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.

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.”

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.”

Dr. Beverly Winikoff, a Columbia University professor in family health, states, “This is the first really huge documentation of how safe and effective medical abortion is. The technology is very good and very well used in this country, and probably will be used more and more.” While, overall, about 25% of abortions done early in the pregnancy are through the abortion pill, approximately 32% of abortions done through Planned Parenthood are done in this manner. The recent study analyzed over 225,000 cases of medical abortion between the years 2005 and 2008 and determined that over 98% of these were effective. The procedure which can be done in the first quarter of a pregnancy (9 weeks) requires that the patient take a pill known as Mifeprex (once called RU-486). The purpose of this pill is to cause an embryo to detach itself from the wall of the uterus. A follow-up pill called misoprostol is taken anywhere from 1 to days after the first pill. This second pills causes the uterus to contract, thereby forcing the embryo out. Many people mistakenly liken these drugs to Plan B. Plan B is different in that it is administered within a few days after an episode of unprotected sex or the failure of a contraceptive like a condom.

In the original procedures for the medical abortion, patients had the misoprostol pill inserted into their vaginal region so that the medicine could absorb directly there; however, five women died of a bacterial infection due to this procedure which caused a outburst of criticism. The procedure was changed in 2006 to have the patient simply allow the pill to absorb in their mouth. In addition, some clinics also prescribed a precautionary course of antibiotics so infection would not occur. Mary Fjerstad, the lead researcher on the study, stated, “We decided we needed to make a safe procedure even safer.” It seemed to work since by the last half year of the study, infections had gone down tremendously to 1/16th of the previous rate.

Dr. Beth Jordan, the medical direction of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, feels the results of the data are going to impress providers across the country. She thinks it may even encourage some doctors to offer this type of medical abortion. Currently, over 85% of counties in the U.S. are with an abortion provider. Jordan states, “But I don’t think it’s going to open the floodgates.”

Dr. Anjel Vahratian from the University of Michigan states, “Diabetes and obesity increasingly affect women of reproductive age in the U.S. Women with diabetes and those who are obese are at increased risk for pregnancy complications, including those from surgical delivery, and their offspring are at risk for congenital anomalies.” Data was used from the National Survey for Family Growth done in 2002 that had close to 6,000 female participants between 20 years old and 44 years old. The survey was used to understand the use of contraceptives like condoms amongst women in this age range.

The term “lack of contraception” included women who did not use any type of barrier (condom), hormonal (like birth control) or sterilization method. Of the participants, 135 women had been diagnosed with diabetes and 2,927 of the women were considered medically obese as defined by their BMI (body mass index). BMI is a scientific formula that uses a person’s reported height and weight to determine if that individual is normal weight, overweight or underweight. The report states, “We found that (approximately) 40 percent of women with diabetes and up to a third of women with elevated BMIs did not use contraception.”

Of the female participants who considered themselves sexually active, those women who had been diagnosed with diabetes were less likely to use any type of contraceptive compared to their non-diabetic counterparts. In addition, those women who were considered very obese (women who had a BMI of 35 or above) were also less likely to use any type of contraceptive compared to those female participants who had lower BMIs. Other data reported that women who were older, black and had a medical history of attempts to get pregnant were also less likely to utilize any type of contraception. On the other hand, those women who had achieved a higher level of education and who lived with their partners were more likely to utilize contraceptives.

Vahratian said about the results, “Clinicians caring for women with diabetes and/or elevated body mass index may wish to target women who desire pregnancy or who feel ambivalent about pregnancy for more intensive preconception management, even if these women do not intend to get pregnant. Efforts to improve family planning practices among these women should include factors associated with contraceptive use — particularly their beliefs about fecundity and potential ambivalence about their desires for pregnancy. Preconceptional management may be more successful in this subgroup if equal attention is given to daily folic acid use, weight management, and achieving optimal glycemic control and not solely initiation of family planning — regardless of whether pregnancy is immediately intended or not. This will become an increasingly important issue as the number of reproductive-aged women with diabetes increases. Most of these women do not receive any sort of preconception care, and many are diagnosed when they are older, past the reach of current preconception programs targeted primarily at young teenagers.”

Over fifty percent of the deaths from unsafe abortions occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. This region has long been known as an area with the lowest rate in terms of the use of contraceptives; therefore, it comes as no surprise that it also has one of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancies. This recent report came from the Guttmacher Institute and compiled data over a three year span. This institute has long been a supporter of abortion rights and is known as a leader of compiling data on trends surrounding abortion topics.

Sharon Camp, the president of the Guttmacher Institute stated, “In almost all developed countries, abortion is safe and legal. But in much of the developing world, abortion remains highly restricted, and unsafe abortion is common and continues to damage women’s health and threaten their survival.” The report urges developing nations to make their abortion laws less strict. Naturally, there are many individuals and organizations that do not feel this is the direction to take. One opponent is Deirdre McQuade, a director of policy with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. She states, “We need to be much more creative in assisting women with supportive services so they don’t need to resort to the unnatural act of abortion.”

According to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, between the years 1995 and 2003, the number of abortions fell drastically from over 45 million to just under 42 million each year. One reason for this is that women who were married had an increase in the use of contraceptives like condoms. Between the years 1990 and 2003, the use of contraceptives increased from 54% to 63%. The institute attributes this dramatic increase to the change in social standards and the increased availability of contraceptives like condoms worldwide. Africa, however, pales in comparison to these other regions as only 28% of their married females regularly used contraceptives.

Data from the survey shows that the number of abortions occurs pretty equally across the globe whether that region has legal abortions or restricted abortions. What makes all the difference is the number of deaths associated with abortions that are done under unsafe conditions. Camp states, “Legal restrictions do not stop abortion from happening. They just make the procedure dangerous. Too many women are maimed or killed each year because they lack legal abortion access.” One example comes from Nigeria where a woman attempted to have an abortion by drinking an herbal tea. When that did not work, she asked the local healer what she should do and was told to insert leaves in her vaginal area. This caused her to suffer internal injuries.

McQade states, “The Catholic Church has informally at least stopped fighting against contraception to the degree it once did and put more of its energies into fighting abortion. On the ground there are priests and nuns who refer people to family planning services.” Susan Cohen from the Guttmacher Institute thinks there are both good and bad points from the report. She states, “The bad news is that where most of the poor women live, throughout the developing world, unsafe abortion remains high, and women are dying as a result of it. It’s so preventable, and that’s the tragedy.”

The new study had over 7,000 female high-school student participants and suggested that a teenage girl’s actual weight or simply the perception of her own weight could affect how likely she would be to participate in sexual behavior deemed risky. Results from the study showed that teenage girl who were considered underweight or overweight were less likely to utilize contraceptives like condoms than teenage girls who were considered normal-weight. Results were published in a recent issue of the Pediatrics journal. The data adds “to a growing body of literature that girls at the weight extremes may be at increased risk for engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors.”

Why this phenomenon exists is unclear to researchers in the study. In addition, another factor that plays a part in this scenario is a teenage girl’s race. Race combined with a teenage girl’s actual weight or perception of her own weight plays differently amongst Latina, black and white girls. The study was led by Dr. Aletha Yvette Akers from the University of Pittsburgh and data was utilized from a health survey sponsored by the government. In the survey, each girl was asked to answer questions about her sexual behavior, her height, her weight and her perception of herself weight-wise (i.e. too thin, too fat or just right). Fifty percent of the girls surveyed were no longer virgins; however, weight did not seem to play a factor in this.

Akers and her colleagues discovered that perception of weight had a profound influence on a teenage girl’s sexual behavior. Girls who considered themselves overweight were 20% less likely to admit to being sexually active; however, these same girls, if they did admit to being sexually active, had a higher chance of having their first sexual encounter before the age of 13. Underweight girls were 60% less likely than their normal-weight counterparts to use a condom during sexual relations. In terms of race, black girls who were underweight were also less likely to utilize contraceptives like condoms.

Akers and fellow researchers “speculate that girls with a negative body perception may have a limited capacity or willingness to negotiate effectively with partners resulting in higher rates of sexual risk behaviors.” The researchers suggest that a girl’s perception of her weight coupled with her race could be equally important as a girls’ actual weight in determining her sexual behavior.

The bill pushes that even the most basic benefits package offered by insurance companies should include maternity coverage. It also states that abortions will not be covered by public funding with the exception of cases that involve incest, rape or the mother being at risk of dying due to complications from the pregnancy. This focus on women does not mean that male issues are not being addressed. There are many healthcare activists working around the clock to make sure their issues get addressed. Two examples include Cecile Richards (president of Planned Parenthood) who wants an increase in reproductive health services and Joe Theismann (former quarterback for the Washington redskins) who wants to increase screenings and awareness of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Richards has been highly successful in lobbying for health reform with over 50,000 letters and e-mails sent to members of Congress and over 150 opinion editorials published in newspapers across the nation. Richards is not displeased about all the news coverage on women’s health issues. Richards states, “What we’re really worried about now is a nursing shortage if health reform passes. We’re having this problem at our family planning clinics in Massachusetts. We can’t seem to keep up with the demand.” Thus, it must have pleased Richards that the recently introduced healthcare bill has sections detailing coverage for nurses. One option discussed was an option to offer coverage for pregnant women and women who have recently given birth for nursing services offered at home. There was also a section detailing coverage for exclusive birth centers which would have staffs comprised of certified nurse-midwives. In addition, another issue high on Planned Parenthood’s list of reproductive services reform is teenage pregnancy which was also highlighted in the new health reform bill.

Theismann, on the other hand, wishes to raise awareness for abdominal aortic aneurysms. These are blood-filled sacs in the abdomen’s main artery that kill up to 9,000 men each year. Theismann was inspired to push for this reform after his father was diagnosed with one of these aneurysms and, fortunately, received treatment for it. If one of these aneurysms ruptures, only 10 to 25 percent of victims will survive it; however, there is a very simple ultrasound screening that can easily detect an aneurysm of this type and potentially save thousands of lives each year. Luckily, the new health reform bill is pushing for Medicare patients to be allowed these screenings.

The data stemming from this recent trial show that this type of vaccine may be better suited for those in the general public, as opposed to those who have an increased risk of contracting the virus, including homosexual men and drug users. This study was the first of its kind in that it was tested mainly amongst heterosexual people with an average risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Colonel Jerome Kim, a United States Army doctor who helped lead the study, states, “This study becomes a landmark. You can put it on a map and begin to figure out where you go from here.” In a recent issued report, researchers attached to this trial informed the public that a combination of two vaccines was reducing the risk of somebody contracting HIV by over 31% according to a Thai study that had over 16,000 voluntary participants.

In an update to these findings, results show that the vaccine is perhaps not as beneficial as previously thought. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a sponsor of the study, feels this may be attributed to the fact that only a few of the participants (125 people) contracted HIV, which is 10 times less than other HIV vaccine trials. To the critics of this study, Dr. Alan Bernstein, the executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, states, “The bottom line is that those results are real. We, for the first time, have evidence of protection, and the nitty gritty (arguments) to me don’t matter a damn.” He has the support of many other researchers, including Dr. Lawrence Corey from the University of Washington, who states, “It’s a consistent story. There seems to be some effect. And I think it is an important study. It redirects the field to look at a different kind of vaccine and different kinds of immune responses.”

The combination vaccine trial was conducted by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health and had over 16,000 participants, both male and female, between the ages of 18 to 30. All of the participants tested HIV-negative and had an average risk of contracting the virus. Half of the participants received the combination vaccine and the other half received dummy shots. Results showed a 31% lower risk of contracting HIV in the group that had received the vaccine. Discussing the results of the study, Dr. Raphael Dolin from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, states, “Perhaps the requirements for protection against transmission in low-risk heterosexual persons are considerably different or less stringent.”

Of those who were brave enough to participate in this study, twenty percent of them admitted to consistently making excuses in order to not have sex. We’ve all heard the old standup routine where the disgruntled and sexually frustrated husband asks “What’s the best way to never have sex again? Get married.” There is a hint, if not a huge fraction, of truth in that. As couples migrate from the courting stage to the long-term relationship to marriage and kids, it seems more often than not that sex gets tossed to the back burner. The OnePoll.com survey had approximately 4,000 British participants and in a surprising twist, males were actually more likely to throw out an excuse to not have sex than women.

The number one excuse for turning down sex for both males and females was the old standby of “I’m too tired.” There were several other excuses that ranked high on the list including, “I’m angry with you,” “I’ve got to get up early in the morning,” “I’m preoccupied with work,” “I’m not in the mood,” “I can hear one of the children” and, my vote for the weirdest high ranked excuse, “You need a shower.” Fifty percent of men suggested that being too tired was their main reason for postponing sex while 75% of women just did not feel in the mood for it.

I can imagine we’ve all been on both sides of the coin in some of these scenarios and can understand that a whole range of emotions gets tapped in situation like this. Guilt for not wanting to have sex when your partner does or disappointment when you’re in the mood and your partner simply turns their back to you and falls asleep. However, bear in mind that there are plenty of reasons when an excuse not to have sex is completely warranted. Some valid excuses include not having a condom and/or forgetting to take a birth control pill, drinking too much and not having your senses intact, having a sexually transmitted disease that you do not want to transmit/contract to/from your potential partner or not really liking/loving the person you are potentially going to have sex with.