Educating on Sexuality to Promote Health: Applied Experiences Mainstreaming the Gender and Human Rights Approach

• Main Authors: Ana L. Martínez-Abarca, Ana M. Martínez-Pérez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: comprehensive sexuality education; salutogenic approach; health promotion skills; mainstreaming (gender and human rights)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2249

In the articulation between research and health intervention, we see the need to situate comprehensive sexuality education in the triangle formed by the salutogenic approach, the mainstreaming of gender and human rights, and the development of competencies in health promotion. For this purpose, we present a set of investigations carried out in Ecuador and Spain through a qualitative methodology with the respective health interventions that seek to obtain significant results of the teaching–learning process on sexuality. The field work contemplates situations of violence as a health problem, orienting the intervention in health empowerment toward pleasure. The health education experiences implemented allow us to conclude that comprehensive sexuality education reinforces the competencies of health personnel to attend to diversity. These findings, and the results expected in ongoing research, allow us to form a competency framework aimed at specifically improving medical education so that medical professionals can generate health processes with a cross-cutting approach to gender and human rights.