Proper orientation on reproductive health necessary

A recent study conducted in three selected public universities in the country made a startling revelation that 93 per cent of sexually active adolescents in public universities do not use contraceptives.

This is in spite of the fact that 80 per cent of them had a basic knowledge of adolescent sexual reproductive health issues.

Conducted among 675 university respondents, the study further found out that more than half of the respondents had sexual partners and were sexually active.

The findings of the study are quite instructive especially when the National Health Insurance Scheme has expanded its services to include free long-term contraception from January 1, 2022.

Expanded, free access to long-term contraception is also a progressive step towards the global goal of Universal Health Coverage by 2030 – a framework that allows all individuals and communities to receive the health services and care they need without suffering financial hardship.  

The move is to allow millions of women of reproductive age who are already covered by national health insurance to avoid paying out of their pocket for family planning methods such as the implant, coil and injections.

It comes after a two-year pilot study found that including family planning services in health benefit packages resulted in a greater uptake of long-term contraception and future government savings in direct care costs.  

However, this move is not patronised by the youth especially university students as Ghana is a country where deep-rooted cultural norms and structural barriers perpetuate poor sexual and reproductive health, including high risks of maternal mortality, high numbers of sexually transmitted infections and low levels of contraceptive use.

The low contraceptive uptake results in teenage pregnancies, high childbirth rates and incidence of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

The commonly used modern contraceptives methods by the youth include male condoms, emergency contraceptive pills, injectables, implants and intra-uterine devices.

Education on contraceptives need to be intensified among the youth to enable them to protect themselves from unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections.

What the Daily Graphic gleans from this study is that the sexual reproductive health needs of adolescents at university must be given more attention by university authorities and policymakers.

There is also the need for all stakeholders, including parents and guardians, to work together to craft policies and programmes that address the sexual reproductive health needs of adolescents in public universities.

The Daily Graphic finds this study useful as some of its recommendations, if implemented, will help the students have a smooth transition to adulthood.

One of the recommendations which we agree to is the need for all universities to introduce adolescent sexual reproductive health orientation programmes and adolescent health corners at vantage points with a wide range of sexual health reproductive services.

This brings to mind the idea of a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) policy which was introduced in 2019 but was quickly refused by most of the country’s adult population, as much education was not given.

This policy was aimed at giving a wide range of age appropriate education, including sexual and reproductive physiology, gender and sexual reproductive health rights, HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention, contraception and unintended pregnancies, vulnerabilities and exclusions, gender-based violence and sexual abuse and interpersonal skills to schoolchildren.

The Daily Graphic believes that it is about time this policy was revisited after a comprehensive stakeholder education had been held on it.

We also believe that issues confronting adolescents must be taken seriously to provide them with adequate information and education to enable them to make more informed choices and decisions.  

We therefore, call on the Ghana Health Service to make all its hospitals and other facilities where contraceptive education and care are provided to be more youth-friendly so that they can walk in without feeling guilty or being rebuked by some health personnel as ‘spoilt children’.