[Leslie Carol Botha: According to the study ..."Forty percent of respondents  said birth control was not important because when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen." How misinformed can one be - unless of course women want their lives changed forever by an unplanned pregnancy or an STD.]

60 Percent Of Young Adults Misinformed About Birth Control As Abstinence-Only Education Flourishes: Study

International Business Times
By Ashley Portero
May 14, 2012 1:08 PM EDT

Sixty percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 may not truly understand how proper use of contraception can prevent pregnancy, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute, which reports abstinence-only sex education may be leaving young adults with a subpar understanding of sexual health.

After quizzing a nationally representative group of 1,800 unmarried women and men in that age group, the study,  published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, concluded that more than half of the respondents received low scores on contraceptive knowledge, with 60 percent reportedly underestimating the effectiveness of birth control pills.

The quiz asked respondents to choose “true” or “false” answers for basic statements such as “all IUDs are banned from use in the United States” or “condoms have an expiration date.” More than half of the men and a quarter of the women received either a D or F on the quiz.

Although a majority of the respondents — 69 percent of women and almost half of the men — agreed they were “committed to avoiding pregnancy,” they seemed to question whether contraceptive devices such as condoms or birth control pills were an effective way to achieve that goal. A considerable 40 percent of respondents said contraception doesn’t matter because “when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen.”

Those results may be particularly concerning since women between the ages of 18 and 29 have higher rates of unintended pregnancies than any other age group, the Guttmacher Institute reports.The study, which found that variables such as a fear of side effects (as a result of contraceptives) and mistrust of government’s role in promoting contraception was associated with risky birth control practices, concluded that “programs to increase young adults’ knowledge about contraceptive methods and use are urgently needed.”

Article found on the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research Blog -  re: Cycling

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Read the complete article and related information at Study: Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Leaves Young Adults Misinformed About Birth Control

[Leslie Carol Botha: Predicting  mental illness in teens is a slippery slope. Especially if Pharma is lurking in the background with a round of drugs.  Science is showing that mental illness along with addictions can be managed and treated with nutrition - not medications.]

National Institute of Mental Health
Science Update • April 02, 2012

Pattern Recognition Technology May Help Predict Future Mental Illness in Teens

A technique combining computer-based pattern recognition and brain imaging data accurately distinguished teens at risk for mental disorders from those with low risk and may someday be useful in predicting risk in individuals, according to an NIMH-funded study published February 15, 2012, in the journal PLoS One.

Background

Research on risk for mental disorders generally describes risk factors that apply to groups. To date, no biological measures can accurately predict an individual’s risk of future mental disorders.

Mary Phillips, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues evaluated the use of computer-based techniques that automatically find patterns in data—these techniques are collectively called machine learning—with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The researchers obtained fMRI data from 32 teens, half of whom had at least one biological parent diagnosed with bipolar disorder and were therefore at genetic risk for future psychiatric disorders. The other half of teens had no history of mental disorders either personally or in their immediate families.

The teens’ brain activity was assessed as they identified the gender of actors depicting various emotional facial expressions (happy, fearful, or neutral) in a series of photographs. Previous research has linked various mental disorders, especially depression and bipolar disorder, with abnormal patterns of brain activity during this task. Based on this fMRI data, the researchers used machine learning to calculate each participant’s odds for future mental illness.

The participants were also assessed clinically and with fMRI at the start of the study, and clinically assessed again about two years later, on average. Long-term follow up is ongoing, with successive face-to-face assessments occurring every other year.

Results

Machine learning combined with fMRI accurately identified most of the healthy teens at genetic risk of future mental disorders vs. healthy teens with low genetic risk. Four of the 16 at-risk teens were misidentified as having low risk.

At the two-year follow up, none of the at-risk teens had developed bipolar disorder, but six were diagnosed with major depression or an anxiety disorder. Among all the at-risk teens identified through machine learning, these six had received the highest odds for belonging to the at-risk group.

Three of the four at-risk teens misidentified as belonging to the low risk group at the start of the study remained healthy at the second assessment. Clinical information for the fourth teen was not available at the time of follow-up.

Significance

Though still a very preliminary study, according to the researchers, machine learning combined with fMRI shows promise for predicting individual risk of developing future mental disorders, especially in at-risk populations.

The ongoing follow-up may also yield further insights into the relationship between depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. Many studies have shown that bipolar disorder is often preceded by depression or anxiety disorders, and that these disorders may affect the course of subsequent bipolar disorder.

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Read the complete article and related information at Predicting Mental Illness in Teens

Poverty Matters Blog

Posted by Ofra Koffman
Friday 10 February 2012 02.00 EST

Girls sell coffee in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photograph: Alamy

Many development organisations see empowering girls – and enabling them to delay childbearing – as a powerful means to tackle poverty, but the evidence so far doesn’t bear this out.

The call to invest in adolescent girls has been sweeping the development field in recent years. Among the supporters of this policy are key stakeholders such as the UK Department for International Development (DfID), the World Bank and several UN agencies.

In part, this is linked with the effort of Nike and its philanthropic arm, the Nike Foundation. Several years ago the foundation began focusing on adolescent girls, coining the term the “girl effect” (on development). The empowerment of girls, it is argued, is a powerful way to tackle poverty. This is because, as a special UN taskforce claimed in 2010, empowered girls will “marry later, delay childbearing, have healthier children, and earn better incomes that will benefit themselves, their families, communities and nations”.

The slogan used by DfID describes this as “stopping poverty before it starts”. But is it really so straightforward? At the heart of this policy is the assumption that the prevalence of early marriage and childbearing is a key factor affecting a country’s economic prospects. However, a glance at the statistical data reveals there are many developing countries in which adolescent fertility is actually less prevalent than in the US, one of the world’s wealthiest nations.

For example, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco, all had lower rates of adolescent fertility than the US in the last reported year. In Rwanda, one of the countries where DfID and the Nike Foundation are rolling out girl-focused interventions, adolescent fertility is not much higher than in the US. These examples highlight the limit of the association between the prevalence of early childbearing and a country’s economic standing.

Even more questions arise if we consider the UK’s experience of teenage pregnancy prevention. In the UK, teenage motherhood was described as linked with incomplete education, economic difficulty and poor health. In the late 1990s, the Labour government launched a 10-year strategy to curb the rate of teenage pregnancy. The effort was based on the assumption that if young women postponed childbearing, their economic prospects would improve.

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Read the complete article and related information at Will the ‘girl effect’ really help to combat poverty?

Male perspective on what is going on with women….. would love to see real women – be asked to give their opinion.  Mass Hysteria – Conversion Disorder a non-scientific misogynist diagnosis….coming soon to a clinic near you….

Discovery News

Strange History: Mass Hysteria Through the Years

Analysis by Benjamin Radford
Mon Feb 6, 2012 05:28 PM ET

The news media has been abuzz recently about a seemingly mysterious illness that has nearly two dozen students at LeRoy High School in western New York twitching and convulsing uncontrollably.

Most doctors and experts believe that the students are suffering from mass sociogenic illness, also known as mass hysteria. In these cases, psychological symptoms manifest as physical conditions.

NEWS: Is Social Media Spreading Twitching Hysteria?

Sociologist Robert Bartholomew, author of several books on mass hysteria including The Martians Have Landed: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes, explained to Discovery News that “there are two main types of contagious conversion disorder. The most common in Western countries is triggered by extreme, sudden stress; usually a bad smell. Symptoms typically include dizziness, headaches, fainting and over-breathing, and resolve within about a day.”

In contrast, Bartholomew said, “The LeRoy students are experiencing the rarer, more serious type affecting muscle motor function and commonly involves twitching, shaking, facial tics, difficulty communicating and trance states. Symptoms appear slowly over weeks or months under exposure to longstanding stress, and typically take weeks or months to subside.”

Mass hysteria cases are more common than people realize and have been reported all over the world for centuries. Here’s a look at some famous — and bizarre — cases of mass hysteria in history.

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon

Many cases of mass hysteria are spawned by reports of strange or mysterious odors. One of the most famous cases occurred in 1944 when residents of Mattoon, Ill., reported that a “mad gasser” was loose in the small town.

It began with one woman named Aline Kearney, who smelled something odd outside her window. Soon she said her throat and lips were burning, and she began to panic when she felt her legs becoming paralyzed. She called police, and her symptoms soon subsided. Her husband, upon returning home later, reported glimpsing a shadowy figure lurking nearby. The “gas attack” (as it was assumed to be) on Mrs. Kearney was not only the gossip of the neighborhood but also reported in the local newspaper, and soon others in the small town reported odd odors and experiencing short-lived symptoms such as breathlessness, nausea, headache, dizziness and weakness. No “mad gasser” was ever found, and no trace of the mysterious gas was detected.

The French Meowing Nuns

Before 1900 many reports of mass hysteria occurred within the context of religious institutions. European convents in particular were often the settings for outbreaks. In one case the symptoms manifested in strange collective behavior; a source from 1844 reported that “a nun, in a very large convent in France, began to meow like a cat; shortly afterwards other nuns also meowed.

At last all the nuns meowed together every day at a certain time for several hours together.” The meowing went on until neighbors complained and soldiers were called, threatening to whip the nuns until they stopped meowing. During this era, belief in possession (such as by animals or demons, for example) was common, and cats in particular were suspected of being in league with Satan. These outbreaks of animal-like noises and behaviors usually lasted anywhere from a few days to a few months, though some came and went over the course of years.

The Pokémon Panic

A strange and seemingly inexplicable outbreak of bizarre behavior struck Japan in mid-December 1997, when thousands of Japanese schoolchildren experienced frightening seizures after watching an episode of the popular cartoon “Pokémon.” Intense flashes of light during the show triggered relatively harmless and brief seizures, nausea, and headaches. Doctors diagnosed some of the children with a rare, pre-existing condition called photosensitive epilepsy, in which bright flashing lights used in the cartoon can trigger the symptoms.

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Read the complete article and related information at Mass Hysteria Through the Years: Strange His-Story

Not sure what is more upsetting – the government being allowed to do this in the first…. or the objectified picture of a young beautiful girl passively lying on the table while having this synthetic implant inserted under her skin.

Mail Online

Parents furious as 13-year-old girls given contraceptive implants at school without their knowledge

By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 4:09 PM on 8th February 2012

• Devices temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood
• In 2011, 1,700 girls aged 13/14 were fitted with implants
  
• Under ‘patient confidentiality’ rules, school staff are banned from seeking permission of parents beforehand

The contraceptive implant Nexplanon is 4cm long and is inserted under the skin. A parent was outraged after it was implanted in her 13-year-old's arm .

Nurses insert devices into their arms which temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood.

Last year 1,700 girls aged 13 and 14 were fitted with implants, while 800 had injections which have the same effect.

The 2010/11 NHS figures also show that 3,200 15-year-old girls were fitted with implants, and 1,700 had injections.

Read the complete article and related information at Parents furious as 13-year-old daughters given contraceptive implants without their knowledge or consent

NPR

by Shefali S. Kulkarni
February 8, 2012

Teen pregnancies are at their lowest rate in nearly 40 years, according to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization focused on sexual and reproductive health.

The report shows that about 7 percent of U.S. teen girls between the ages of 15 to 19 were pregnant in 2008 — a decline from the high of more than 11 percent in 1990. Abortions among teen girls fell from a peak of more than 4 percent in 1988 to about 1.8 percent in 2008, the latest year for which data are available.

While overall rates have dropped, there is still a major gap separating white, Hispanic and black teenagers.

Non-Hispanic white teen pregnancy rates fell by 50 percent from their peak; Hispanic teen pregnancy rates, 37 percent; black teen pregnancy rates, 48 percent.

Yet, according to the report, “the abortion rate among black teenagers was four times the rate for non-Hispanic whites, while the rate among Hispanic teenagers was twice the rate for non-Hispanic white teenagers.”

“The disparity has pretty much been unchanged,” said Kathryn Kost, a Guttmacher researcher and co-author of the report. “If you think of these rates as lines on a graph, they are all going down, but the distance between them is pretty much unchanged.”

The report does not distinguish between married and unmarried teens.

Kost said the increase in contraceptive marketing has helped to reduce pregnancies, but Heather Boonstra, a senior public policy associate at Guttmacher said the cost of contraceptives continues to be a factor. Boonstra said increasing the age limit for dependent health care coverage to 26 will increase access to birth control for many teens.

“There’s plenty of evidence that shows that if you take away cost in the equation,there is going to be better contraceptive use, fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer abortions, better birth outcomes,” she said. “The health care reform law was not designed with teens in mind, but … the more parents that are insured, the more teens or their dependents are insured, so certainly that will help.”

Bill Albert, the chief program officer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, said the decreased rates are a sign of progress, but more remains to be done. He noted that 3 in 10 girls are pregnant by age 20.

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Read the complete article and related information at Teen Pregnancies Hit New Low, But Disparities Remain

Age of Autism

February 8, 2012
By Teresa Conrick

I have been following all of the news and reports on the teens and now two adults who have developed sudden onset tics and Tourette-like symptoms in upper NY.  It is an unanswered medical phenomenon still and one that is devastating.  One thing that seems certain — the issue of Conversion Disorder vs Immune Disorder needs a further analysis.  A report titled, “Investigation of Neurologic Symptoms among Le Roy Jr/Sr High School Students, October 2011 – January 2012″  has been made available for viewing and some interesting pieces of information seem worthy of our attention:

All cases were female. Three of the 12 cases were identified as having pre-existing medical conditions associated with tic disorders. Two of the three cases, who were tic free for a period of time, experienced an exacerbation of tic symptoms during this time period. The third case was identified as having a previous diagnosis of Tourette’s disorder and did not have a new onset of tic symptoms, but rather an acceleration of on-going tics during this time period. Onsets of tic symptoms ranged from May 2011 to December 2011 for the nine new onsets.

My good and learned friends here at Age of Autism, Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted, have been writing about LeRoy and some of the intriguing (AofA Tics and Toxins A History of Building Woes) and significant environmental factors that may be at play. (AofA Tics and Toxins Playing Fields on FEMA Flood Hazard)  Kevin Barry, an avid Age of Autism reader and researcher,  also included some historical, pertinent pieces as to what could be making some of the teens so ill.  Having my own daughter with similar issues of sudden onset motor and vocal tics, seizures and a history of repeated Strep infections, parasites, and lengthy viral illnesses has made the search for the source of this mystery all the more important to me.

Since Dan, Mark and Kevin all mentioned WATER as an important variable as to what was different in the LeRoy area this past Spring, I agree and also wondered if that played into another source of illness — STREP.  PANDAS/PANS -  Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome has been denied and dismissed quickly by many of the NY investigators and medical personnel.  Doctor Rosario Trifiletti, who specializes in PANS, visited Le Roy to take blood and tissue samples from some of the affected teen girls, so he could test for PANS. The results are pending.  A very thorough article from Scientific Scientific American – “Could an Infection Cause Tourette’s-Like Symptoms in Teenage Girls?”   echoes that possibility:

“PANS is a new name for an old idea: that infections by bacteria, viruses or parasites can cause the sudden onset of neuropsychiatric ailments such as Tourette’s and obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD.  (Tic disorders like Tourette’s are closely related to OCD, sharing many symptoms and often coexisting in patients.  PANS is more commonly known by its former name, PANDAS—pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infection—because the first known cases were in kids who had strep throat and then suddenly developed OCD. But researchers have realized in recent years that a variety of infectious agents—not just strep—can cause mental illness….. OCD expert, Michael Jenike, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains what PANS is and why it might account for the mysterious illness in Le Roy……It’s the sudden onset of a neuropsychiatric disorder: OCD, anorexia or psychosis, cognitive problems. Initially, PANDAS was associated with strep. It turns out that other infections like mycoplasma, certain viruses, Lyme disease—these also produce the same thing. So it’s not necessarily associated with strep, and they changed the name to reflect that. Now it’s any sudden-onset neuropsychiatric disease.

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Read the complete article and related information at Conversion Disorder in Leroy NY?

The Telegraph

Girls as young as 13 will be pressed to have contraceptive jabs under Government plans to “urgently” bring down teenage pregnancy rates.

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Read the complete article and related information at Ministers tell councils to push contraceptive jabs and implants

What they are not telling you is that Depo is also used as a castration drug on sex offenders in prison.  First HPV vaccination and now birth control without parental consent?

Girls as young as 13 have been fitted with contraceptive implants at school without their parents knowing.

The Telegraph

10:46AM GMT 07 Feb 2012

Health chiefs have defended sexual health services going into schools, saying teenage pregnancies had dropped by 22 per cent as a result Photo: Alamy

The procedure was carried out in Southampton, Hants, as part of a government initiative to drive down teenage pregnancies.

Read the complete article and related information at 13 Yr. Old Girls Get Contraceptive Implants at School

MSN

Health Today

January 19, 2012

The day after TODAY reported on the baffling case of 12 teenage girls at one school who mysteriously fell ill with Tourette’s-like symptoms of tics and verbal outbursts, a doctor who is treating some of the girls has come forward to offer an explanation. Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist in Amherst, N.Y., says the diagnosis is “conversion disorder,” or mass hysteria.

“It’s happened before, all around the world, in different parts of the world. It’s a rare phenomena. Physicians are intrigued by it,” Mechtler told TODAY on Wednesday. “The bottom line is these teenagers will get better.”

On the show Tuesday, psychologist and TODAY contributor Dr. Gail Saltz noted that just because the girls’ symptoms may be psychological in origin doesn’t make them any less real or painful.

“That’s not faking it. They’re real symptoms,” Saltz continued. “They need a psychiatric or psychological treatment. Treatment does work.’’

Conversion disorder symptoms usually occur after a stress event, although a patient can be more at risk if also suffering from an illness. Symptoms may last for days or weeks and can include blindness, inability to speak, numbness or other neurologic problems.

It’s unclear which of the girls first showed symptoms, or whether any particular event triggered the outbreak. High school cheerleader and art student Thera Sanchez says her tics, stammer and verbal outbursts appeared out of the blue after a nap one day last October.

“I was fine. I was perfectly fine. There was nothing going on, and then I just woke up, and that’s when the stuttering started,” Sanchez told TODAY.

“I’m very angry,’’ Sanchez told TODAY’s Ann Curry during an interview Tuesday. “I’m very frustrated. No one’s giving me answers.’’

The New York State Health Department has been investigating the case for more than three months and says the school building is not to blame. Officials from the LeRoy Junior-Senior High School in upstate New York, where all the girls attended when their symptoms began, have released environmental reports, conducted by an outside agency, showing no substances in any of the school buildings that could cause health problems.

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Read the complete article and related information at Teen girls’ mystery illness: mass hysteria