School of Medicine

As described in the ISP proposal, female sex workers in Tijuana’s Zona Norte are subject to significant social and health disparities which lead to high risk sexual behaviors such as drug use, unprotected sex, and sex with multiple partners. As a result, this population has a high incidence of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Previous studies have shown that contraception is severely under-utilized in this population. While condoms are necessary to prevent sexually transmitted infections and education regarding its use continues to be important, given the high rates of unintended pregnancies it is also valuable for this population to learn about other forms of contraception in order to prevent pregnancy.