Category: Sexual Health / STDs

More than the two thirds of the women in a national survey say that they are interested in suppressing their menstrual periods but many of them aren’t sure if it’s safe. Yet when physicians are polled, 97 percent say that continuous oral contraceptive therapy to suppress menstruation is, in fact, medically safe and acceptable.

The Australian Psychological Society has released a tip sheet designed to help parents deal with the increasing sexualisation of girls in the media. The tip sheet, ‘Helping girls develop a positive self image,’ contains advice for parents on ways to encourage self-esteem, discuss sexuality and identify healthy role models.

Family planning advocates in the Philippines on Saturday said they plan to file a lawsuit against Environment Secretary Lito Atienza for removing all contraceptives from city clinics when he was mayor of the capital city of Manila, AFP/MSN.com reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will not consider a challenge to a New York law that requires employers who offer prescription drug plans to provide coverage for FDA-approved contraceptives for women, the New York Times reports (Greenhouse, New York Times, 10/2).

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has released the criteria for nurses working as sexual health advisers to register as specialist community public health nurses.The NMC is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is to protect the public.

Building upon two decades of developing highly effective, easy-to-use fertility awareness-based methods of family planning and introducing them worldwide, the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) at Georgetown University Medical Center has been awarded a five-year, $38 million grant by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand access to these methods and ensure their sustainability in developing countries. USAID has been funding the Institute since 1985.

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) Young Leaders Project is launching the ‘You Know You’ campaign. The campaign is calling for young people across England to get involved in a new sex and relationship education project. THT is looking for 13-19 year olds in London, Eastern England, the South East, the South West, the West Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside to get involved.

Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Mozambique, on Wednesday said that two European countries are manufacturing condoms that deliberately have been tainted with HIV as part of a plan to “colonize the continent,” Reuters reports. Chimoio declined to name the countries or identify the source of the allegations.

The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) supports Congress’s decision to extend Title V Funding for Abstinence Education through the end of 2007. “The extension for Abstinence Education reveals the bi-partisan support for this best health message,” said Valerie Huber, Executive Director, NAEA, “and while extremely helpful, the short-term extension makes it challenging for states to implement the program.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reissued a patent to the pharmaceutical company Barr Laboratories for its extended-cycle oral contraceptive Seasonale, the company said Tuesday, the AP/Yahoo! Finance reports.