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.

An economic evaluation of screening for Chlamydia trachomatis in adolescent males.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of identifying asymptomatic carriers of Chlamydia trachomatis among adolescent males.

Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis based on cohort analytic studies previously reported and average salaries and costs of medical care in Sweden.

Setting: Adolescent males attending a primary care center for routine health checks.

Sexual behavior among adolescents in Uppsala, Sweden.

The purpose of this study was to compare the sexual behavior of Swedish teenagers in the late 1980s with that in the late 1970s, when a similar study was performed in the same city. Another aim was to discover differences between boys and girls, smokers and nonsmokers, and pupils in theoretical and practical classes. A total of 383 high-school students answered a questionnaire about their sexual behavior, education, and attitudes.

Swedish adolescents' knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases and their attitudes to the condom.

In an attempt to assess the risk of AIDS infection in teenagers in Sweden a survey of adolescent sexual behaviour was conducted in Uppsala. Two hundred and nine students in the first form of an upper secondary school completed a questionnaire at the beginning of a lesson on family life. Half the female and 45% of the male students reported having had sexual intercourse.

Age dependence of blood fibrinolytic components and the effects of low-dose oral contraceptives on coagulation and fibrinolysis in teenagers.

Basal t-PA antigen concentration, PAI-I activity and fibrinolytic capacity was studied in plasma from 20 healthy teenager girls (age 15.9 +/- 1.3 years) and two groups of older healthy volunteers, consisting of 17 women (age 32 +/- 8 years, group 1) and 35 men (age 34 +/- 8 years, group 2).

Return of ovulation after abortion and after discontinuation of oral contraceptives.

The return of ovulation after abortion and discontinuation of oral contraceptives was determined by plasma progesterone measurements. Plasma samples were obtained from 67 women at 3 to 6 weeks after abortion and in two groups of postabortion women at 3 to 6 weeks after cessation of oral contraceptives. In the first of these latter two groups, 50 women started taking the pills (containing 30 microgram of ethinylestradiol and 150 microgram of levonorgestrel) immediately after abortion, and the second group of 29 women started taking the pills from the first postabortion menses.