The sexual and reproductive health of female psychiatric inpatients: An area needing more attention?

Objective Trauma-informed care and physical (including sexual and reproductive) health screening is standard in Western Australian mental health settings. We sought to determine the rates of reported sexual trauma and domestic violence (DV), the rates of sexual and reproductive health screening, and associations between sexual trauma and reproductive health screening in a sample of women of child-bearing age (WOCBA), that is, 18–49 years, admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit (IPU).

Methods A retrospective study on 12 months of admissions to an outer metropolitan IPU (2017–2018), using descriptive analysis.

Results Review of 160 admissions demonstrated high rates of reported sexual trauma (49.4%) and DV (38.8%). Rates of screening for pregnancy (56.9%) and sexually-transmitted infection risk (18.8%) were low. 5 out of 25 (20.0%) patients prescribed a mood stabiliser had documented discussions regarding reproductive risks of their medication. An overall lack of effect (p > .6) was found between sexual trauma history and reproductive health screening.

Conclusions WOCBA admitted to an IPU are vulnerable to having experienced sexual trauma and DV, with low rates of documented reproductive health screening despite existing clinical guidelines.