Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health articles from July 2004

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health archives from July 2004

There's no there there.(FYI)
July 1, 2004... In 2002, 69% of U.S. women who had undergone a complete hysterectomy said that they had had a Pap smear within the previous three years; this proportion had not changed since the early 1990s, even though a federal task force recommended in 1996...

Good habits start early.(FYI)
July 1, 2004... Teenagers who used a condom the first time they had intercourse have elevated odds of saying that they also used one at most recent intercourse, according to an analysis of data on 4,024 sexually active participants in the National Longitudinal...

The last word on abortion and breast cancer?(FYI)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... "The totality of the worldwide epidemiological evidence indicates that pregnancies ending as either spontaneous or induced abortions do not have adverse effects on women's subsequent risk of developing breast cancer": This is the conclusion of...

Schools and prenatal care.(FYI)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... School-based prenatal services may help keep pregnant young women in school, according to an analysis of data on students at Baltimore's alternative high school for pregnant and parenting teenagers. (1) Among 431 students who delivered in...

Can you hear my sperm now?(FYI)
July 1, 2004... Cell phone use may be hazardous to the health of sperm, according to a study of 221 Hungarian men. (1) Researchers found that men who carried their phones all day in a hip pocket or a holster, even in standby mode, had a 30% reduction in sperm...

Rapid and available.(FYI)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... A test that takes only 20 minutes to detect HIV antibodies in saliva or blood from a finger stick has received U.S. government approval for use in doctors' offices and HIV counseling centers. (1) Although OraQuick Rapid HIV-1/2 was approved by...

Sex education utopia?(FYI)
July 1, 2004... Imagine, if you can, a national government that deals with the inevitability of teenage sexual activity not by trying to frighten young people into abstaining but by advising them to try less risky behavior than intercourse, including oral sex...

Changes in teenagers' sexual behavior stall.(FYI)
July 1, 2004... For better or worse, virtually no change occurred in high school students' sexual behavior between the 2001 and 2003 rounds of the biennial National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. (1) The most recent figures on a couple of measures--the proportion...

One less treatment option.(FYI)
July 1, 2004... A rapidly increasing proportion of gonorrhea cases among men who have sex with men are resistant to a class of antibiotics commonly used to treat gonococcal infection, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend...

Practitioners' perspectives on effective practices for Hispanic teenage pregnancy prevention.
July 1, 2004... The United States has a higher teenage pregnancy rate than most other industrialized countries. (1) The national Hispanic teenage birthrate is twice that of non-Hispanic whites, (2) and in California, Hispanic adolescents are four times more...

Use of commercial sex workers among Hispanic migrants in North Carolina: implications for the spread of HIV.
July 1, 2004... Researchers have become increasingly concerned with the connection between migration and the spread of HIV. (1) Migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States is a massive phenomenon with dramatic male overrepresentation. (2)...

A comparison of Hispanic and white adolescent females' use of family planning services in California.
July 1, 2004... Adolescent pregnancy is associated with negative social and economic outcomes for both the mother and the child, (1) and it is a persistent problem among Hispanics in California. Hispanic adolescents have a birthrate that is three times that of...

A randomized study of a pregnancy and disease prevention intervention for Hispanic couples.
July 1, 2004... HIV and AIDS have disproportionately affected Hispanic communities in the United States: In 2000, for example, Hispanics made up 13% of the population, but accounted for 19% of new AIDS cases. (1) The incidence of AIDS among Hispanics in 2000...

Norms that encourage young adolescents not to have sex tied to reduced odds of becoming sexually active.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... Personal and perceived peer norms that encourage adolescents to refrain from sex are associated with reduced odds of sexual initiation among seventh and eighth graders (odds ratios, 0.8 and 0.7, respectively). According to data from a...

Heavy use of tobacco and caffeine are among factors that may reduce a woman's chance of conceiving.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... For couples trying to conceive, certain negative lifestyle factors are associated with an increased time to pregnancy and an elevated risk of not conceiving in the first year. (1) In an observational study of pregnant women and their partners,...

Consistent use vs. ever-use of condoms: which measure is more useful?(Digests)
July 1, 2004... Comparing the sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevalence rates of condom users and nonusers may not be as relevant as comparing those of consistent and inconsistent users, according to a study of patients' visits to a Denver STD clinic. (1)...

Teenagers who think sex is important may wait less time with new partners.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... The length of time that sexually active adolescents--particularly young men--plan to delay intercourse with new partners decreases as the importance they place on sex in romantic relationships increases. (1) According to a study of...

Consistent condom use offers protection for those with an infected partner.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... People with a partner who is known to be infected with gonorrhea or chlamydia have a lower risk of having either infection if they use condoms consistently than if they do not, according to an analysis of enrollment data from sexually...

Teenagers who abstain from sex cite similar reasons regardless of whether they have ever had intercourse.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... High school students who have never had sex or who decide to abstain after becoming sexually experienced often say their choice is rooted in a fear of negative consequences, such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and...

For labor progressing too slowly, immersion in water may be effective alternative to obstetric intervention.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... For women who are having their first birth and whose labor is progressing more slowly than expected, immersion in water may reduce the need for standard methods of augmentation, according to results of a study conducted in a British hospital....

Three-year program helps male adolescents establish, maintain sexual limits.(Digests)
July 1, 2004... In a largely Hispanic middle school population in California, male youth receiving a three-year, 20-lesson, theory-based curriculum on pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention had delayed sexual initiation compared with their...