Markets, Supplies, and Self Care: Meeting Women’s Needs in the Era of Self-Care

In June 2019, the World Health Organization launched its first Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. Though self-care has been practiced for millennia, these guidelines highlighted the potential for new tools, products, and services to improve individual self-efficacy, autonomy, and engagement in health. While the availability of self-care interventions—from self-injection of contraceptives and self-testing for HIV to user-initiated barrier methods and menstrual health products—can have advantages such as improved access and reduced costs, we must also ensure that users’ needs are met. Establishing markets for self-care products also requires that individuals have usable, accurate information to inform their sexual and reproductive health choices and know where to access products and how to use them.