Abstract
The pandemic and its consequences have been shown to have a negative impact on the availability and accessibility of the basic services, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs. The aim of this study was to investigate the responses to the essential SRH needs for women during the COVID-19 pandemic. This narrative review was conducted based on the Scale for Assessing Narrative Review Articles (SANRA), in order to present key activities for responding to the important SRH needs of women in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The literature search was performed through English databases of Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect, as well as Persian databases including Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID). In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and the reports of Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were searched. The search was carried out from December 2019 up to 10 January 2021. Essential reproductive healthcare services for women during the COVID-19 pandemic were divided into six categories including access to contraception, safe abortion and post-abortion care, sexual health and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention, cervical cancer screening and prevention, maternity services and also addressing violence against women and girls. These essential needs should be considered as a priority by governments as well as public and private stakeholders. It seems that the implementation of the shifted strategies, active participation of public and private stakeholders, consideration of human rights and ethical issues, ensuring access to vulnerable populations, regular contact with individuals and the increased cooperation of individuals for responding to the SRH needs during the COVID-19 outbreak, are necessary.
Highlights
The current COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the greatest health and socioeconomic crisis of our generation (1, 2)
Potential impacts of COVID-19 on essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services An extra 7 million unwanted pregnancies are projected to occur if the lockdown lasts for 6 months and there are major service delays attributable to COVID-19 (7)
This study provided a broad overview of responding to the essential SRH needs for women during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The current COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the greatest health and socioeconomic crisis of our generation (1, 2). The key sustainable development goals (3.7 and 5.6), in line with the criteria proposed by the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Beijing Platform for Action, have emphasised on ensuring all women’s equal access to SRH needs (4). In this situation, health systems around the world are threatened by the increasing demands for caring people with COVID-19, exacerbated by fear, stigma, misunderstanding and activity restrictions that subsequently disrupt the provision of healthcare services under all conditions. Having access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and right (SRHR) needs, including clean and safe delivery, for complicated pregnancies, treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), safe abortion and performing post-abortion care, availability of contraception and provisions for clinical management of rape, is critical during pandemics (8, 9)
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