Tag: birth control

Adolescent girls who use hormonal contraceptive birth control, stop using condoms as often as they would have before, a finding seen in an alarming new study, conducted by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. Researchers claim that when these young women stop taking their pills, they do not resume the use of condoms, which can result in the sexually transmitted infections, (STIs) and unwanted pregnancy.

The trial involved 1,194 young, sexually active girls between the ages of 15 and 24 who were going to Planned Parenthood clinics to start with contraceptive pills, injections, patches, or vaginal rings. All of these women were not planning to get pregnant within a year’s time. Read full article.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Fifty-seven Oklahoma legislators filed a brief Wednesday in the Oklahoma Supreme Court defending a state law regulating emergency contraception.

In 2011, the legislature approved House bill 1970, which required Oklahoma physicians to administer such drugs in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. At least eight women have died following the use of “abortion-inducing drugs” in an off-label, unapproved manner, according to a written statement by the Oklahoma State Senate. Read full article.

Misinformation, lack of awareness about accessibility and stigma may be a barrier to the use of emergency contraception in Hamilton, which has a higher rate of teenage pregnancies than the provincial average.

“Even in this day and age obviously there are a large number of unplanned pregnancies,” said Dr. Nicholas Leyland, Chairman of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at McMaster University.

“When a woman finds herself in a situation where it’s necessary—whether the condom or something else—there is a need for post-coital birth control,” he added.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) said that more than half of Canadian women are unfamiliar with emergency birth control. To encourage greater awareness about emergency contraception–sometimes known as the “morning after pill”– the SOGC made a public appeal on World Conception Day (Sept. 26) to dispel some of the myths and misinformation surrounding its use and accessibility. Read full article.

The 2010 health law removes one of the big barriers to contraception for many young women: cost. But if they don’t feel confident that the care they will receive is confidential, these women may not take advantage of it.

Under the health care overhaul, most new health plans and those that lose their grandfathered status have to cover many women’s preventive benefits, including contraception without out-of-pocket costs. Copayments for monthly packs of brand-name birth control pills can run as much as $40 or $50. Read full article.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Prices for long-acting contraception will be halved for 27 million women in the developing world through a new partnership, former President Bill Clinton and other world leaders announced Wednesday.

The deal will help avoid almost 30 million unwanted pregnancies and save an estimated $250 million in health costs, the partnership said. By slowing down the pace of births and avoiding medical problems such as premature births, the partnership said about 30,000 maternal deaths and 280,000 child deaths can be avoided. Read full article.

The United States has one of the highest rates of unwanted pregnancies in the developed world — nearly half of pregnancies here are unintended, and there’s been no improvement in the situation for a decade.

Why? For one thing, women often encounter problems when the birth-control method they had been using no longer works well for them. Many women and their doctors are poorly versed in the wide array of effective choices and how to switch from one method to another without risking pregnancy. Read full article.

A new study sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Teva reveals that, over the last month, only three out of five women of childbearing age used birth control. The other two of five believed they were unable to get pregnant, or were not currently sexually active. Read full article.