Copyright 2009 Medical News Today Latest Sexual Health / STDs News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/sexual_health/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170187.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170187.php During this month, more than 40,000 young people in Hillingdon will be receiving Chlamydia information through the post and a chance to order a free Chlamydia postal test kit. Young people can get tested for free at many sites in the borough including their GP, local Pharmacies, Contraception and sexual health clinics. Terrence Higgins Trust has been commissioned by NHS Hillingdon to assist their health professionals in running this scheme. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170067.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170067.php The Wisconsin Assembly on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill (AB 458) that would require schools that teach sex education to include instruction on contraception, the AP/Sheboygan Press reports. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170104.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170104.php The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that Stiff Nights, a product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure and is illegal. Over the past several years, the FDA has found Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170064.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170064.php Voters in Revere, Mass., on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative that would have overturned a policy allowing the high school's health clinic to make contraception available, including condoms and emergency contraception, the Boston Globe reports. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170095.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170095.php Responding to today's announcement by Ed Balls MP on statutory personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and the SRE Review group recommendation that parental right to withdraw maintained and lowered to 15, Dr Peter Carter of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) praised the 'common-sense' approach which would improve opportunities for sex education and ultimately help tackle the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170038.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170038.php Helix BioPharma Corp. (TSX, FSE: "HBP" / OTCQX: HXBPF) announced that its Phase II trial of Topical Interferon Alpha-2b for the treatment of ano-genital warts (AGW) has completed patient enrollment, with the required 120th patient randomized to enter the trial. The double-blind and placebo-controlled Phase II trial is underway at multiple centers in Germany and Sweden. Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170068.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170068.php Abortion-rights advocate Sister Donna Quinn of the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican order announced Tuesday that she would be temporarily suspending her activities as an escort for patients outside of the ACU Health Clinic in Hinsdale, Wis., a clinic that provides abortion services, after receiving a reprimand from the order, the Abortion Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170020.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170020.php Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) has launched 'Connect Online Counselling' - a new online counselling service for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community nationwide. The service aims to give people the chance to explore difficulties or challenges in their lives, make sense of experiences and find solutions or coping mechanisms when faced with problems. Sessions can be used to discuss anything from problems at home or work, to drug use or sexual risk taking. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170002.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170002.php New research shows that during natural menstrual cycles, women with asthma who were not taking oral contraceptives (OC) had lower exhaled nitric oxide levels (eNO), a marker of airway inflammation associated with asthma, than women who were taking OC. Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada, studied 17 women with asthma during their menstrual cycles. Respiratory / Asthma Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169956.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169956.php A study at Johns Hopkins Children's Center found that girls diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) who watched a short educational video were three times more likely to discuss their condition with their partners and to ensure partner treatment than girls diagnosed and treated without seeing the film. Sexual Health / STDs Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169787.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169787.php The Baltimore Sun recently published an opinion piece and an editorial related to reproductive health issues. Summaries appear below.  Susan Reimer, Pregnancy / Obstetrics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169403.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169403.php Legislation (FID 09-0406) before the Baltimore City Council that would require crisis pregnancy centers to post signs stating that they do not provide abortion services prompted a "contentious" debate at a hearing on Wednesday, the Baltimore Sun reports. Abortion Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169402.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169402.php The U.S.' "recent experience with abstinence-only sex education is merely the latest chapter in our long, sometimes ridiculous ... history of efforts to control humankind's most basic drive," Johannah Cornblatt writes in a Newsweek article examining the history of sex education. Organized sex education first gained attention during the urbanization movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, accordiong to Cornblatt. Sexual Health / STDs Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169406.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169406.php Experts at an HIV/AIDS conference in Russia on Wednesday urged Russian officials to end the country's focus on abstinence as a strategy for curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS and adopt a more comprehensive approach that includes harm reduction programs, the AP/New York Times reports. HIV / AIDS Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169442.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169442.php A new study from a researcher at Harvard University finds that gay men are most attracted to the most masculine-faced men, while straight men prefer the most feminine-faced women. The findings suggest that regardless of sexual orientation, men's brains are wired for attraction to sexually dimorphic faces - those with facial features that are most synonymous with their gender. Sexual Health / STDs Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169369.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169369.php On 14 October 2009, two half-day training sessions were held for support staff involved in the London commissioned chlamydia service. The training was run by the NPA Pharmacy Services team with support from the Terence Higgins Trust. Sexual Health / STDs Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169392.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169392.php The much-anticipated movie Precious opens on November 6. The film, whose executive producers include Oprah Winfrey, tells the bleak story of an obese, illiterate 16-year-old Harlem girl who is pregnant with her second child (the result both times of sexual assaults by her father) and who suffers daily verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her mother. Pediatrics / Children's Health Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169379.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169379.php Researchers in New York City are reporting their work uncovering a new epidemic of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) who have HIV infection. These authors have previously reported unusually rapid fibrosis progression due to new HCV in MSM who have HIV infection and now expand on their findings, demonstrating that sexual transmission rather than injection drug use is the route of infection. Liver Disease / Hepatitis Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169278.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169278.php NPR explores the reasons for the high rates of HIV/AIDS infection among black women: "African-Americans, who only make up 1+2 percent of the U.S. population, account for nearly half of those living with HIV. More specifically, black women represent 61 percent of the new HIV cases among all women. HIV / AIDS Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169286.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169286.php Two United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) conferences this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, gathered "international policymakers, government ministers, and lawmakers" to address the half a million maternal deaths annually, Women's Health / Gynecology Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169256.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169256.php Abstinence-only sex education programs that received substantial federal grants under the Bush administration are turning to private donors as an attempt to keep their programs running, Newsweek reports. Since 1997, the abstinence-only industry has received a total of $1.9 billion in government funding, including $1.5 billion from the federal government. Sexual Health / STDs Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169212.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169212.php A University of Pittsburgh study sheds new light on the relationship between race, body weight and sexual behavior among adolescent girls. The results suggest that a girl's ethnicity and her actual weight or perception of her weight may play a role in her participation in risky sexual behaviors. The study results are published in the November issue of Pediatrics, now available Sexual Health / STDs Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169132.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169132.php Targeting the five major causes of premature death could increase global life expectancy by almost five years, the WHO said Tuesday, Reuters reports. According to a WHO's Nutrition / Diet Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169096.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169096.php A European study has defined the profile for the usage of long-acting contraceptive methods. The work, presented with the National Congress of Gynaecology award, shows, amongst other things, that 10% of women use these methods, the majority over 30 years old. Sexual Health / STDs Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169068.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169068.php Perhaps the most comprehensive, multi-institutional study yet of the sexually transmitted bacteria chlamydia is under way at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). A new $12.2 million, grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, will allow a team of scientists, to perform molecular genomics analyses of the disease-causing powers of chlamydia on a scale never attempted before, according to NIH officials. Sexual Health / STDs