Background: Adolescent are increasingly vulnerable to negative reproductive health outcomes; such as HIV/AIDS, STDs, violent and unwanted sex, limited access to contraceptives, and early or forced marriage. Little is known about youth educational needs about reproductive health in Egypt.
Objectives: assess needs for reproductive health information among secondary student.
Methods: cross sectional study was conducted from the start of October, 2019 till the end of November, 2019. It encompassed 942 secondary school students in Gharbia Governorate using a predesigned questionnaire
Results: The suitable age of marriage was reported by 67.9% to be 20-30years. The majority of students were aware that tobacco smoking and addiction adversely affect reproductive health (74.5% and 84.1%, respectively. Only 18.3% had information about risks associated with early marriage. Shyness to as about issues related to reproductive health was reported by 33.5% and only 15.2% always communicate with parents about reproductive health. The main source of information was the internet (51.9%). Among participants, 12% reported exposure to sexual harassment and 25.6% reported having a friend or relative suffering from sexual harassment. The high perception of need for information as reported by students was for the following topics: masturbation and its hazards (68.3%), issues related to male and female circumcision (64.7%), sexually transmitted infections and AIDS (60.4%), hazards of extramarital relations (56.9%) and safe motherhood (54.2%).
Conclusion: secondary school students are in need of information about reproductive health. There is a need to implement appropriate programs to improve the reproductive health of school students.