Views
The national survey ‘what do women say? Reproductive health is a public health issue’ provides a great deal of useful insight.
Survey participants identified that their greatest reproductive concerns were to not get pregnant (particularly younger women), to have an enjoyable sex life, to manage reproductive health symptoms and to attend screenings for early identification of adverse reproductive conditions. Different issues took on relatively greater or lesser importance different stages of life.
There were a range of factors operating that influenced women’s reproductive choices and ability to enact them. These included medical factors, career goals, culture, service availability and the perception of external pressures and assumptions. Much of reproductive life was felt to be spent avoiding pregnancy.
There is a juxtaposition between the need to plan and/or prevent pregnancy across the lifecycle against the day-to-day realities of managing symptoms associated with reproductive functions such as periods, the menopause and the impacts of childbirth.