Reproductive health services for adolescents: recent experiences from a pilot project in Bangladesh.

Adolescents in Bangladesh have limited access to reproductive health (RH) services and the services that do exist are often unresponsive to the broader needs of adolescents especially those who are unmarried. Knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health is generally low. For example one study found that the majority of adolescents had no idea about changes associated with puberty such as menstruation or wet dreams until they occurred. Other studies have found that adolescents have inadequate knowledge about STIs including HIV/ AIDS. In a national survey few female adolescents could answer questions about STIs correctly and only 5% could identify any symptom of an STI. To address these issues the Population Council designed a multicountry operations research project to determine the feasibility effectiveness and cost of creating sustainable ‘adolescent-friendly’ reproductive health care services through a package of interventions. In collaboration with the Urban Family Health Partnership (UFHP) the Population Council is implementing this project in north-western areas—Pabna and Dinajpur are experimental while Rangpur is a control area. Participating clinics are open to married and unmarried adolescents but the project focuses mainly on the needs of unmarried adolescents. In preparation for the intervention the Population Council conducted a baseline survey on adolescents’ knowledge attitudes and practices related to sexual and reproductive health. Though the project is ongoing this paper describes the baseline survey results and preliminary experiences from the project intervention. (excerpt)