Background: This paper highlights the role of cultural and structural gaps that shape illness experiences of women with manifestations of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) and their impacts upon mental well-being.
Methods: Using ethnography, case study narrative accounts of women manifesting symptoms of FGS, as well as interviews with health workers within FGS-endemic rural fishing communities in Cameroon, we present experiences of women affected by FGS, alongside information on FGS health service provision.
Results Our results show how gendered power dynamics in decision making, gendered experiences around menstrual health and structural gaps in service provision, combine and lead to poor mental well-being. Subfertility brings a heavy psychosocial toll from external blame and rejection, exacerbated by internalised stigma and the challenge of not being able to fulfil cultural and gendered social norms.
Conclusions: Gender analysis is key to developing context-embedded understanding and addressing FGS-related challenges. With context-specific experiences demonstrating FGS comorbidity with mental ill health, there is a need to prioritise mental health integration at policy level through a person-centred approach. Furthermore, to address stigma and discrimination, campaigns to raise awareness in Cameroon, and beyond, are needed.
BT - International Health DO - 10.1093/inthealth/ihae004 IS - Supplement_1 LA - Eng N2 -Background: This paper highlights the role of cultural and structural gaps that shape illness experiences of women with manifestations of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) and their impacts upon mental well-being.
Methods: Using ethnography, case study narrative accounts of women manifesting symptoms of FGS, as well as interviews with health workers within FGS-endemic rural fishing communities in Cameroon, we present experiences of women affected by FGS, alongside information on FGS health service provision.
Results Our results show how gendered power dynamics in decision making, gendered experiences around menstrual health and structural gaps in service provision, combine and lead to poor mental well-being. Subfertility brings a heavy psychosocial toll from external blame and rejection, exacerbated by internalised stigma and the challenge of not being able to fulfil cultural and gendered social norms.
Conclusions: Gender analysis is key to developing context-embedded understanding and addressing FGS-related challenges. With context-specific experiences demonstrating FGS comorbidity with mental ill health, there is a need to prioritise mental health integration at policy level through a person-centred approach. Furthermore, to address stigma and discrimination, campaigns to raise awareness in Cameroon, and beyond, are needed.
PB - Oxford University Press (OUP) PY - 2024 SP - i42 EP - i51 T2 - International Health TI - Illness experiences and mental health challenges associated with female genital schistosomiasis in Cameroon: a gender analysis UR - https://academic.oup.com/inthealth/article/16/Supplement_1/i42/7636807 VL - 16 SN - 1876-3413, 1876-3405 ER -