Family Planning Perspectives articles from November 2001

Family Planning Perspectives archives from November 2001

Has the IUD had a bum rap? (Update: defending the IUD).(Intrauterine contraceptives)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... For decades, U.S. women have shunned the IUD because of fears that its use may cause tubal infertility, but a study conducted in Mexico in 1997-1999 suggests that those fears are unfounded. (1) In analyses involving 358 never-pregnant,...

Health risks after dating violence. (Update).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... One in five female high school students surveyed in Massachusetts in 1999 said that a dating partner had physically or sexually abused them, and these women had elevated odds of engaging in a range of risky behaviors. (1) Of the 2,186 young...

Buy direct and save. (Update).(studies on obtaining emergency contraceptives)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... The risk and costs of unintended pregnancy are lower when women who have had unprotected intercourse obtain emergency contraceptive pills directly from a pharmacy than when they get the method from a physician or clinic. (1) Using a decision...

Woman-to-woman: STDs happen. (Update).(sexually transmitted disease)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Women who have sex only with women may be at greater risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) than they--or many health professionals--have thought, according to results of a 1997 survey conducted in the Minneapolis-St. Paul...

Folic acid seems to work. (Update).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... The prevalence of birth defects that may be prevented by the consumption of folic acid before and during pregnancy declined significantly in the United States during the 19908, when food manufacturers were authorized and then required to...

Another pap smear: Who returns? (Update).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Beliefs about Pap smears, but not knowledge about the test or about human papillomavirus, influenced whether sexually active teenagers and young women attending an urban hospital clinic intended to return for follow-up Pap smears. (1)...

For minors, postabortion blues? (Update).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Minors who had abortions in selected San Francisco clinics were no more likely than women aged 18 or older to suffer short-term adverse psychological effects. (1) Four weeks after having an abortion, 23 women younger than 18 and 40 women aged...

More woes after DES exposure. (Update).(diethylstilbestrol)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Women who were exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES) in utero, long known to have an increased risk of adverse reproductive outcomes, may also have an elevated risk of infertility, according to analyses comparing 1,753 women whose mothers had...

HIV testing in pregnancy. (Update).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... In the years since the Public Health Service issued guidelines recommending that all pregnant women be encouraged to undergo HIV testing, the proportion of women tested during pregnancy has risen, but nearly half of women do not get tested. (1)...

Differences in teenage pregnancy rates among five developed countries: the roles of sexual activity and contraceptive use. (Articles).(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 2001... Despite recent declines, the current level of births to adolescents continues to be much higher in the United States than in most other developed countries. (1) Continued decreases in U.S. rates have only succeeded in moving the country's...

Socioeconomic disadvantage and adolescent women's sexual and reproductive behavior: the case of five developed countries. (Articles).(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 2001... Over the past two decades, researchers and advocates in the United States have examined the experience of Canada and of countries in western Europe in an attempt to learn why adolescents in those countries have fewer pregnancies and are less...

The effects of early childbearing on schooling over time. (Articles).(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 2001... Schooling is critical to a young woman s prospects throughout her life. The amount of schooling a woman obtains affects her occupation, her income, her chances of marriage, her risk of poverty and welfare dependence and, more generally, the...

Early sexual initiation and subsequent sex-related risks among urban minority youth: the reach for health study. (Articles).(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 2001... During the 1980s, the proportion of adolescents in the United States who reported having had sexual intercourse before the age of 15 began to increase. Although some recent surveys indicate that this trend may be stabilizing, the U.S. age of...

Understanding what works and what doesn't in reducing adolescent sexual risk-taking. (Viewpoint).
November 1, 2001... Given high rates of unprotected sex, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) infection among U.S. adolescents, for at least two decades people concerned about youth have developed a wide variety of programs to reduce...

Young mothers' disadvantage, not their age itself, accounts for their children's educational problems. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... The children of teenage mothers have an elevated risk of educational problems and disabilities when they reach kindergarten, but this risk is not directly attributable to the mothers' young age. (1) Rather, a population-based study of Florida...

Condoms reduce women's risk of herpes infection, but do not protect men. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Using condoms during sexual intercourse significantly decreases the likelihood that men infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) will transmit the infection to their female partners, according to the first study to examine the...

New analgesia techniques for labor raise chances of normal vaginal birth. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Two alternatives to traditional epidural analgesia effectively reduced pain during labor and, moreover, increased the likelihood that women would have a normal vaginal delivery in a randomized controlled trial conducted in the United Kingdom....

Factors influencing condom use depend upon whether a woman has had a sexually transmitted disease. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... Factors associated with condom use differ depending on whether a woman has a history of sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to a study of women attending public STD clinics in Alabama. (1) Women reporting a history of any STD had an...

Risks and disadvantages are raised for teenage mothers with older adult partners. (Digests).
November 1, 2001... Teenage mothers with an older adult partner may engage in more risky behavior and live in less-favorable circumstances than those with a partner close to their age, according to analyses based on a sample of young mothers in Texas. (1) Twelve...

BRCA mutations lessen protective effect of pill against ovarian cancer. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... The protective effects against ovarian cancer of parity and oral contraceptive use differ depending on whether women have mutations of the BRCA1 or the BRCA2 gene, according to a study of Jewish women in Israel. (1) Nearly one-third (29%) of...

Human papillomavirus infection, benign lesions have different risk factors. (Digests).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2001... A type of benign lesion commonly thought to be caused by infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) appears to have a set of risk factors distinct from those associated with the acquisition of HPV. (1) In a prospective study conducted among...

Labor induction for vaginal birth after cesarean may lead to uterine rupture. (Digests).(Statistical Data Included)
November 1, 2001... Women who have a first birth by cesarean section are at increased risk of suffering uterine rupture if they try to deliver their second infant vaginally, especially if labor is induced with prostaglandins, according to evidence from a...