Compreendendo as crenças das mulheres que fazem sexo com mulheres em relação à prevenção de infecções sexualmente transmissíveis: aplicação da Teoria da Ação Planejada

Abstract

Risk factors and specific demands in the field of sexual health of women who have sexwith women are hidden, suppressed by widespread demands from a perspective aimed atmale homosexuals and bisexuals, a circumstance that practically causes the inexistenceof health services. education and prevention of STIs suitable for this population. Indetriment to the above mentioned panorama, it is notorious that researching aspectsrelated to the sexual health of MSM is a necessary challenge. This work aimed to identifyand understand the beliefs related to the prevention of STIs, which permeate the sex life ofMSM., based on the Planned Action Theory. The dissertation is composed of twochapters, corresponding to two articles. In the first article, a systematic review was carriedout, for which studies in Portuguese, English and/or Spanish were searched through theVirtual Health Library portal, which pointed out the evidence on sexually transmittedinfections in sex among women. 887 studies were retrieved in MEDLINE; 29, in theLILACS database; 08 and 01, respectively, in specialized databases such as BDENF andINDEX Psi, 64 studies were included in the review, which shows the limited interest in thearea. In the second article, a semi-structured, digital questionnaire was applied, whichallowed to characterize the researched population, to know different aspects of the sexual health of MSM from their perspective and to carry out a survey of Behavioral, Normativeand Control Beliefs. The sample consisted of 381 women, between 18 and 74 years old,the identification of the study participants, as well as their recruitment occurred through theSnowball methodological technique. The results show that the beliefs of MSM about theprevention of STIs in their sexual practices reveal the absence of adequate preventionmethods, adapted to the sexual practices of these women, as the main reason fornon-adherence to the preventive behavior of STIs. In addition, the unpreparedness ofhealth professionals in the care of this specific population, the absence of strategies tofight STIs structured based on the demands of MSM, the difficult access to forms of sexeducation among MSM, are factors related to low adherence of this population tomeasures to prevent STIs in their sexual practices. The study also points to theimportance of social circles, be it the partner, friends or the media, that disseminate anddialogue about the importance of preventive methods for STIs. The results of thisdissertation are unprecedented in the Brazilian literature and can contribute to thecontextualization of more effective public policies in attention to the sexual health ofwomen who have sex with women.