"But I Won't Say That It Was Bad Seeing a Real Vagina": Understanding Perspectives toward Learning Sensitive-Critical Health Topic

Abstract

In India, topics related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) are rarely discussed openly due to stigma. Cervical cancer, a part of this SRH sphere, is the second most common cancer among women in India, yet its awareness remains low. To understand the attitudes towards SRH, we designed a Cervical cancer awareness tutorial in Virtual Reality and collected data from 66 participants across genders and life stages (single, married, and married with children) through interviews, self-reported emotions, and physiological sensor data. Our findings revealed an acute lack of knowledge about self-body anatomy and a need for creating health literacy. Our participants appreciated receiving detailed information despite the presence of explicit imagery and advocated that critical health information should not be moderated. We offer recommendations to the HCI community for teaching cervical cancer and suggest extending these approaches to enhance education on similar critical SRH issues in India.