Abstract

Background: Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a major public health problem not only in India but all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 150–300 million new cases of curable STDs occur annually worldwide.
Objective: To find the socio-demography of high school girls and to study their attitude, knowledge, and practice toward menstruation, reproduction, contraception, and STDs.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Vadodara during January 2010 to December 2010. The study included girls high school of standard 8th to 12th of Vadodara city. There were 11 girls high school in Vadodara city with sample size as 1122. From each of the school 110 girls, that is, 22 girls from each of 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th were selected by simple random technique. Result: Almost 41% participants said menstruation cleans the dirty blood of the body. Almost 8.3% participants did not know about organs of reproduction of female and 18.3% did not know about physical changes during puberty. Only 55% participants have heard about STD and only 69% have awareness regarding AIDS. Almost 66% participants did not know regarding features of STD and 19% did not know about mode of transmission of STD/AIDS. Conclusion: Reproductive health is an important area of concern in adolescent health and is intimately connected with the issues such as RCH, population control, and HIV/AIDS prevention. It is also a sensitive area due to socio-cultural taboo of discussion about sexuality and reproduction in the Indian society.