Abstract
Objective: Female sex workers (FSWs) under 20 years of age range from 1,000 to 575,000 in different cities and countries across the globe. There is only a handful of information on the reproductive health (RH) issues of these younger FSWs in the perspective of service utilization and healthcare system. We reviewed existing literature with a view to describe the reproductive health problems, service utilization, and service availability as well as information sources among the FSWs ages <20 years.
 Materials and methods: A web-based search using Google, Google Scholar, MEDLINE/ PubMed/ PubMed Central, HINARI and JSTOR was performed in English Language. The prevalence of a health issue and percentage of service utilization had been shown using ranges of minimum and maximum value which were calculated by different studies.
 Results: Findings identified the following RH problems: unintended pregnancies (52% - 95%), induced abortion (51% - 53%), repeated or multiple abortions (13% - 43%), childbirth experiences, sexually transmitted infections (74%-84%), HIV (1% - 60.6%), violence (beaten, robbed, not paid, forced or coerced sex, rape) and mental disorders (depression, suicidal thoughts). The consistent use of condom (26%-55%) was not satisfactory. Overall 64% of under 20 years FSWs reported little or no access to healthcare in the previous year and access to RH information sources was also poor.
 Conclusion: This review has potentially meant to bring forward the RH issues of younger FSWs to the policy makers and programme planners to implement targeted reproductive health interventions for the FSWs ages <20 years.
 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.19(1) 2020 p.17-31
Highlights
Female sex workers (FSW) who get involved with sex trade in very early ages like below 20 years of old either for sex trafficking or different reasons, face higher health risks than older FSWs or general adolescents
To be aligned with the objectives of this review, the following four broader themes were used to present the findings of the analysis: A) Reproductive health problems of under 20 year old FSWs;(B) Healthcare seeking pattern of under 20 year old FSWs;(c) Available health services or intervention with perceptions of benefits or barriers; d) Reproductive health-related information and knowledge of under 20 year old FSWs
There may be study reports, knowledge briefs, and abstracts from conference proceedings or other literature available on reproductive health (RH) of under- 20 years FSWs which we did not consider in this review as we considered only full research articles
Summary
Female sex workers (FSW) who get involved with sex trade in very early ages like below 20 years of old either for sex trafficking or different reasons, face higher health risks than older FSWs or general adolescents. These health risks are low condom and other contraceptives use, unintended pregnancies or childbirth, abortion, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) etc. The abstract and result section of each selected articles were read carefully and key reproductive health issues and availability of health services were identified These issues were shared with senior authors until a consensus was reached on what to include in the final interpretation and analysis. The prevalence of a health issue and percentage of service utilization had been shown using ranges of minimum and maximum value which were calculated by different studies
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