Providing for the sexual health needs of Canadian immigrants: the experience of immigrants from Iran.

Background: Sexual health is increasingly understood as an integral part of health. In Canada, education for sexual health is delivered predominantly in middle and secondary school. What of adults who immigrate to Canada from countries where sex education is not delivered to youth? This paper explores the needs and experiences of one such group of Canadian immigrants: those from Iran.

Method: Ten married male and 10 married female immigrants from Iran living in a mid-sized Canadian city were recruited using snowball sampling and participated in qualitative interviews. The sample varied in age, education level, duration of marriage, and stay in Canada.

Results: Participants addressed three themes: experiences accessing information and health services, necessary content of information, and preferred ways of providing sexual health information and services. Key barriers to accessing and using sexual health services, experienced by all interviewees, regardless of the length of time they were in Canada, included language, cultural misunderstandings, embarrassment, long waits, and limited time that physicians spent with patients. Examples were provided of misunderstandings and inappropriate or even offensive questions or suggestions made by health practitioners who were unfamiliar with patients' cultural norms related to sexuality. Participants believed their needs and questions were different from their Canadian counterparts and wanted a confidential, linguistically and culturally friendly source of information such as a website in the Farsi language.

Conclusions: More attention needs to be paid to developing public health and medical services related to sexual health that take account of the cultural diversities represented in the Canadian population.