ArticleBMC women's health2026
Protection from "any kind of risk" - a qualitative study exploring young women's experiences of safer sex in Canada.
Article in BMC women's health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe safe sex discourse primarily focuses on reducing biological risks associated with sexual activities. As a public health concept, risk often neglects structural factors, like gender and access to appropriate care and support, while reinforcing individual blame. Adopting a narrow understanding of safe sex can limit the effectiveness of efforts to promote safer sexual behaviors. While literature on the more nuanced concept of safer sex offers valuable insights, how young women experience safer sex is not well understood. To address this gap, this study was undertaken to explore young women's experiences, priorities, and needs related to their sexual health.
methodsA feminist participatory methodology guided this 2-phase qualitative study. In Phase 1 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore participants' needs, priorities, and experiences related to their sexual health (n = 16). Phase 2 allowed for collaboration between young women as they discussed the structural contexts of their lives that influenced their meanings and experiences related to sexual health drawing on arts-based methods from photovoice (n = 5).
resultsA purposive sample of 16 young women was recruited for this study. Eligible participants were aged 16 to 21 years, identified as women, could participate in an English interview and were living in Canada. Participants were invited to engage in the research process in ways that emphasized their co-creation of knowledge, including by contributing to the interpretation and refinement of findings. Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was used to guide analysis. In RTA, diverse sources of knowledge (theory and literature; participants' stories; the researcher's lived and professional experiences) are valuable in knowledge production. Findings emphasize the importance of safety, boundaries, and pleasure, while recognizing factors that contribute to unsafe sex.
conclusionThe findings from this study call for moving beyond public health's risk-focused, individualistic discourse, which often ignores systemic barriers and pleasure, and reinforces self-blame. These findings call for a redefinition of safer sex to include emotional and mental safety, not just physical protection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.