From birth control to self-awareness and free decision making. A model for the evaluation of comprehensive sexuality education from the perspective of women’s health and free informed choice

The importance of appropriate and health-related information in the school curriculum is emphasised in many international conventions and documents. Knowledge of how the fertility system works for both women and men, and an understanding of the different needs of women and men in the expression of sexuality, can be treated as health literacy. Health literacy is an important determinant of health, and poor health literacy among adolescents is correlated with high-risk health behaviours and adverse health outcomes into adulthood. It has been noticed that teenagers, who are introduced to the physiological processes of their body and learn to recognise their fertility in sexuality education programmes, value their and others of the same age group’s sexuality and the ability to express emotions. In addition, young people are beginning to perceive fertility as a natural feature of their development, better understanding fertility and the beginning of life, and seeing them as important gifts to be understood, valued, and passed on. Sexuality education is known to be an interdisciplinary subject as it covers different disciplines (biomedicine, social sciences, and humanities). Sexuality education documents make ambiguous references to the right to adequate health-related information, but this is the type of information that is most lacking in sexuality education. This monograph will seek to answer the question of what information is needed about a woman’s health, which determines her free choice, and will aim to assess the content of comprehensive sexuality education from the perspective of women’s health and free informed decision making.