Contraception can be used to plan when people have children and how many children they have. 

This includes choosing:

• when they want to begin having children
• how far apart they want their children to be
• when they want to stop having children

This is everybody’s right under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Young people are especially at risk of problems in pregnancy. Contraception allows them to put off having children until their bodies are fully able to support a pregnancy.

Contraceptive use reduces the need for abortion by preventing unwanted pregnancies. It therefore reduces cases of unsafe abortion, one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide.

Early pregnancy can also cause health problems for the baby. Babies born to teenagers are likely to be underweight before and at birth and are at higher risk of neonatal mortality (death of a newborn within 28 days of birth).

Pregnancies that are too close together or poorly timed contribute to high infant mortality rates – that is, the rate of babies that die within their first year of life.

Contraceptive use lets people plan their pregnancies so they can make sure the baby is getting the best care before and after birth.

Contraceptive use slows population growth. This is important because overpopulation puts pressure on the environment, the economy and services such as education and health.

Age-related physiological changes do not render a meaningful sexual relationship impossible or even necessarily difficult. In men, greater physical stimulation is required to attain and maintain erections, and orgasms are less intense. In women, menopause terminates fertility and produces changes due to estrogen deficiency. The extent to which aging affects sexual function depends largely on psychological, pharmacological, and illness-related factors.

In women, vaginal walls become thinner, dryer, less elastic, and possibly irritated. Sometimes sex becomes painful due to these vaginal changes. The risk for vaginal yeast infections increases. The external genital tissue decreases and can become irritated.

Unlike women, men do not experience a major, rapid (over several months) change in fertility as they age (like menopause). Aging changes in the male reproductive system occur primarily in the testes.

In middle and old age, the reproductive systems undergo significant changes: a gradual decline in fertility and fluctuations in the production of sex hormones, the latter triggering anatomical and physiological changes in distant organs and tissues.

Psychological disorders are commonly associated with gynecological conditions, but are frequently undetected and untreated, and may influence the presentation and treatment outcomes of the physical condition. Some of the gynecologic conditions such as menopause, premenstrual syndrome, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, chronic pelvic pain, polycystic ovarian syndrome etc can be associated with an increased risk of psychological symptoms and disorders.

Anxiety and depression are common psychiatric conditions and are associated with significant morbidity. Gynecological conditions, by their nature, are likely to be accompanied by impairments in social, occupational and personal functioning. Greater emphasis should be placed on the mental health aspects of gynecological conditions.

Women present to gynecological clinics with a wide variety of physical conditions, ranging from bothersome premenstrual and menopausal symptoms, to incontinence and pelvic pain. It is well established that depression and anxiety occur more commonly in those with physical illness compared with healthy populations. 

Moreover, many gynecological conditions, by their nature, affect personal and intimate relationships, as well as social and professional roles, thus giving rise to a range of psychological issues, which, may in turn influence the presentation and outcomes of coexisting physical conditions. These relationships are complex, and involve the interplay of hormonal, social, cultural and individual psychological factors.

The gynecological setting provides an important opportunity for the detection and treatment of psychological issues. These can range from transient concerns to more serious symptoms of depression and anxiety, and depressive and anxiety disorders that meet specific diagnostic criteria. Yet, the psychological aspects of conditions presenting in the gynecological setting are somewhat neglected, resulting in relatively few studies that have examined the consequent mental health care needs of women attending gynecological clinics.

Harmful cultural practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), are discriminatory practices committed regularly over long periods of time that communities and societies begin to consider them acceptable.

Around the world, hundreds of millions of girls and boys have experienced some form of violence, exploitation or harmful practice, although girls are at much greater risk. Child marriage and FGM span continents and cultures, yet, in every society in which they are practiced, they reflect values that hold girls in low esteem.

FGM can lead to serious health complications – including prolonged bleeding, infection and infertility – or even death. Girls and women who have undergone FGM are at heightened risk of experiencing complications during childbirth.

In some societies, FGM goes hand in hand with child marriage. Girls married as children are more likely to drop out of school and become pregnant as teenagers when they face increased risks of dying during pregnancy or childbirth.