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What is the policy for providing emergency contraception (EC) at your facility? About 81% of respondents to the 2004 Contraceptive Technology Update Contraception Survey say their facilities prescribe EC on site and provide emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) at any time, which continues a trend of strong support for the method.
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Should a woman who is obese and continues to gain weight on Depo-Provera [depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), Pfizer, New York City] be allowed to continue its use if she so desires? Are providers contributing to the health risk of obesity by allowing a woman to do so?
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Adolescents and their parents may have become confused on when to schedule a teens first gynecologic exam when updated cervical cancer screening guidelines were issued in November 2002 by the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society. The 2002 guidelines called for Pap tests beginning either at age 21 or three years after a woman first has sexual intercourse; previous recommendations advised an initial Pap screen shortly after first intercourse or by age 18, whichever occurred first.
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What do you cover when you conduct a teens first gynecologic exam? Understand that an adolescents initial visit may not necessarily include a pelvic examination or a Pap test, but that it should cover a wide spectrum of issues facing a young woman of reproductive age.
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The increasing federal investment in abstinence-only education is one of the more notable social policy trends of the past decade. Programs must exclusively promote abstinence and therefore cannot discuss the positive benefits of contraception or condoms, because doing so would purportedly undermine the abstinence message.
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Good news for family planning providers: Salary levels are reflecting a modest increase in 2004, according to the results of the annual Contraceptive Technology Update salary survey. The survey was mailed in July 2004 to 1,247 subscribers and had a response of 229, for a response rate of 18.36%.
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Did the office telephone lines start buzzing when the media broadcasted reports of adverse events linked to use of the transdermal contraceptive Ortho Evra? Theres no doubt that clinicians have, since those reports, fielded many questions about the safety of the patch, which has been used by about 4 million women since its November 2001 approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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American women are one step closer to having a contraceptive implant option with the recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issuance of approvable status for Implanon, the single-rod contraceptive implant from Organon (West Orange, NJ).
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You suspect that your 17-year-old patient may have a chlamydia infection. Thanks to a nucleic acid amplification screen on a urine specimen, you are able to detect the sexually transmitted disease (STD) and report the results the next day.
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Research has been a cornerstone of contraceptive technology; the following noninclusive list includes 25 articles of note from the past 25 years. Several selections are offered by Deborah Kowal, MA, adjunct assistant professor in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, co-author of Contraceptive Technology, and the first editor for Contraceptive Technology Update.
