Withdrawal Method of Contraception: How it Works
Many couples use a form of birth control know as the withdrawal method of contraception, or “the pull out method”. Some couples prefer the withdrawal method of contraception because it allows for spontaneity, is a non-hormonal form of birth control and it is free. When practiced perfectly, the withdrawal method of contraception is about 96% effective in the prevention of pregnancy.
The withdrawal method of contraception does not prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. That is because the withdrawal method of contraception does allow for contact with bodily fluid. In fact, many people assume the failure rate associated with the incorrect use of the withdrawal method is actually due to the pre-seminal fluid, also known as pre-ejaculate. While pre-seminal fluid does contain sexually transmitted diseases, it does not contain sperm.
Cancer widows are often emotionally isolated
Many Swedish men have no one to turn to for emotional support other than their partners, not even in particularly traumatic situations, such as when suffering from cancer. However, according to new research, the partners of cancer patients also often lack support outside the relationship.
Previous research has shown that many Swedish men over 50 with cancer confide their feelings and fears about the disease to few other people, if any. For 80 per cent of men who have prostate cancer and who live together with someone else, the partner is the only source of emotional support they have. Seventy per cent of single men with prostate cancer do not share their feelings with another person.
The same group of researchers at Karolinska Institutet has now examined the extent to which women in the same age group who have lost their husbands to cancer confide in other people. Their results show that one third of these women have nobody else with whom to share their feelings.
Psychologist develops post-operative care for heart patients in Bermuda
31 March 2008: A psychologist at the University of Liverpool is helping to create a potentially life-saving post-operative care service for heart patients in Bermuda.
The service, being developed in conjunction with the Bermuda Heart Foundation, will help support patients who have been fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). ICDs are used to treat irregular heart beats, which can lead to heart attacks. If the heart rhythm increases in speed the ICD delivers low-voltage electrical impulses to the heart in an attempt to correct the rhythm.
Health care services in Bermuda are unable to offer the implants so patients are referred to Baltimore and other cities in the US where the ICD can be fitted. Patients returning to Bermuda after surgery have no post-operative care available to support them with any emotional or physical effects.
Gum disease linked with gestational diabetes risk
Pregnant women with gum disease may be more likely to develop gestational diabetes than those with healthy gums, researchers have found.
Gestational diabetes arises during pregnancy and usually resolves after the baby is born, but it can raise a woman’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on. It can also contribute to problems during pregnancy and delivery, including maternal high blood pressure and a larger-than-normal baby, which may necessitate a cesarean section.
The new findings, published in the Journal of Dental Research, suggest that gum disease may be a treatable risk factor for gestational diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes self-care challenging for teens
Young people with type 2 diabetes struggle to maintain healthy eating habits and to get enough exercise, with non-white teens appearing to have a particularly tough time, according to what the researchers call the most comprehensive study to date of self-care among adolescents with the disease.
“The concern is that while they’re reporting some good self-management behaviors, they’re also reporting a lot of not-so-good self-management behaviors and a lot of stress and other barriers to really performing good self management,” Dr. Russell L. Rothman of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Rothman and his colleagues surveyed 103 individuals 12 to 21 years old with type 2 diabetes. More than 80 percent said they took their recommended medications at least 75 percent of the time, 59 percent reported checking their blood glucose more than twice a day, and over 70 percent exercised twice or more every week.
Short-term exercise improves heart failure
In patients with heart failure, one month of moderate exercise significantly improves heart function and aerobic capacity and at least partially improves related symptoms, results of a study indicate.
Dr. Stephen F. Crouse from Texas A&M University in College Station presented the study Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society, part of the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference underway in San Diego.
The study involved 68 women and 298 men with heart failure who were referred to the Center for Cardiovascular Rehabilitation in Bad Schallerbach, Austria for 4 weeks of residential cardiac rehabilitation to improve heart function.
Frequent blood donation doesn’t boost cancer risk
Frequent blood donation is not harmful to your health, a new study confirms.
“No one should worry that giving blood causes cancer,” Dr. Gustaf Edgren of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. “If anything, blood donation may actually be good for you.”
People who donate blood show lower cancer and mortality rates than their non-donating peers, Edgren and his colleagues note in their report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Association, but the fact that blood donors tend to be healthier overall could mask any ill effects of frequent donation.
