The concept of reproductive health is not limited to women of childbearing age. It recognizes that women, beyond the childbearing period still have important health needs related to their reproductive system.
The number of women over 50 years of age was 2.6 million in 2012.This is expected to rise to 4.4 million by 2036, an increase of 69%. At the same time, women live longer and outnumber men by 51.6% (650,000). This is mainly due to the free reproductive health care package provided to women during their reproductive years.This means that Sri Lankan women will live 30 years beyond their fertile age, for which appropriate reproductive health care is required. To ensure the wellbeing of women beyond 49 years, interventions should begin as women reach 35 years of age.
Women face a number of life threatening diseases beyond their reproductive years as shown by the table below. The magnitude of this increases as the population of women over 50 year age increases. This will have not only have an impact on the quality of life of women but the society and the economy as a whole.
What
needs to be done?
A concept was introduced in 1996 to provide services for cancers in reproductive organs (reproductive organ malignancies) as a part of the reproductive health concept promoted by the International Conference on Population and Development. This has been operationalised in Sri Lanka through the Well Women’s Clinics programme to detect breast and cervical cancers of women reaching 35 years of age. With more women in the population and with them living longer the following interventions are needed to ensure their wellbeing:
- Recognising the health needs of women
beyond 49 years age as an emerging public
health issue
- Providing a reproductive health package to
address the unique needs of women beyond
49 years
- Expanding the coverage of Well Women’s
Clinics so that every woman beyond 35 years receive regular screening for the detection of reproductive organ malignancies
