SEASONALE BIRTH CONTROL BLOG

Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy

August 30, 2007

Teenagers in New York City are less likely to use birth control than teens nationwide, although they are about as likely as teens nationwide to be sexually active, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports.

For the report, the health department compared a 2005 survey of teens in grades 9 through 12 conducted by health and education officials in New York City with a similar CDC survey. According to the report, 8% of sexually active teens reported that they or their partners used birth control pills, compared with 18% nationwide. About one in five sexually active girls in New York City said they did not use any form of birth control the most recent time they had sex, compared with one in seven nationwide.

Girls in New York City’s low-income, predominately Hispanic South Bronx neighborhood were almost twice as likely to have unprotected sex as girls nationwide. Black girls in the city were about as likely to use birth control as girls nationwide (AP/Long Island Newsday, 8/29).

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The report also found that 69% of teens in the city use condoms, compared with 63% nationwide. About 19% of New York City teens said they did not used condoms or any form of birth control. About 16% of sexually active teens in the city said they or their partners had become pregnant, and the pregnancy rate was higher among teens who had sex before they were age 13, the New York Post reports (Haberman, New York Post, 8/30).

The report recommended that health care workers obtain sexual histories of teen patients and offer teens reproductive and sexual health services. It also recommended that parents encourage teens to delay sexual activity and highlight the importance of using birth control and condoms if they are sexually active (New York City health department release, 8/29).

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Chgo. Sun-Times, Pregnancies to Rise in US Colleges — It’s All Bush’s Fault

August 23, 2007

The Chicago Sun-Times is blaming the Bush administration for what they claim is sure to be a rise in unplanned pregnancies at colleges and universities across the country. It hasn’t happened yet, mind you, but they are sure it’s gonna! Naturally, the paper cannot imagine we should place any blame on the stupid students who are getting themselves pregnant. I mean, it HAS to be Bush’s fault, you see, with personal responsibility being so last century and all. No, the Sun-Times is sure that a cut in the amount of Federal money doled out to our institutions of higher learning for cheap birth control is going to wreak havoc with the student body. Our kids are obviously too stupid to get by without that government spending.

The Sun-Times, worrying that the cost of birth control available to students in colleges is going to rise, imagines a law reducing Federal spending is somehow forcing students to have unprotected sex. “Birth-control costs soaring at colleges — Pregnancies could rise now that law limits drugmaker incentives”, they proclaim. This calamity is all being blamed on the “Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year” according to the Sun-Times.

Women and Minorities Hardest Hit

The Sun-Times focuses on a poor, poor student of a “low-income home” because she has somehow, or the other, gotten herself pregnant. Amazingly, after going off birth control, Elizabeth Harris, a pre-med student at the University of Chicago (UIC), “found she was pregnant,” the Sun-times laments.

Imagine, a pre-med student not realizing she could become pregnant as a result of unprotected sex? Shocking, eh?

Naturally, the Sun-Times wants to make it seem that “low-income” students are hit hardest so they subtly imply that with a paragraph header that says “Low-income students hit hard.” They claim that our Miss. Harris is in a bind because she just cannot afford birth control. She is so poor that the $35 a month for her prescription was just too much for her. Why, she even had to cancel her trip to Costa Rica last Spring because of this whole pregnancy thingie.

Last spring, 20-year-old pre-med student Elizabeth Harris had only Costa Rica on her mind. She was hoping to wine and dine there while taking a few biology courses.

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But the Waukegan native and University of Illinois at Chicago junior had to skip her trip.

Having gone off birth control, Harris found she was pregnant. She said she quit when the cost of her prescription at the UIC clinic more than doubled.

Imagine being so poor that your trip to Costa Rica has to be cancelled?

I wish I was that poor.

So, why is the cost of birth control at colleges going up. It’s that mean ‘ol Bush, of course!

The price increase in hormonal birth control can be traced to the Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year, aimed at reducing federal spending by $39 billion. The legislation made it more costly for drug makers to offer low-cost birth control to college clinics. Then the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued regulations that dropped college clinics from a list of agencies to which drug companies could sell discounted drugs.

So, there you have it. Bush is causing well meaning, yet curiously stupid pre-med students to get pregnant because he is allowing less Federal money to unconstitutionally go to fund birth control drugs in our colleges and universities than was previously unconstitutionally going to fund birth control drugs in our colleges and universities.

It’s a dastardly plot, I tell you.

The Sun-Times is, of course, absolutely sure that our university students are just too darn stupid to stay out of such trouble. Heck, we can’t expect students to think of their future, finish school, get their degree and begin their lives in a planned and sensible way, can we? We MUST have that nanny state government out there to hold their hands… or hold their contraception… for them.

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n the continuing debate about the legality

August 18, 2007

In the continuing debate about the legality or illegality of abortion, many people deplore the failure of girls and women who become unhappily pregnant to have responsibly and conscientiously used “birth control.” I believe that, for the sake of clarity, this term should be dropped from the lexicon. After all, abortion itself can be seen as a way of controlling births, albeit an often grisly and always morally troubling one. What is usually meant by birth control is contraception and the latter term should be used when discussing the prevention of unwanted conceptions among people engaging in penile-vaginal intercourse. The latter term may seem unnecessarily graphic to some readers but I also believe it is necessary to distinguish between those sex acts that can lead to pregnancy and those that cannot.

The abortion debate is also often clouded when people discuss decreasing the “need” for abortions. The term “need” prejudges the case of those who believe abortion should be outlawed. We can hardly criminalize things that are “needed.” Many years ago, a leader of a prominent group that supported legal abortion helped set up a conference at which leaders of groups advocating criminalization were asked to come together with their opponents to discuss ways to stem unplanned pregnancies. The agreement was that abortion itself would not be mentioned at the gathering. However, in the letter requesting the appearance of various activists, the original writer talked about “decreasing the need for abortion.” Nellie Gray, President of March for Life, shot back, “There is not and never has been a ‘need’ for killing innocent pre-born babies.”

There is most certainly and indisputably a demand for abortion. There was one before it was legal and probably will be one if it is again criminalized. However, to talk about a demand says nothing about whether or not something is legal as there is a demand for all sorts of drugs, a demand for stolen goods, and a demand for the services of hired killers.

Clarity is important, especially when an issue is emotionally charged. Replacing the term “birth control” with “contraception” and discussing a “demand” rather than a “need” for abortion are important steps to clarity on this issue.

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EMERGENCY BIRTH CONTROL - Morning-after pill - excuse for proper birth control planning

August 15, 2007

There is common saying that if you fail to plan you plan to fail. In the same way, if you engage in unprotected sex, you can expectto get pregnant. However, there are those who fail to plan for birth control because they know they can use the morning-after pill, which prevents women from becoming pregnant after engaging in unprotected vaginal intercourse or when contraceptive fails. The pill slows the speed of the egg travelling through the Fallopian tube and it also changes the lining of the uterus so that the egg finds it difficult to become attached to the uteral wall.

The pill is a concentrated dose of the same drugs found in typical birth control pills. Some morning-after pills contain only one hormone, progestin (Plan B) and others contain two, progestin and estrogen. Progestin prevents the sperm from reaching the egg and prevents the fertilised egg from implanting itself to wall of the uterus (implantation). Estrogen stops the ovaries from releasing eggs (ovulation) to be fertilised by sperm.

Timing

To be effective, the pill has to be taken within 72 hours of having unprotected vaginal intercourse, since human conception rarely occurs immediately after intercourse. A second dose should be taken 12 hours later. If your partner’s condom broke around 4.00 a.m. on Saturday, the pill must be taken within 72 hours from the time the condom broke. The earlier the pill is taken, the more effective it is in preventing pregnancy.

Statistically, it has been shown that a woman can lower her risk of pregnancy by 75 to 80 per cent after a single act of unprotected sex. However, if the woman is already pregnant, the morning-after pill has no guarantee in terminating the pregnancy and it could put mother and baby at risk.

The morning-after pill is easy to purchase without prescription and may be purchased by females 18 years and older and who must furnish proof of age. The Food and Dug Administration (FDA) in the United States took the decision to reduce the restriction on the sale of the pill with a view to reducing by half the nation’s annual unplanned pregnancies. In Jamaica, the pill was removed from the prescribed drug list in May andis sold over the counter. However, opponents believe that easy access to the pill would increase promiscuity among young people.

Young girls

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According to The Jamica-Gleaner.com, there is the concern among local pharmacists that the morning-after pill, Postinor 2, is being abused. There is in increase in use, especially among schoolchildren who purchase it as they would purchase ’sweets’. The recommended usage of the morning-after pill is no more than two times per month but some young people are taking the pill up to five times per month. This frequency will lead to side effects like internal bleeding. It is feared that older men who have sexual intercourse with minor girls could force them to use the pills to prevent them for getting pregnant.

Another concern of local pharmacists is that there may be a casual linkage between the increased use of Postinor 2 and the declining sales of condoms, especially against the background of increases in HIV/AIDS cases in the region. The morning-after pill is designed to prevent pregnancy while condoms prevent pregnancy in addition to offering protection against sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Chemical abortion

The emergency contraceptive works in one of three ways - it may inhibit ovulation (no egg is released); it ma the normal menstrual cycle delaying ovulation, or it may irritate the lining of the uterus so that if the first and second actions fail and the woman becomes pregnant, the human being created will die before he or she can actually attach to the lining of the uterus. The woman’s body rejects the living embryo and the child dies. This third action is referred to as chemical abortion.

How safe is the morning-after pill? Taking the morning-after pill is an unpleasant experience. High doses of birth control medication should not be taken without consulting your doctor. Some of the side effects include nausea, described by some as being similar to having bad stomach flu. It is advised that an anti-nausea drug be taken before taking the pills.

Other side effects are vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, tenderness of the breasts, changes in menstrual cycle, ectopic pregnancy, blood clot formation and infertility. Women who become pregnant after taking the morning-after pill is at risk of harming the foetus, and doctors usually recommend a therapeutic abortion.

Storing morning-after pills is not recommended as the product is manufactured for emergency contraception, to be used within 72 hours after engaging in unprotected vaginal sex or birth control device failure for maximum effectiveness.

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IUD safe and effective birth control method in high-risk women

August 7, 2007

Women who are at high risk for both sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy have been classified as poor candidates for this method of contraception.

The IUD is the most common form of reversible birth control used by women. While IUDs offer a high level of long-term contraceptive efficacy, they have been associated with health risks, including pelvic inflammatory disease and upper genital tract infections.

As part of the study, Catherine A. Matthews and colleagues conducted a medical chart review of approximately 200 women who had IUDs inserted between 2000 and 2005 and compared the efficacy and complication rates of the Paragard IUD and Mirena intrauterine system (IUS).

Both are T-shaped devices are placed in the uterus to prevent pregnancy, however, the Mirena IUS releases a hormone.

A third of women who received an IUD had a history of STD prior to insertion. Additionally, 32 percent of women had a history of other gynaecological infections such as bacterial vaginosis, and almost half were unmarried.

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The study found that IUDs were acceptable and not associated with a significant increase in occurrence of gynaecologic infections in women who were at high risk for both sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

“From our study, we now know that IUDs are safe to use in all women who don’t have an acute infection of the cervix. Therefore, young, unmarried, sexually active women can now be considered good candidates for this contraceptive option, which doesn’t require taking a pill, patch, or injection,” Matthews said.

“We once thought that IUDs could only be used in married, monogamous women because of a perceived increase in the risk of pelvic infections,” she added.

The findings of the study were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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China Bans Crude Birth Control Slogans

August 7, 2007

China has banned crude and insensitive slogans promoting the country’s ‘one-child’ family planning policy, such as “Raise fewer babies but more piggies,” which have stoked anger in rural areas, state media said Sunday.

China’s 28-year-old family planning policy limits most urban couples to just one child and allows some families in the countryside to have a second child if their first is a girl.

Critics say that has led to forced abortions and sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to the traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted countless families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys.

The policy continues to engender anger and resentment, especially among farmers in the countryside, because of the sometimes brutal methods used to enforce it, such as heavy fines and the seizure of property. Local authorities themselves face demotions, criticism or the loss of jobs if they fail to hit population targets.

The National Population and Family Planning Commission said it was striking insensitive slogans promoting the policy in order to dispel the impression the government was “simply forcing people to give up having more babies, causing misunderstanding (of) the policy and even tarnishing the image of the government,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua said uncouth slogans also threatened to undermine China’s efforts to keep the population under control. It paraphrased the family planning commission as saying such “low-quality slogans” could lead to “public complaint and resentment.”

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Among the slogans that were forbidden were “One more baby means one more tomb” and “Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected.” Such slogans are often found painted on roadside buildings in rural areas.

The planning commission issued a list of 190 acceptable slogans, such as “Mother earth is too tired to sustain more children” and “Both boys and girls are parents’ hearts.”

The government contends the one-child policy has helped prevent at least 300 million births - about the size of the U.S. population - and aided China’s rapid economic development.

But it has also been the cause of recent protests.

In May, thousands of farmers in southern Guangxi province rioted to protest fines they said were imposed “arbitrarily and brutally” against people who had more children than allowed under the policy, state media reported. Authorities detained 28 people after the incident.

Media reports said all public servants in the province’s Bobai county had been ordered to collect fines from people who violated the policy. If violators failed to pay within three days, their homes would be demolished and their belongings seized.

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