish society and their ethnicised migrant communities. Secondly, there was the risk repertoire, in which sex was constructed as a risk and associated with negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes. This repertoire emphasised the notion of sexual responsibility, entailing adherence to preventive measures, responsible decisions, and maturity. Thirdly, there was the sexual agency repertoire, which referred to how participants negotiated sexual agency at the societal and interpersonal levels. Each repertoire elucidated a hybrid conceptualisation of sexuality through which participants made sense of their sexuality-related experiences and views.