Resumen

LOPEZ HERNANDEZ, Perla; BRAVO POLANCO, Eneida; BENITEZ CABRERA, Carmen  y  CEPERO AGUILA, Lisbet. Characterization of sexual and reproductive behaviour in female high school students. MediSur [online]. 2010, vol.8, n.5, pp. 26-31. ISSN 1727-897X.

Introduction: The need of love plays an important role in the lives of adolescents. The success they integrate their sexuality with, depends on a complex set of factors. Objective: To characterize sexual and reproductive behaviour of female high school students. Methods: A descriptive study of a sample comprising 180 female students from the 9th grade in the urban area of Cumanayagua, from September 2007 to June 2008. Variables that were analyzed: whether they kept relationships involving sex at the time of the study, age at onset of the relationships and primary motivations for its initiation, contraceptives use and most commonly used contraceptives and reproductive and obstetric history (abortions, menstrual regulation and delivery .) Results: 56.1% kept relationships involving sex at the time of the study. The average age of onset of these relationships was between 13 (37.6%) and 14 (43.6%) years old. The main motivation was physical attraction in all age groups with 29.7%. A considerable group experienced unprotected sexual intercourse (57.4%), representing more than half of the total and only 42.6% protect themselves, mainly using condoms. Menstrual regulations were performed in 55.5% of the students as well as pregnancy interruptions through the uterine cavity curettage method in 22.2% of them. 5.6% had had an abortion. Conclusions: The studied adolescents are developing inappropriate sexual conducts.

Palabras clave : Sexual behavior; reproductive behavior; adolescent; adolescent behavior; female.

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