This document defines and discusses reproductive health. It covers sexually transmitted diseases, unsafe abortion, gender-based violence, harmful practices like female genital mutilation, infertility, family planning, and maternal and child health. Reproductive health deals with reproductive processes throughout life and aims for complete physical, mental and social well-being. It addresses issues like sexually transmitted infection prevention and management, unsafe abortion prevention, gender-based violence prevention, and more.

1. Reproductive Health

2. Definition
• Reproductive health is a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being, and not
merely the absence of reproductive disease or
infirmity.
• Reproductive health deals with the
reproductive processes, functions and system
at all stages of life

3. Components
1. Sexually Transmitted Diseases prevention and
management
2. Prevention and management of unsafe
abortion,
3. Prevention of gender-based violence,
4. Prevention of Harmful practices
5. Prevention and management of infertility
6. Family planning,
7. Prevention of maternal and perinatal mortality
and morbidity.

4. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
prevention and management
• STDs are infections that are spread primarily
through person-to-person sexual contact.
• There are more than 30 different sexually
transmissible bacteria, viruses and parasites.
• Several, (HIV and syphilis), can be transmitted
from mother to child

5. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
prevention and management
STI syndromic approach to patient management
• The traditional method of diagnosing STIs is by
laboratory tests. However, these are often
unavailable or too expensive.
• WHO has recommended a syndromic approach to
diagnosis and management of STIs in patients
• The syndromic approach uses flowcharts to guide
diagnosis and treatment

6. Unsafe abortion
• A procedure for terminating an unwanted
pregnancy either by persons lacking the
necessary skills or in an environment lacking
minimal medical standards or both
• It is the cause of serious complications and
disability and is a prominent cause of
maternal death

7. Unsafe abortion
They are a result of:
• Unmet need for family planning
• Contraceptive failure
• Lack of information about contraception
• Restricted access to safe abortion services
Prevention
• Safe abortion
• Post-abortion care.

8. Prevention of gender-based violence,
• The United Nations defines violence against
women as:
• any act of gender-based violence that results
in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
mental harm or suffering to women, including
threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in
public or in private life.

9. Prevention of gender-based violence,
• Intimate partner violence refers to behaviour
in an intimate relationship
• Sexual violence ( rape)

10. Prevention of gender-based violence,
• Health consequences
• short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and
reproductive health problems
• Impact on children
• range of behavioural and emotional disturbances
that can be associated with experiencing of
violence later in life.
• Intimate partner violence has been associated
with infant and child mortality and morbidity
(e.g. diarrhoeal disease, malnutrition).

11. Prevention of gender-based violence,
• The social and economic costs:
– Isolation
– inability to work,
– loss of wages
– lack of participation in regular activities
– limited ability to care for themselves and their
children.

12. Prevention of gender-based violence,
• The primary prevention strategy is school-based
programmes for adolescents to prevent violence
• Combine microfinance with gender equality training;
• Promote communication and relationship skills within
communities
• Reduce access to, and the harmful use of alcohol;
• Enact legislation and develop policies that protect
women;
• Sensitization and education of health and other service
providers

13. Prevention of Harmful practices
Female Genital Mutilation FGM :
• comprises all procedures that involve partial or
total removal of the external female genitalia, or
other injury to the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons.
• FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of
the human rights of girls and women.
• FGM has no health benefits, causes severe pain
and has several immediate and long-term health
consequences.

14. Prevention of Harmful practices
• It is mostly carried out by traditional
providers, who often play other central roles
in communities, such as attending childbirths.
• Increasingly, however, FGM is being
performed by health care providers.

15. Prevention of Harmful practices
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Immediate complications :
Severe pain
Shock
Haemorrhage (bleeding),
Tetanus or sepsis (bacterial infection)
Urine retention
Open sores in the genital region and injury to
nearby genital tissue.

16. Prevention of Harmful practices
Long-term consequences can include:
• Recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections;
• Cysts;
• Infertility;
• An increased risk of childbirth complications
and newborn deaths;
• The need for later surgeries.

17. Prevention of Harmful practices
• Education
• Laws

18. Prevention and management of
infertility
• Infertility is the inability to conceive a child.
• Primary infertility is infertility in a couple who
have never had a child.
• Secondary infertility is failure to conceive
following a previous pregnancy.
• Infertility may be caused by infection in the
man or woman, but often there is no obvious
underlying cause.

19. Prevention and management of
infertility
• Prevention and management of infections
(STDs)
• Safe abortion and post abortion care
• Assisted Reproductive Technology:
– all treatments or procedures that include the in
vitro handling of both human oocytes and sperm
or of embryos for the purpose of establishing a
pregnancy.

20. Child and adolescent health and
development
• Adolescence is a period of major physical and
psychological change, as well as great changes
in social interactions and relationships.

21. Child and adolescent health and
development
They need interventions to decrease and to
mitigate their vulnerability:
• Information and skills
• Safe and supportive environment
• Appropriate and accessible health and
counselling services.

22. Child and adolescent health and
development
• health problems affecting adolescents and their
prevention
• Mental health
• Many mental health problems emerge in late
childhood and early adolescence.
• Health workers need to have the competencies to:
– relate to young people
– detect mental health problems early
– provide treatments which include counselling, cognitivebehavioural therapy and, where appropriate, psychotropic
medication

23. Child and adolescent health and
development
Substance use
• laws
• Increasing their awareness of the dangers of
substance use
• building their competence to resist peer
pressure and to manage stress in a healthy
manner

24. Child and adolescent health and
development
Violence
• Life skills and social development programmes
• Supporting teachers and parents to build skills
in problem solving and non-violent disciplining
• Actions to make health systems more
responsive, and to build the empathy and
competence of health workers
• Ongoing psychological and social support

25. Child and adolescent health and
development
Unintentional injuries
Approaches for reducing road traffic crashes:
• Enforcing speed limits;
• Promote seat belt (and helmet) use and to prevent driving
under the influence of alcohol or other psychoactive
substances;
• Increasing the availability of safe and inexpensive public
transport.
• Actions to make the environment safer and to educate
children and adolescents on how to avoid drowning, burns
and falls
• Prompt access to effective trauma care can be life saving.

26. Child and adolescent health and
development
• Nutrition
• Actions to improve access to food
• Improving the nutritional status of girls:
– Improving access to nutritious food, to
micronutrient supplementation and to preventing
infections as well.
• Promoting healthy lifestyles is crucial to
halting the rapidly progressing obesity
epidemic

27. • Family planning,
• Prevention of maternal and perinatal
mortality and morbidity.