Family planning and reproductive health programs have rarely considered sexuality, gender roles, and power in designing and providing services. Sex has been perceived as too "private" and gender roles as "impossible to change" and socially and politically "sensitive." We are just beginning to understand how contraceptive use and choice, risk of sexually transmitted disease and cervical cancer, and unwanted pregnancy are profoundly affected by dynamics of sexuality and gender. This collection of essays by social and biomedical scientists, family planning and reproductive health providers, and health activists from over a dozen countries is intended to stimulate further thinking and action about sexuality within the fields of family planning and reproductive health.
Contents
Foreword
Halfdan Mahler
Introduction
Sondra Zeidenstein and Kirsten Moore
I. Approaches to Understanding the Experience of Sexuality
Talking and Listening
- Voices of Romanian Women: Perceptions of Sexuality, Reproductive Behavior, and Partner Relations During the Ceausescu Era
Adriana Baban and Henry P. David
- Learning Together: A Woman's Story
Elisa Jimenez Armas
- Hearing Ourselves Talk: Links Between Male Sexuality and Reproductive Responsibilities
Jason Schultz and Warren Hedges
Researchers on Researching Sexuality
- What Can We Learn from Sexual Behavior Surveys: The U.S. Example
Julia A. Ericksen and Sally A. Steffen
- Researcher Bias in the Field of Sexuality and Reproductive Health
Ana Amuchástegui
- Notes on Rethinking Masculinities: An Egyptian Case
Kamran Asdar Ali
- Talking to Men and Women About their Sexual Relationships: Insights from a Thai Study
Napaporn Havanon
- What's Love Got to Do with It? The Influence of Romantic Love on Sexual Risk Taking
Dooley Worth
II. Understanding and Acting on the Links Among Sexuality, Contraception, and Reproductive Health
Bringing Sexuality into Family Planning Services
- The Sexuality Connection in Reproductive Health
Ruth Dixon-Mueller
- Learning About Sexuality Through Family Planning Counseling Sessions in Indonesia
Ninuk Widyantoro
- Bringing Men and Women Together in Family Planning Clinics
María Isabel Plata
- Teaching Fertility Awareness: How a Government Family Planning Program Got Involved in Sexuality
Debbie Rogow
Reproductive Health Interventions
- The Evolution of a Sexuality Education Program: From Research to Action
Margarita Diaz, with Kirsten Moore
- Integrating Laobe Women into AIDS Prevention Strategies in Kolda, Senegal
Cheikh Ibrahima Niang
- A Community Study of Gynecological Disease in Indian Villages: Some Experiences and Reflections
Rani Bang and Abhay Bang
- Involving Women in a Reproductive Morbidity Study in Egypt
Hind Khattab, Huda Zurayk, Nabil Younis, and Olfia Kamal
Biomedical Research
- Female Sexuality, the Menstrual Cycle, and the Pill
Lorraine Dennerstein
- Hormones and Female Sexuality: Developing a Method for Research
Murray Anderson-Hunt, with Lorraine Dennerstein, Lyn Hatton, Jennifer Hunt, Joanne Mahony, Delys Sargeant, and Nancy Stephenson
- The Effect of Hormones on Male Sexuality: Findings from Clinical Trials on Male Contraception
Ann Robbins
III. Challenging Entrenched Attitudes and Behavior Related to Sexuality
- The Varieties of Sexual Experience of the Street Children of Mwanza, Tanzania
Rakesh Rajani and Mustafa Kudrati
- Listening to Boys: A Talk with ECOS Staff
Cecilia Simonetti, Vera Simonetti, and Silvani Arruda, with Debbie Rogow
- When Sex Is a Job: An Interview with Chantawipa Apisuk of Empower
Ara Wilson
- Changing Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women: The Musasa Project
Sheelagh Stewart
- Sexual Reality: The Gap Between Family Planning Services and Clients' Needs
Gill Gordon
To order
Learning About Sexuality is US$20 for those who are ordering from developed countries and free of charge for those ordering from developing countries. Use the Population Council's secure order form or contact the Population Council, Office of Publications, One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York NY 10017, USA telephone: +1 212 339 0514; fax: +1 212 755 6052; e-mail: publications@popcouncil.org
Learning About Sexuality is a publication of the International Women's Health Coalition and the Population Council; 404 pages.
