Reproductive Health of Youth in the World and Serbia / Reproduktivno Zdravlje Mladih U Svetu I Srbiji

Abstract

Summary Reproductive health implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide about it. It is directly conditioned by social, cultural and behavior factors. One in every five people in the world is an adolescent, and 85% of them live in developing countries. In many countries, taboos and norms about sexuality pose strong barriers to providing information, health services and other forms of support needed by young people to safeguard their sexual and reproductive health. The regulation of fertility is the most important factor that affects the reproductive health. Adolescents are not sufficiently aware of the possibility of contraception or sexually transmitted infections. In Serbia, 84% of boys and 65% girls (adolescents) have had sexual experience. Worldwide, 36-70% of adolescents do not use contraception and unwanted pregnancies are the reason for 90% of unwanted births and 89% of unsafe abortions. There are many programs in the world which aim to increase the knowledge about preservation of reproductive health. There are not any national programs in our country for family planning and preservation of reproductive health in youth population. In national strategy for youth are given different ways of youth education in the field of health promotion, including promotion of reproductive health. In order to ensure that adolescents have the ability to achieve good health, we must provide information and education in a timely manner, and we need to provide life skills and choices.