The utilisation of sexual and reproductive healthcare services by male adolescents in South Africa

Abstract

This paper report on a study that was conducted in a selected area in South Africa to investigate male adolescents’ utilisation of Sexual and Reproduction Healthcare services. A contextual, explorative and descriptive qualitative design was utilised to conduct the investigation. Twenty male adolescents aged 18-24 years selected by means of purposive (sampling special or unique cases sampling techniques) and snowballing sampling techniques were interviewed by means of semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using Tesch’s approach of qualitative data analysis. The lack of awareness of the services was the most significant hindrance to the utilisation of sexual and reproductive healthcare services by male adolescents. This was linked to differentiated knowledge about the services, poor services in public hospital and clinics, nurses’ attitudes and lack of services designed for males. The study therefore recommends the development of strategies to deal with the emerged themes (lack of awareness of the services, differentiated knowledge about the services, poor services in public hospitals and clinics, nurses’ attitudes and lack of services designed for males) in order to enhance, increase and improve utilisation of these services by male adolescents for the betterment of their sexual and reproductive health as well as their health in general. (Afr J Reprod Health 2021; 25[5]: 84-92).