ArticleBMC women's health2022
How gender norms and 'good girl' notions prevent adolescent girls and young women from engaging with PrEP: qualitative insights from Zimbabwe.
Article in BMC women's health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review of the effectiveness of participatory, health system-based interventions to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls and young women in Sub-Saharan Africa.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2025Pooled it
- The experience of healthcare workers to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Exploring Adolescent Girls' and Young Women's Perceptions of HIV Prevention Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Use: A Qualitative Synthesis of Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.AIDS and behavior · 2026Review
- Barriers to and Facilitators of Heterosexual Men's Engagement with the PrEP Care Continuum in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Appraising the HIV prevention cascade methodology to improve HIV prevention targets: Lessons learned from a general population pilot study in east Zimbabwe.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Imbalances in authorship, geographic and institutional contexts, and funding sources in research on gender approaches to sexual and reproductive health in Africa: a scoping review.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2025Article
- PrEP Uptake and Utilisation Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review.AIDS and behavior · 2025Article
- Contraception and PrEP knowledge, attitudes, and practices among adolescent girls and young women in Nampula, Mozambique.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Perceptions of pre-exposure prophylaxis among sexually active adolescent girls and young women in Zimbabwe-A qualitative study.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Intersectional HIV stigma in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean: Insights and pathways forward - A scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Barriers to PrEP use and adherence among adolescent girls and young women in Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa: a scoping review.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- The development of a conceptual framework on PrEP stigma among adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2024Review
- Brief Report: HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Awareness and Use Among Adolescents in Kenya.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2024Article
- Creating allies: qualitative exploration of young women's preferences for PrEP methods and parents' role in PrEP uptake and user support in urban and rural Zambia.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- Gender Norms and Structural Barriers to Use of HIV Prevention in Unmarried and Married Young Women in Manicaland, Zimbabwe: An HIV Prevention Cascade Analysis.Gates open research · 2024Article
- Factors that influence adolescent girls and young women's re-initiation or complete discontinuation from daily oral PrEP use: a qualitative study from Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2023Article
- Improving access to pre-exposure prophylaxis for adolescent girls and young women: recommendations from healthcare providers in eastern Zimbabwe.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- HIV preexposure prophylaxis and postexposure prophylaxis in women: a comprehensive guide for healthcare providers.Therapeutic advances in infectious diseaseReview
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has been hailed for its promise to provide women with user-control. However, gender-specific challenges undermining PrEP use are beginning to emerge. We explore the role of gender norms in shaping adolescent girls and young women's (AGYW) engagement with PrEP.
methodsWe draw on qualitative data from 12 individual interviews and three focus group discussions with AGYW from eastern Zimbabwe. Interviews were transcribed and thematically coded in NVivo 12. Emerging themes were further investigated using Connell's notion of 'emphasised femininity'.
resultsParticipants alluded to the patriarchal society they are part of, with 'good girl' notions subjecting them to direct and indirect social control. These controls manifest themselves through the anticipation of intersecting sexuality- and PrEP-related stigmas, discouraging AGYW from engaging with PrEP. AGYW recounted the need for permission to engage with PrEP, forcing them to consider engaging with PrEP in secrecy. In addition, limited privacy at home, and fear of disclosure of their health clinic visits, further heightened their fear of engaging with PrEP. PrEP is not simply a user-controlled HIV prevention method, but deeply entrenched within public gender orders.
conclusionAGYW face significant limitations in their autonomy to initiate and engage with PrEP. Those considering PrEP face the dilemma of Scylla and Charybdis: The social risks of stigmatisation or risks of HIV acquisition. Efforts to make PrEP available must form part of a combination of social and structural interventions that challenge harmful gender norms.
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