Dr Erica Gollub, of the University of Pennsylvania, who initiated HIV-prevention programmes to improve reproductive health in the USA, created a similar experimental programme in the Bouches-du-Rhône region in France called "Femme: mon corps et moi" ("Woman: my body and me"). The programme aims to help women who have high-risk behaviour for HIV or STDs to protect themselves.

The first woman counsellor counselled 8-12 female client volunteers on protection methods available without medical prescription and at no charge, in five two-hour sessions. The counsellors discussed anatomy; contraception and prevention practices; pregnancies, abortions, STDs and AIDS; the relative importance of  the different means of risk reduction (condoms, diaphragms with spermicides, spermicides alone) and the acceptability of the female condom (in France, only the male condom is sold).

Health professionals find it too difficult to imagine women's situations; and often do not allow women to talk about their sexuality amongst themselves. Some women find it difficult to follow discussions of the fertility cycle and to answer a written questionnaire. The language barrier was another difficulty encountered in counselling for many immigrant women.

Counselling sessions and interviews with over 80 women show that:

• Women accept the programme because it offers them a place where they can talk and learn self-support.
• Women want to learn to protect themselves. Many have already refused unprotected relations.
• Many women practice oral or anal sex without protection to keep their virginity.
• Violence, notably rape,  is frequent in their lives.
• There is great interest in female-controlled barrier methods.

Public health workers in the Provence are organising conferences to inform social and health professionals about risk reduction in women, forming support groups for women in jail, adopting a communication campaign and training gynecologists. The department of Bouches-du-Rhône has already trained 12 new counsellors in this programme.

"Femme: mon corps et moi" believes that by teaching women how to "reduce the risks," a new concept in France among heterosexual populations, women become actors in maintaining their health and in preventing infection.