'La Marató' annual telethon to be dedicated to sexual and reproductive health for first time

The 'La Marató' annual telethon will be dedicated to sexual and reproductive health for the first time this year. 

The initiative has been organized every December by the Catalan public broadcasters TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio for over 30 years. 

The telethon, which will be held on December 17, will focus especially on prevention among young people. 

According to the La Marató foundation, there are over 210,000 new cases of sexual and reproductive illnesses every year and around 3 million people may be affected at any given time. 

 

Gender perspective 

Funds will be raised for conditions and complications related to the reproductive system, reproductive medicine, pregnancy and childbirth, among others. 

Some examples of these illnesses and problems, which seriously affect women in particular, are preeclampsia, endometriosis, sexually transmitted infections, pelvic pain and vaginismus, problems associated with menstruation and the menopause, premature births, sexual dysfunction and pelvic floor dysfunction. 

'La Marató' this year wants to shine a light on the need to consider the gender perspective in all areas of medicine and research. 

The program will raise awareness and inform young people, especially girls, about the fact that sexual and reproductive health has a profound effect throughout their lives. 

Organizers also want to help to amend the fact that many of the problems that affect women have been disregarded and ignored over the centuries. 

Sexual and reproductive healthcare issues account for 12.2% of costs to the health system in Catalonia. Around 9% of medical research papers in Catalonia are to do with sexual and reproductive health, a figure in keeping with the global average. 

Mental health, Covid-19, rare diseases 

Each year, organizers choose a different area of medical research to raise money for. In 2022, the annual telethon raised over €8m for cardiovascular diseases, while the previous year over €9m was raised for mental health. 

In 2020, over €10m was raised for research on Covid-19, and in previous years La Marató focused on rare diseases, cancer and infectious diseases. 

Since 1992, the year of the first edition, 'La Marató' has raised more than €236m. Funds from donations have enabled the financing of 985 research projects carried out by 1,639 teams with the involvement of 9,674 researchers.