An integrated SRH service could improve women's access to health services in under resourced settings; but what about men?

Objective: To assess and monitor the integration of family planning, TB, STIs, cervical cancer and gender-based violence services in HIV counseling and testing (HCT) within male-focused mobile HCT services in Thabo Mofutsanyane District, South Africa.

Background: Under the RESPOND Project, Men as Partners® program provides mobile HCT services. In 2009, 10194 men and 7876 women received counseling and testing. RESPOND recognized the missed opportunity to provide integrated reproductive health for future HCT clients.

Methods: in (year) District health promoters mobilized men and women at community level to create demand for HCT. The van added a comprehensive Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) that included a wider array of services. Fourteen HCT drives were conducted.

Results: In 3 months, 1309 individuals (70% women) received HCT, 839 symptom-screened for TB. 634 individuals (60% women) were screened for sexual and gender-based violence, 603 (64 % women) assessed for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and 39 referred for STI treatment. 84 women received a family planning method and 15 were referred for cervical cancer screening. Packs of 972 male and 192 female condoms were distributed.

Conclusions: Although designed to attract male clients, the integrated services attracted more women. In previous RESPOND drives, men have generally represented 57 % of clients. This could have resulted from the setting and the times of the drives. Implications: Integrated health mobile comprehensive SRH and TB services have potential to increase women's demand for HCT and family planning and health seeking behaviour in poor resourced HIV prevalent settings such as South Africa.