I am always a tad surprised when I read about some of the studies that researchers devote time, energy and money towards and it makes me wonder what other studies are currently being performed and researched across the globe that I have no idea about. One such study I recently came across involved the use of lubricant during sexual encounters and how it contributed to one’s sexual pleasure. Wow, bet it wasn’t hard to get people to sign up for that one. This new study came out of Indiana University and had over 2,400 female participants between the ages of 18 and 68. Its findings determined that using lubricants during sexual activity either alone or with a partner caused sexual satisfaction and pleasure to increase.

Lubricants have been around for a long time, but there has been very little research done on its effects during sex; however, lubricants have long been advertised to help women’s comfort levels during sexual encounters and to help prevent the vagina from tearing due to dryness. Preventing vaginal tearing is extremely important as it can cause an increased risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease like HIV. Debby Herbenick, the associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, led the study and had the female participants use one type of silicone or water-based lubricant out of an array of six. Results from the study showed that using lubricants rarely caused any side effects in women. During the course of the study, less than 1% of the participants reported vaginal tearing and less than 5% of the participants experienced genital pain during sexual activities. Other results from the study include over 70% of women stating that using lubrication during sex made the encounters more comfortable and pleasurable. These results were presented in November at the Indiana University’s “What’s Sex Got To Do With It?” general session.

While health professionals often recommend adding lubricant to condoms during sexual intercourse, until now, there had been very little research done to back up those recommendations. There were many reasons why a woman decided to use lubricant but the most frequent answers included reducing the risk of vaginal tearing and making the sexual encounter more comfortable. A separate study done through CSHP involved over 1,800 male participants with over 8,500 sexual cases documented. In this study, close to 47% of the sexual encounters had the participants using latex condoms and close to 25% of these had the participants using lubricant. In terms of how the lubricant was used, 22.5% added the lubricant to the tip of the condom, 16.2% added the lubricant around their partner’s vaginal area and 16.2% add the lubricant to both the condom and the vaginal area. It was determined that adding lubricant to the condoms happened more often with sexual partners who were spouses, intercourse sessions that were lengthier and when the female was the one who put the condom on their partner.

I can fondly remember the first day of kindergarten. I had my backpack packed full of school supplies that I had eagerly shopped for with my mother based on the school supply list sent to us over the summer. I remember picking out my two-pocket folders with the fat brown puppies on the front cover and my Big Chief tablet. I helped my mother lay my clothes out the night before my first day of school. As we walked through the front doors, I felt a little excited tickle in my tummy. Then I saw the warm, welcome glow radiating from my kindergarten teacher, Miss Bryant. Five minutes later, I was hanging on the door frame crying my eyes out begging my mother not to leave me and to “just take me home. Why don’t you just take me home!? I hate school!!!!” It took a few months of gentle daily prodding from my mother, but eventually I learned to love going to school which is great because a new study reveals that those youngsters who enjoy attending school are less likely to become pregnant teenagers. In fact, those programs designed to help the development of youngsters and combat deprivation have shown to be pivotal in lowering teenage pregnancy, according to a new report published in the British Medical Journal.

It has been widely reported that of all the countries in Western Europe, the United Kingdom has continually shown the highest teenage pregnancy rates. The authors of this recent report feel that the policies currently in place to help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies in this country have been lacking. One program in particular that has failed in doing so is the Young People’s Development Program (YPDP). In fact, when compared to other similar programs, more young teenagers became pregnant in this program.

Angela Harden, a professor hailing from the University of East London, feels that one main reason for this program’s failure is the fact that it targeted those individuals that were deemed “high risk” and brought them together. The YPDP program kept these high risk individuals out of the regular schools and instead placed them in alternative educational settings. Harden and her colleagues focused on studying those programs that are considered community or after school projects. Through their research, they determined that those programs that focused on helping to improve experiences at school for teenagers and that raised expectations proved more successful than other programs.

Ten previous trials and five other studies were researched by Harden’s colleagues. These previous research efforts centered around youth development and childhood interventions. Overall, approximately 40% of those youths that were participants in youth programs such as these were less likely to become teenage pregnancies than those youths that did not participate in any type of youth program. Results from their studies and analysis revealed that those students who did not like attending school, that did not have high expectations for their future and that considered their childhoods to be unfulfilling were more likely to become teenage pregnancy statistics. The researchers state that “young people who have grown up unhappy, in poor material circumstances, do not enjoy school, and are despondent about their future may be more likely to take risks when having sex or to choose to have a baby.”

The researchers in this study feel that higher quality sex education and educating youngsters about their contraceptives options would be highly successful in ensuring teenage pregnancy rates go down. They state that the data provides “a small, but reliable, evidence base that early childhood and youth development programs are effective and appropriate strategies for reducing unintended teenage pregnancy rates. Our findings on the effects of early childhood interventions highlight the importance of investing in early care and support in order to reduce the socioeconomic disadvantage associated with teenage pregnancy later in life.”

If you had to think what the number one cause of death in women who are between the ages of 15 and 44 was, what would you answer? With October just having passed, and ribbons of pink cascading all over town, my first thought would be breast cancer. But haven’t I also heard about heart disease being the silent killer of women between those ages? Perhaps, it is some dreaded disease that I have not even heard of (cue the thumping of my hypochondriac heart and the frantic pounding of fingers on my keyboard as I race to my favorite bookmarked medical websites)! You might be surprised at the answer. The number one killer and contributor of disease to women in this age range is AIDS, according to the World Health Organization who recently concluded its first global study on women’s health.

Here is a statistic that may have you running out to buy a jumbo size pack of condoms. Worldwide, twenty percent of deaths in the above-specified age group are due to unsafe sex practices. In developing countries, worldwide, in fact, participating in unsafe sex has been deemed the number one risk factor. Other important risk factors include not having easy access to contraceptives like condoms and, surprisingly, having iron deficiencies. In its 91-page report of its findings, the WHO states, “Women who do not know how to protect themselves from such infections, or who are unable to do so, face increased risks of death or illness. So do those who cannot protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy or control their fertility because of lack of access to contraception.”

The recent report issued by the WHO was done in order to highlight the inequality a woman faces from birth to death in terms of health treatment options. The chief of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, notes in the report that biologically, being a woman is advantageous in that women usually outlive men six to eight years. However, in several regions of the globe, women are at a severe disadvantage because they are in poverty, have little to no access to health care options and are placed on a lower priority than men. Almost 15% of fatalities in adult-aged women occur during pregnancy and childbirth. Chan describes this as a “preventable tragedy.” In regions such as these, discrimination begins when a girl is born and goes on throughout her lifetime. Many young girls suffer from girlhood diseases that never get diagnosed or treated because boys do not suffer from them. Their diseases get pushed to the back burner as researchers and clinical trials strive to cure those diseases that ail adult men. Chan states, “We will not see a significant improvement in the health of women until they are no longer recognized as second-class citizens in many parts of the world.”