Dear WAS Members and Friends,
We have one announcement today, and we want to give it the space it deserves.
Every Body matters. Every Body belongs. Every Body deserves Sexual Health, Rights, Justice, and Pleasure.
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Introducing "Every Body"
The World Sexual Health Day
Theme for 2026 |
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Every person who has ever lived has lived in a body.
Through it, we experience intimacy, pleasure, pain, connection, and care.
But Every Body, the theme WAS has chosen for World Sexual Health Day 2026, is not about reducing people to their bodies. It is about something more important, and more urgent: recognizing that the body is where the world's inequities are felt most personally.
What determines whether a person experiences Sexual Health, Rights, Justice, and Pleasure is rarely the body itself. It is the world that body moves through. The policies written or not written. The power structures that determine whose pain is taken seriously and whose is dismissed. The stigma that shapes who seeks care, and who stays away. The assumptions embedded in the systems we all rely on, and who those systems were built for in the first place.
Sexual health systems, policies, and education have long been designed around a narrow picture of whose body counts. Every Body is WAS's response to that reality, and an invitation to change it.
Written as two words, intentionally, the theme holds both ideas at once: every person, and the body they inhabit. Because every person deserves Sexual Health, Rights, Justice, and Pleasure, and we cannot get there without confronting the forces that stand in the way. |
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The Ten Themes of
Every Body in 2026 |
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Throughout 2026, WAS will explore ten themes under the Every Body banner. Each one names a structural force, not a category of people, that shapes whether a person can access Sexual Health, Rights, Justice, and Pleasure.
Young Bodies — When information is withheld from children and young people, it is not protection. It is a gap that leaves them more vulnerable.
Aging Bodies — Ageism in health systems routinely excludes older adults from sexual health conversations, despite the fact that desire, intimacy, and connection continue across an entire lifetime.
Differently Abled Bodies — Systemic ableism creates barriers that exclude disabled and neurodivergent people from sexuality education and sexual healthcare, despite having the same needs, rights, and capacity for pleasure as everyone else.
Intersex Bodies — Intersex people are born with natural variations in sex characteristics and are frequently subjected to medically unnecessary interventions before they can speak for themselves. Intersex bodies are not broken.
Racialized Bodies — Structural racism impacts who gets access to quality sexual healthcare, whose pain is taken seriously, and who is listened to. These disparities are produced by power, not biology.
Bodies of Different Sizes — Weight stigma is a documented barrier to sexual healthcare. Body size should not determine access to or quality of care.
Trans and Gender-Diverse Bodies — Trans and gender-diverse people face barriers to healthcare rooted in stigma, not clinical necessity. Their right to sexual health should not be contingent on the attitudes of individual providers. It is a matter of rights.
Chronically Ill and Dying Bodies — For people living with chronic conditions or long-term illness, sexual health is rarely part of the clinical conversation. And at the end of life, intimacy and closeness remain deeply human needs that palliative care should actively address.
Pregnant and Postpartum Bodies — Questions about desire, comfort, body image, and intimacy are rarely raised throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, leaving many people without information or support during one of the most significant moments of bodily change.
Menopausal and Perimenopausal Bodies — Menopause and perimenopause profoundly affect sexual health, yet remain among the most underaddressed topics in clinical care, frequently dismissed, minimized, or left out of the conversation entirely.
These themes are not exhaustive. They are a starting point. We welcome perspectives, voices, and additions from communities and partners around the world.
Do you have a story to share, insights from your practice, or a theme you feel is missing from our list? We want to hear from you. |
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WSHD 2026 Toolkit
Coming Soon |
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The official WSHD 2026 toolkit, including fact sheets, a participation guide, social media content, an infographic, a slidedeck for peer educators, and a self-reflection tool for practitioners, will be available to download free at worldsexualhealthday.org.
Throughout 2026, we will also be publishing a dedicated blog post for each of the ten themes, exploring the evidence, the structural forces at work, and what needs to change. The first is available to read now. |
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Translate our resources. Every Body is a global theme, and we want it to reach people in their own language. If you are willing and able to translate any of the WSHD 2026 resources into your local language, we would love to hear from you. Your contribution could make this work accessible to communities that would otherwise be left out of the conversation.
Record a video for social media. We are looking for health professionals, advocates, educators, researchers, and community members who are willing to record a short video for our social media channels — sharing what Every Body means to you, the communities you work with, or the bodies that your systems too often overlook. Any language, any location, any body.
To express your interest in either, please get in touch with our media team at media@worldsexualhealth.net. We will be in touch with more details.
With warmth and solidarity,
The World Association for Sexual Health
#WSHD2026 #EveryBody |
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Support the Mission of WAS
We invite you to support the ongoing work of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).
Your contributions help us continue our mission of promoting Sexual Health, Rights, and Justice globally. Consider becoming a supporting member or making a financial contribution today.
Donations are tax-deductible in the USA.
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