#11543. Women Who Inject Drugs (WWID): Stigma, Gender and Barriers to Needle Exchange Programmes (NEPs)

August 2026publication date
Proposal available till 31-05-2025
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Journal’s subject area:
Law;
Health (social science);
Health Policy;
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health;
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More details about the manuscript: Science Citation Index Expanded or/and Social Sciences Citation Index
Abstract:
Global evidence suggests that experiences of access to Needle Exchange services are gendered and that women who inject drugs (WWID) access needle exchange services differently to men. Despite being a significant proportion of injecting drug users, women’s voices and experiences have often been silenced in studies around harm reduction service provision, hampering the development of harm reduction services for WWID. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with five participants and thematic analysis of the interviews produced three core themes: how stigma permeates WWIDs’ lives; barriers in accessing needle exchange services; and how experiences within a drugs context are gendered. The participants keenly felt their stigmatized status through interactions with pharmacy-based needle exchange staff, perceiving that pharmacy staff viewed them as more contaminated than their male counterparts. Gendered relationships were also noted in injection practices, although initiation for this group of WWID was done by intimate partners as well as friends, dispelling the stereotype of WWID as passive victims.
Keywords:
Gender; harm reduction; injecting; needle exchange programmes

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