Family Planning Perspectives articles from March 2000

Family Planning Perspectives archives from March 2000

Dig the Music, Babe.(effect of lullabies on newborns)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Premature infants who hear lullabies while in neonatal intensive care may reap important health and developmental benefits, according to a number of studies by a music therapy specialist.(1) In a study of 40 premature babies, the average...

Talk with Whom About What?(mothers and daughters talk about menopause)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Women may talk to their mothers about a lot of things, but menopause generally is not one of them.(1) Seventy-eight percent of mother-daughter pairs in a nationwide survey said they rarely discuss menopause, and those who do seldom talk...

HIV and AIDS Trends in Japan.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... The annual number of Japanese men and women with newly diagnosed HIV rose throughout the 1990s, but the number newly identified as having AIDS leveled off toward the end of the decade.(1) In 1990, Japanese doctors diagnosed HIV in 39 adults;...

Number of Abortions Fell in 1997.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... In 1997, 1.18 million induced abortions were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3% fewer than in the previous year.(1) Preliminary data suggest that the number of abortions declined in 34 of 52 reporting areas (the 50...

Honey, We Shrunk the Population.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... With total fertility rates well below replacement level and populations aging, 14 European countries are seeing their number of inhabitants decline.(1) The annual rate of natural decrease is 0.0-0.2% in seven countries (Czech Republic, Germany,...

Prevalence of HIV with Syphilis.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... A high proportion of people with syphilis also have HIV, according to a review of 30 U.S. studies.(1) Results varied widely among study populations; the median HIV prevalence among men and women with syphilis was 16%. The median was...

Feel Like a Natural Woman?(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Women who wish to use natural family planning may have a difficult time getting up-to-date information about these methods from their physician, according to results of a survey of 375 doctors in Missouri.(1) When asked how they respond to...

Male Youths Prefer Women Doctors.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Half of 10-18-year-old men surveyed at a Midwestern pediatric hospital clinic said that in general, they would prefer a female physician for a medical checkup, while only two in five said they would prefer a male doctor.(1) The results were the...

Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Women who use a combined regimen of estrogen and progestin to relieve symptoms of menopause may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than those using estrogen alone; in either case, the risk is restricted mainly to current and recent...

Thank Heaven for Little ... Children.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... By and large, to the extent that Europeans have a preference regarding the gender of their children, they prefer to have both boys and girls.(1) According to an analysis of Fertility and Family Survey data, couples in six countries have no...

Psychosocial Factors and the Timing of Prenatal Care Among Women in New Jersey's HealthStart Program.
March 1, 2000... Getting women who are at high risk of having a poor birth outcome into prenatal care early is the main policy goal of most publicly funded programs designed to reduce the incidence of low birth weight and infant mortality in the United States....

Contraceptive Use in Canada: 1984-1995.
March 1, 2000... Contraception should meet the physical, mental and social health needs of individuals throughout their lives.[1] While the wide availability and low cost of contraception have contributed to the decline in Canadian fertility over the past two...

Are There Unmet Family Planning Needs in Europe?
March 1, 2000... "While evidence is limited, some level of unmet need is likely to exist in every country, developing and developed alike, even where family planning is widely used."[1] Thus, a question is posed in the title of this article, and a tentative...

Relationship Dynamics, Ethnicity and Condom Use Among Low-Income Women.(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2000... Recent data confirm the continuing rise of HIV infection among U.S. women, who now account for close to one-fourth of new AIDS cases in the United States.[1] Nonwhite women are over-represented among those who are HIV-infected; although they...

Whose Pill Is It, Anyway?
March 1, 2000... We celebrate the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the oral contraceptive pill in a world considerably different from the one we knew `four decades ago. How much of the change we have experienced can be traced, directly or indirectly, to...

The Pill and Men's Involvement in Contraception.
March 1, 2000... Approval of the oral contraceptive pill for marketing in the United States 40 years ago was the culmination of a long search for a way to give women reliable control over their own fertility. The goal of finding a means for women, on their own,...

Mothers, Daughters and the Pill.
March 1, 2000... In the 1960s and 1970s, oral contraceptives were new. Some observers argued that the pill ushered in the sexual revolution by freeing women from the worry that sexual intercourse would inevitably lead to pregnancy. Indeed, trends in rates of...

Black Women and the Pill.
March 1, 2000... In 1969, Toni Cade wrote an essay entitled "The Pill: Genocide or Liberation?" about the rift between men and women over the role of birth control in the black liberation movement.[1] Cade recalls a political meeting in which a tall brother...

Will the Pill Become Obsolete in This Century?
March 1, 2000... Forty years after the contraceptive revolution brought about by the pill, there is still a demonstrable unmet need for more effective contraception, part of which will--we hope--be met by better contraceptives. More is required than the usual...

In Clinical Trial, Women Using Once-a-Month Injectable Contraceptive Avoid Pregnancy and Approve of Method.
March 1, 2000... A new monthly injectable contraceptive is highly effective, safe and well accepted among women, according to two studies based on a U.S. clinical trial comparing the injectable with an oral contraceptive. A study of the efficacy and safety of...

Infants Fathered by Men Who Are Exposed to Radiation In the Workplace Have an Elevated Risk of Being Stillborn.
March 1, 2000... A man's workplace exposure to ionizing radiation, a known mutagen, may increase the risk that an infant he fathers will be stillborn, according to a study based on workers at a British nuclear reprocessing plant.[1] The risk of stillbirth...

As Many Lesbians Have Had Sex with Men, Taking a Full Sexual History Is Important.
March 1, 2000... Roughly three-quarters of lesbians who responded to a magazine survey have had sexual intercourse with men, and nearly two-thirds have had unprotected heterosexual intercourse. One-sixth of respondents have ever had anal intercourse with a male...

Repeated Screening for Sexually Transmitted Diseases In School Programs Lowers Males' Chlamydia Rate.
March 1, 2000... Chlamydia infection was detected during the 1997-1998 school year among 3% of male students in three Louisiana high schools where a program offering repeated screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) had been introduced...

Women Aged 15-29 Are Increasingly Having First Children Before Marriage.
March 1, 2000... The proportion of first births to 15-29-year-old women that occur outside of marriage has more than doubled in the United States since the early 1970s, rising from 18% in 1970-1974 to 41% in 1990-1994.[1] Additionally, women who become pregnant...

Fertility Drugs Do Not Raise Breast, Ovarian Or Uterine Cancer Risk.
March 1, 2000... Women who take ovulation-inducing drugs in conjunction with in vitro fertilization are not at increased risk of developing breast, ovarian or uterine cancer, according to a large Australian cohort study.[1] However, women who seek treatment but...

Range of Risky Behaviors Is Tied to Risk of Multiple Partners Among Teenagers.
March 1, 2000... South Carolina high school students who have engaged in or who have been the victim of a range of risky behaviors are at risk of having had multiple sexual partners. For example, adolescent women who have experienced date violence or smoked...