The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has expressed concern about the low patronage of female condoms.
The situation is worrying such that, when pharmacy shops stock them, they stay on shelves and expire.

According to the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Gloria Quansah-Asare, the situation has led to many pharmacy shops refusing to re-stock their shelves with the female condom due to lack of patronage.

In an interview with Graphic Online, Dr Quansah-Asare said many pharmacy shops have stopped selling female condoms because when they stocked them, they expire on the shelves.

Better pleasure

She said the female condom gives more and better pleasure during sex than the male condom, and wondered why its patronage keeps going down among Ghanaians.

Dr Quansah-Asare who spoke to Graphic Online after a maiden Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana public lecture and launch of the African Citizen Initiative (ACI) in Accra on Wednesday, November 5 said although female condoms were not yet extinct in Ghana, people are not using them.

The lecture was on the theme: ‘Enhancing sexual, reproductive and health rights (SRHR) through partnership and volunteerism.

According to Dr Asare-Quansah, people see it and make a mockery of it, explaining that “it is a very good family planning method but people don’t like it.”

Dr Gloria Quansah-Asare

She said there was the need to do something about the low uptake of the female condom by encouraging women to use them.

“There is the need to maintain the interest of women in it,” Dr Quansah-Asare said, stressing that because many of the shops have stopped selling them even the few people who use them don’t get some to buy.

She has, therefore, urged the media to promote the use of female condoms, saying such efforts would encourage more females to use the female condoms.

Dr Quansah-Asare commended the work of volunteers in the country for their various contributions towards the promotion of SRHR issues, particularly family planning methods.

She said Ghana has come this far in its SRHR policies and programmes due to the efforts of volunteers, urging volunteers not to grow weary of promoting SRHR programmes in the country.