Sexual health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. It intersects with many of the challenges and opportunities addressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, while also connecting to efforts to reduce inequalities and improve access to healthcare worldwide. 4th September marks World Sexual Health Day, an annual awareness campaign led by the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).
This Year's Theme: Every Body
As part of this year's World Sexual Health Day celebrations, we're highlighting research and resources that contribute to a more informed and inclusive understanding of health and well-being.
Featured Springer Nature Research
From fundamental research to applied studies, these articles showcase the latest evidence and perspectives related to sexual health and well-being.
Research Article Highlights
- The impacts of introducing online postal self-sampling for sexually transmitted infections on the sustainability and equity of sexual health systems: lessons learned from a multi-method UK-wide realist evaluation in BMC Medicine.
- ‘Oh, they can prevent It?‘: a structural agency framework for understanding HIV prevention among black women in community supervision programs in Health & Justice.
- Sexual and reproductive health of in-transit migrant women en route to the United States: a mixed-methods study in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico in BMC Global and Public Health.
- Current and future pharmacotherapy for female sexual dysfunction in Nature Reviews Urology.
- From Digital Health Literacy to a Digital and Data Capabilities Approach to Sexual Health in Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
- Including the excluded: an evaluation of a sexual health promotion capacity building intervention among specialist homelessness services in New South Wales in International Journal for Equity in Health.
Featured Collections
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Sex Hormones and Hormone Therapy Across Life Course in Communications Medicine
- Check out the accompanying call for papers blog
- Sexually Transmitted Infections in a Changing Global Landscape: Epidemiology, Systems, and Emerging Challenges in Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health.
- Old Threats Anew: Impact of International Disruption on Infectious Disease and Sexual Health in Africa and the Global South in Harm Reduction Journal.
- Challenges in sexuality education and care in BMC Public Health.
- Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Agency, and Protection in Reproductive Health.
Books Spotlight
For readers looking to explore the topic in greater depth, these recent and notable books offer valuable insights from researchers and practitioners.
This book provides a unique, interdisciplinary and rights-based perspective on sexual and reproductive health, sexualised violence and gender-based violence (GBV) among refugees, displaced persons and other migrants.
Learn more → https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-20707-4
The book examines the history of abortion and contraception in Modern Greece from the time of its creation in the 1830s to 1967, soon after the Pill became available.
Learn more → https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-41490-0
Community Perspective
Prof Ismaël Maatouk's Every Body, But Not Every System: Where Sexual Health Infrastructure Is Failing explores the gap between the inclusive vision of the "Every Body" theme and the reality of sexual health systems worldwide. It argues that underfunding, fragmented services, limited access to diagnostics, and persistent stigma continue to prevent many people from receiving adequate care, and calls for greater investment, integration, and political commitment to improve sexual health outcomes and achieve SDG 3 targets.
Continuing the Conversation
World Sexual Health Day reminds us that health and well-being are shaped by a combination of scientific evidence, healthcare access, education, policy, and lived experience. By supporting inclusive research and evidence-based dialogue, we can help advance understanding and contribute to healthier outcomes for communities around the world.
Explore the resources featured above and join the conversation using #WorldSexualHealthDay and#WSHD2026 on social media.