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Confidential reproductive health services for minors: the potential impact of mandated parental involvement for contraception.

CONTEXT: Recent legislative efforts to implement mandated parental involvement for minor adolescents seeking family planning services threaten the rights of adolescents younger than 18 to access reproductive health care. METHODS: State and federal laws and policies pertaining to minor adolescents' rights to access services for contraception and sexually transmitted diseases are reviewed, and research examining issues of parental involvement among adolescents using clinic-based reproductive health services is synthesized. RESULTS: Attempts to mandate parental involvement for reproductive health care often focus on contraceptive services and are typically linked to federal or state funding. Studies of teenagers using clinic-based family planning services suggest that slightly more than one-half would obtain contraceptives at family planning clinics even if parental notification were required. Mandated parental involvement for contraception would discourage few teenagers from having sex, but would likely result in more teenagers' using the least effective methods, such as withdrawal, or no method at all. Family planning clinics encourage teenagers to voluntarily talk to their parents, but relatively little information is available about the extent to which activities to promote parent-child communication have been adopted. CONCLUSIONS: Mandated parental involvement for teenagers seeking contraceptive care would likely contribute to increases in rates of teenage pregnancy. Research that will help clinics implement and improve efforts to encourage voluntary parental involvement is urgently needed.

Adolescent↗

Partial reversal of ethanol-induced male reproductive pathology following abstinence.

To date, no longitudinal studies have been carried out to determine the recovery of ethanol-related reproductive failure subsequent to moderate periods of abstinence. An animal model (C57B1 mouse) was utilized to examine the effectiveness of abstinence for reversal of ethanol-induced reproductive failure. After treatment with either a 5% (v/v) ethanol diet (10 weeks) or a 6% (v/v) ethanol diet (5 weeks), ethanol-treated animals and their pair-fed controls were electroejaculated and hemicastrated (right testis and accessory organs); their reproductive tracts and epididymal spermatozoa were examined. Ingestion of the 5% and 6% ethanol diets resulted in significantly (P less than 0.05) decreased weights of testes (24% and 28%, respectively) and seminal vesicles/prostate (20%, 6% diet only), increased frequencies of germ cell desquamation (480% and 400%), inactive seminiferous tubules (186% and 567%), sperm dysmorphology (31% and 119%) and inhibition of in vitro fertilization of mouse oocytes by epididymal spermatozoa (26% and 62%), as compared to their respective pair-fed control values. Also observed were significant decreases in epididymal sperm content (72%, 6% diet only), total motile spermatozoa (85%, 6% diet only) and seminal vesicles epithelial cell height (13% and 29%). No abnormal semen parameters were observed after treatment with the 5% ethanol diet; however, in animals treated with the 6% diet, significant decreases were noted in coagulum weight (50%), sperm count (85%) and acid phosphatase content (53%). Improvement in all parameters was observed in the contralateral half of the reproductive tract subsequent to 10 weeks abstinence. Only germ cell desquamation remained significantly elevated (100% as compared to control) in animals that ingested the 5% diet. In contrast, significant abnormalities persisting 10 weeks after treatment with the 6% ethanol diet included increased germ cell desquamation (200%), inactive seminiferous tubules (157%) and sperm dysmorphology (39%) and decreased forward progression (17%) of epididymal sperm, as compared to values. These findings are discussed in relation to the influence of alcohol consumption on male reproductive function in man.

Animals↗

Sexuality and women's rights in armed conflict in Sri Lanka.

The discourse of human rights in armed conflict situations is well adapted to respond to violence and violation, invoking internationally agreed principles of civil and political rights. However, in areas where the subject or domain of rights discourse is contested or controversial, human rights advocates appear less prepared to promote and defend such rights. Sexuality is one such domain. This paper explores the complex sexual choices women in Sri Lanka have had to negotiate, particularly widows and sex workers, within a context of ethnic conflict, militarisation and war. It argues that sexuality cannot be defined exclusively in terms of violation, even in a context dominated by violence, and that the sexual ordering of society may be subverted in such conditions. Newly widowed women and sex workers have had to negotiate self-determination as well as take responsibility for earning income and heading households, in spite of contrary community pressures. For women, political and economic rights are closely linked with the ability to determine their sexual and reproductive choices. The challenge to women's and human rights advocates is how to articulate sexual autonomy as a necessary right on a par with others, and strategise to secure this right during armed conflict and postwar reconstruction.

Adaptation, Psychological↗