Addressing Adolescent Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs

in Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities

Fátima Juárez, José Luis Palma, Susheela Singh y Akinrinola Bankole

Introduction

• For decades, reproductive health has been of high priority to policymakers in Mexico (1970,1980, 1990)

• More recently, decision makers started to be concerned with the reproductive health of young people (1990)

• Adolescent pregnancy and motherhood (within or outside marriage) have disadvantages to young women in terms of their reproductive health and the future wellbeing of their families.

Objetives

a) To analyze trends of reproductive health of young Mexican women

b) To examine the social and health policies and services directed to improve RH of young people

c) To identify the gap between policies and services and the changes in the reproductive health conditions of young people.

Project goal

To stimulate responsive programs, policies and resource allocation to improve reproductive health of young people, in particular, the prevention of unplanned pregnancies, through documenting the current situation of young people.

Methodology and data

Methodology and data

• Data: ENADID 1997 & ENADID 2006

• Pop. of study: women 15-19 years.

• Estimates provided for: National, urban/rural, region by degree of development*, and state

* Index includes: Education, poverty, health insurance, and household amenities

Results

Context of young peoples’ lives

• Mexico continues to have a large youth population -- currently estimated at 27 million young people 15-24 yrs (25% of the total)

• The services of FP are free nationally but are NOT designed for young people

• There have been gains in schooling among young people

• But, great inequalities persist in wealth distribution -- almost half (45%) of workers live in poverty (i.e. earn 2 or less the minimum salary )

Marriage and fertility in the last decade

• Marriage is low among adolescent women (15-19 yrs.)

• The adolescent fertility rate has continued to decline (24% over 1997-2006)

• Women are having their first birth at a younger age now than earlier

• Having children before age 18 still is common

• Sexual activity before marriage is increasing in almost all parts of the country

Before their 18th birthday, closely linked to marriage, almost one in five young Mexican

women have given birth

0102030405060708090

100

Before age15

Before age16

Before age17

Beforeage18

Before age19

Before age20

Had sex

Had married

Had given birth

% of women 20–24 who had experienced each event before given age

The gap between age at first sexual relationship and first marriage is large

3

5.8

3.5

2.72.4

2.9

1.9

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Mexico Reg 1 Reg 2 Reg 3 Reg 4 Reg 5 Reg 6

ENADID 2006

Interval in yrs. between 1st Sexual Relationship and 1st Marriage

Contraception

Relevant questions about the use of contraceptives

1) How adequate is young people's knowledge about contraception?

2) Are they using contraception?

3) Does their use vary by socio-economic level of the region?

4) Where do they obtain services and methods?

About half of married young women were not using a method in 2006

6 8 94 8 6

126

123

7 49

5

6062

5255 49

4540

44

46

4830 37

4648

34 3039 41 43

49 48 5142

49

63 59

44 47

1997 2006 1997 2006 1997 2006 1997 2006 1997 2006 1997 2006 1997 2006

Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6 Total

% o

f m

arri

ed w

om

en

15–

24

yrs

by

con

trac

ep

tive

use

Traditional Modern No use

Between 1997 and 2006, unmet need for contraceptives among married women 15-24

increased substantially

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Mexico Urb. Rur. Reg 1 Reg 2 Reg 3 Reg 4 Reg 5 Reg 6

1997

2006

% of married women 15–24 with unmet need

The role of the public sector as provider of modern contraceptive methods has

dropped

Where the method was

obtained

% of 15–24 year-old users of modern methods

1997 2006% Change

1997-2006

Public sector 70.5 59.9 -18.1

Private medical sector

6.4 8.8 32.7

Pharmacy or Store 22.2 30.5 32.6

Conclusions and Recommendations (1)

The most acute problems identified among young people are:

• High level of unprotected sex • High and rising unmet need for contraception • Reduction of the public sector as provider of

services and contraceptive methods

But the most dramatic finding is the large difference observed between the more developed and less developed areas of the country in terms of level of poverty, schooling, general conditions of life and sexual, marital and reproductive behavior.

Conclusions and Recommendations (2)

Key obstacles identified:

• Services of FP are free of charge in the country but are not designed for young people; lack of youth friendly services and inadequate sex education.

• The lack of communications through mass media. (banned)

• Since decentralization, lack of compulsory budget line by local governments to warranty FP services and free contraceptives.

Conclusions and Recommendations (3)

Cont. Key obstacles identified:

• The lack of institutional consolidations of policies in this field. Changes of administration and personnel have resulted in cancelation of activities and instability of certain programs.

• And the worse consequence is the lack of a complete geographical coverage of adolescent programs of

sexual and reproductive health. (NGOs)

Thanks

This research was developed with the support of MacArthur

Foundation

For more information, visit www.guttmacher.org