Cultural norms and behavior regarding vaginal lubrication during sex: Implications for the acceptability of vaginal microbicides for the prevention of HIV/STIs

The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacities in developing countries. The Council's Robert H. Ebert Program on Critical Issues in Reproductive Health, named in honor of former Population Council board chair and established in 1988, responds to an awareness that many important reproductive health problemsand the ways women experience themhave been neglected by policymakers, program planners, and practitioners. Reflecting a strong commitment to women's rights and autonomy, and with an overarching focus on improving the quality of services in reproductive health programs, the Ebert Program currently focuses on several areas that merit special attention: managing unwanted pregnancy and preventing the consequences of unsafe abortion, addressing safe motherhood and devising new approaches to postpartum care to meet the health needs of the mother and child, and designing programs that address sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, within the larger context of women's reproductive health. The Ebert Program tackles these challenging issues through research, technical assistance, publications, and meetings.