What This Means
This research suggests that young Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh face multiple overlapping barriers when trying to access sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. The study, based on in-depth interviews with 12 young refugees and conversations with 7 health service providers, found that who a person is — whether they are married or single, male or female, and how literate they are — strongly shapes whether and how they can access care. Unmarried young people, particularly females, were largely cut off from contraceptive services and could not seek help privately, while young males tended to underestimate the seriousness of sexually transmitted infections and avoided formal health facilities altogether.
Practical problems with the health system also played a role. Facilities were overcrowded, operating hours were limited (especially at night or in the afternoon when many people needed them), and field hospitals were often too far away. Young people largely turned to friends, siblings, and cousins for reproductive health information rather than trained providers, suggesting that informal networks fill gaps left by the formal health system. Service providers themselves confirmed that men rarely used formal services and that misconceptions about STIs were widespread.
This research suggests that simply making SRH services available is not enough — the services must be designed with an understanding of the social, cultural, and gender dynamics of the community they serve. Tailoring services to account for marital status, gender, age, and community norms could help reduce these gaps, particularly for the most marginalized groups such as unmarried young women with low literacy.