Abstract

Despite having essential health needs regarding sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS), young people (e.g., adolescents) in many countries show low use of such services. The World Health Organization advocates fostering young people’s autonomy to access health services to address this global health problem. However, there are gaps in the literature to understand how young people’s autonomy can be fostered to access SRHS. In 2019–2020, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 young people aged 14–23 years old in Colombia to explore how they might wish to have their autonomy fostered in accessing SRHS. Research in different cultural contexts has shown that young people generally do not wish to discuss sex with their parents. By contrast, most of our participants expressed a strong wish for the ability to talk openly with their parents about their sexual and reproductive health. One of the main complaints of these young people was that their parents lacked the necessary knowledge to help them make informed decisions related to their sexual and reproductive health (e.g., choosing a contraceptive option). As a potential solution, participants were enthusiastic about initiatives that could provide parents with comprehensive sex education to assist young people in making informed choices for their sexual and reproductive health, including how to access SRHS.