Teenage Reproductive Health And HIV/Aids

The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe)

December 15, 2003

By Pushpa Jamieson

Lilongwe

It is also estimated that over 25% of abortions that are carried out occur in women below the age of 20. As abortions are illegal in Malawi and accurate figures are difficult to obtain, the percentage of abortions could be much higher than reported.

Because Reproductive Health Providers (RHP) do not have specially formulated facilities that are youth friendly, teenagers do not access family planning methods. Coupled with the refusal of males to use condoms, many of these girls have unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

Because young girls do not access reproductive health facilities, the information that they have on contraceptives,sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS is limited.

Young teenage girls are making decisions concerning their sexual and reproductive health with very little information available to them. 18 year old Linda says she suffered pain in her lower abdomen for several weeks before she gathered enough courage to tell her parents that she was not feeling well. "I was in such pain that I could not stand straight and had no choice but to tell my mother." Linda says when the pain first started, she thought nothing of it and took a mild painkiller to ease the pain. After some time, the pain got worse and eventually she needed to see a doctor.

"I was very surprised when the doctor told me that I had a sexual infection. I do not have many boyfriends," she says, adding, "because although my boyfriend is married, I do not think that he has anyone else apart from me. I can not believe that he did this to me." Asked if she had been to any family planning clinic to get information on her sexual health, Linda says she found it difficult because she felt uncomfortable using the facility.

"I did go to a clinic in our area once, but while siting in the waiting room I became so uncomfortable because all the women that were there looked much older than me. Some of them were mothers and had their babies, I felt very out of place," she narrates Linda says if she had information on STIs she would have recognised the symptoms much earlier and used the RHP to address the situation.

"Since I had to be taken to a doctor by my mother, she became aware of the problem and now there is some strain between her and me as a result" . She is also concerned about becoming infected with HIV and is working on going for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) as soon as she can.

Linda is just one of the may teenagers that have become sexually active with very little, or no information at all about their sexual and reproductive health. A large number of young people start having sex at a very young age in Malawi. The majority have no information on family planning and safer sex. Because they are so young, they will change sexual partners several times by the time they settle into marriage. This puts them at high risk of infection to HIV/AIDS.

A recent study indicates that there has been a significant increase in STIs and unwanted pregnancies among young girls between the ages of 10 - 25 in some districts.

The majority of new HIV/AIDS infections are occurring in youth between the ages of 15 - 24 which accounts for 42% of all new infections. HIV infections among this age group are five times higher than those in their male counterparts.

Young people who represent the future wealth of human resources and the window of hope in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi have to realise their potential and be prepared to take up their roles and responsibilities.

But this largely depends on the amount of support and investment they receive from government, NGOs, the general public and their families.

They must, as a matter of urgency be provided with facilities that they can access comfortably for information and counseling on their Reproductive and Sexual Health.

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