reproductive health needs assessment in the view of iranian elderly women and elderly men

Objective: to assess reproductive health needs in men and women as the first and basic step in educational planning. materials and methods: the study was qualitative. participants were postmenopausal women and men over 60 years. data gathering was done by semi structured interviews. analysis of the qualitative data was conducted during a multi-step process according to the assessment method of altschuld et al needs analysis. results: two general themes were considered in categorizing codes extracted from interviews: 1) problems, 2) demands. women’s reproductive health problems were problems associated with menopause, related to family planning, sexual problems, and diseases and cancers. reproductive health problems in men were in two main subthemes urinary-reproductive problems and sexual dysfunction. their main demand was for establishing a health center for geriatric reproductive health. conclusion: aging has severe effect on men’s and women’s reproductive health and elderly peoples need health services to cope with changes, therefore these needs should be considered in medical curriculums.