The cost of the menstrual cycle in young Swedish women.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cost of the menstrual cycle for young Swedish women aged 14-20 years. The young women were randomly selected and interviewed by a trained female psychologist; a total of 68 young women completed the interviews. Twenty of the girls used oral contraceptives, while 48 had natural periods.

Contraceptive strategies for young women in the 21st century.

Safe, effective and affordable contraceptives have been available for a few decades, yet, in many countries, the struggle for reproductive rights continues. Children, still, are forced to give birth to children in many nations. In most industrialized countries, where contraceptive counselling and abortions have been options, fertility rates have reached all time lows.

Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera) and levonorgestrel (Norplant) use in adolescents among clinicians in Northern Europe and the United States.

Purpose: To compare attitudes and practices related to clinicians' use of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate [Depo-Provera (DMPA)] and levonorgestrel implants in adolescents in three northern European countries and the United States.

Methods: Between the fall of 1993 and the winter of 1995, surveys eliciting clinician attitudes and practices with the two contraceptive methods were collected from practitioners who provide contraceptive care to teens in Sweden (n = 282), The Netherlands (n = 197), Great Britain (n = 108), and the United States (n = 548).

Results: Clinicians in Great Britain and the United States reported prescribing of DMPA, selected DMPA in their top three choices for contraception in teens, and had patients ask about DMPA more frequently than clinicians in Sweden or The Netherlands (p < 0.

Adolescent sexuality: an educational and counseling challenge.

A review of family-planning literature reveals that researchers adopt narrow definitions of sexual behavior and focus almost exclusively on risks of pregnancy and diseases. Little concern is shown in these articles about promoting the idea of more communicative, pleasurable, and egalitarian sexual relations among teenagers, because the focus is on avoiding behaviors that are defined as "high risk." In the United States, there is little evidence that these contraceptive-based sex education programs have resulted in reduced sexual activity, diminished teenage-pregnancy rates, or increased effective contraceptive use.

The absence of vaginal human papillomavirus 16 DNA in women who have not experienced sexual intercourse.

Objective: To determine whether young women who have not experienced sexual intercourse may harbor genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the vaginal-ectocervical mucosa.

Methods: We included 151 women, 10-25 years of age, attending two adolescent health care units (Stockholm and Uppsala) and one primary health care center (Umeå). The size of the hymenal orifice, use of tampons, and the habit of digital vaginal manipulation were registered.