The World Health Organization defines reproductive health as complete physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system. In practical terms, this means people can have satisfying and safe sex lives, healthy pregnancies and births, and the ability to decide if, when, and how often to have children. The WHO’s work in this area spans contraception, maternal care, STI prevention, infertility, cervical cancer elimination, and protection from gender-based violence.
What the WHO Framework Covers
The WHO groups its reproductive health work under the broader term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR). This framework treats reproductive health not as a single issue but as an interconnected set of services: access to contraception, fertility and infertility care, maternal and newborn health, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, protection from sexual and gender-based violence, and education on safe relationships. Each of these areas has its own global targets, data collection systems, and recommended interventions.
Family Planning and Contraception
Of the 1.9 billion women of reproductive age (15 to 49) worldwide in 2021, about 1.1 billion needed family planning. The majority, 874 million, were using modern contraceptive methods. But 164 million women still had an unmet need for contraception, meaning they wanted to prevent or delay pregnancy but lacked access to effective methods.
That gap is concentrated in low-income countries and among adolescents. Each year, roughly 21 million girls aged 15 to 19 in low- and middle-income countries become pregnant, and about half of those pregnancies are unintended. Adolescent mothers face higher risks of dangerous blood pressure spikes during pregnancy, postpartum infections, and systemic infections compared to women in their twenties. Their babies are more likely to be born underweight, premature, or in severe condition at birth.
Maternal Health
The WHO’s global target, set as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio to fewer than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. Progress has been uneven. Most maternal deaths are preventable with adequate prenatal care, skilled birth attendance, and emergency obstetric services, but access to these remains limited in many regions.
Digital tools are becoming part of the strategy. The WHO has developed guidance for self-monitoring of blood pressure during pregnancy using mobile devices, along with digital systems for postnatal care and birth notification. These tools are designed to extend monitoring into communities where clinic visits are infrequent, giving pregnant women and health workers early warning signs of complications like preeclampsia.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Four curable STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis) account for more than 1 million new infections per day among adults aged 15 to 49. The total in 2020 was 374 million new cases. Syphilis alone saw 8 million new infections in 2022, a figure that has been rising and carries serious consequences during pregnancy, including stillbirth, newborn death, and congenital infection.
The WHO’s approach focuses on screening, affordable treatment, and integrating STI services into routine reproductive health care rather than treating them as standalone programs. Untreated STIs contribute to infertility, pregnancy complications, and increased vulnerability to HIV.
Infertility
About 1 in 6 adults worldwide, or 17.5% of the adult population, experience infertility at some point. A 2023 WHO report found that the prevalence is similar across income levels: 17.8% in high-income countries and 16.5% in low- and middle-income countries. The difference is access to care. Fertility treatments like assisted reproduction remain expensive and largely unavailable in lower-income settings, making infertility a significant equity issue within reproductive health.
Cervical Cancer Elimination
Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that could be virtually eliminated with existing tools: vaccination, screening, and treatment. The WHO has set a global strategy built around three targets for 2030. The first is vaccinating 90% of girls with the HPV vaccine by age 15. The second is screening 70% of women with a high-performance test by age 35, and again by age 45. The third is ensuring 90% of women identified with precancerous changes or cervical cancer receive treatment.
Reaching all three targets would put countries on a path to reducing cervical cancer incidence to 4 or fewer cases per 100,000 women annually, the threshold the WHO defines as elimination. Every member country has committed to this goal, though vaccination coverage and screening rates remain far below target in many parts of the world.
Safe Abortion Care
The WHO’s 2022 guidelines on abortion care emphasize expanding access through primary care settings rather than restricting services to hospitals. Key recommendations include training a wider range of health workers to provide abortion services, ensuring access to medication abortion pills, and using telemedicine where appropriate. The telemedicine recommendation was partly informed by how remote consultations expanded access to reproductive services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Female Genital Mutilation
More than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), based on data from 31 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. An additional 4 million girls are estimated to be at risk each year. The WHO classifies FGM as a violation of human rights with no health benefits.
The immediate health consequences include severe pain, heavy bleeding, infections, urinary problems, and tissue swelling. Long-term effects are wide-ranging: chronic urinary tract infections, painful menstruation, pain during intercourse, increased risk of complications during childbirth, and psychological effects including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Women who have undergone the most extensive form of FGM often require additional surgery later in life to allow for intercourse and delivery.
How These Programs Connect
The WHO treats these issues as parts of a single system rather than isolated problems. Unmet need for contraception drives unintended pregnancies, which increases maternal mortality. Untreated STIs cause infertility. Lack of HPV vaccination leads to preventable cancer deaths. Gender-based violence, including FGM, creates lifelong reproductive health consequences. The practical effect of this integrated approach is that WHO guidelines increasingly recommend bundling services: offering STI screening during prenatal visits, providing contraception counseling after delivery, and combining HPV vaccination with adolescent health education.