Condoms, STD & Birth Control Discussion

What do I buy My Wife For Christmas?

2008-11-23T13:04:00.000-05:00

Not sure what the wife will like this Christmas? I know what I like. SEX! So why not give her a little fun for Christmas. Besides, Jewelry is expensive, the stock market is down and Chocolate will make her fat.

After all, I am a Hip circa 2000 kind of tough guy and I can handle it!

After some research I decided on the store "Spicy Gear". These toys are picked by women, the prices are spot on and they have FREE SHIPPING! Yeah.

Sex Toys - They carry a wide assortment of these nice products. Both big and small, textured and non textured, basically anything and everything you could think of.

Vibrators for Her - Again as the name implies they carry all the cool stuff the ladies want.

Vibrators - I think these make the best gift. Period. A jack rabbit or Spicy Rabbit and a Sybian! What more could she ask for?

Now don't get me wrong here, I plan on buying my wife some jewelery and a card but adding a little vibe to her stocking and a couple of boxes for a private moment is a great thing. After all the stress the holidays but on us, who could complain about a thoughtful husband that was thinking about my wife's sexual pleasure?

LATIN AMERICA: AIDS Threat Still Looming

2008-07-30T10:44:00.004-04:00

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY (IPS) - The HIV/AIDS epidemic remains stable in Latin America and the Caribbean, mainly affecting high-risk groups like gay men and sex workers, according to the UNAIDS report for 2008, released Tuesday.

Last year, 140,000 new infections were reported in the region, bringing the total number of people living with HIV to 1.7 million, while 63,000 people died of AIDS-related causes in 2007.

César Núñez, UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) director for Latin America, said at the presentation of the report that "this is not a small, controlled epidemic," and recommended heavy emphasis on prevention measures.

The U.N. agency's 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic identifies Brazil and Mexico (Latin America's most populous countries) as having the largest number of cases: 800,000 and 200,000, respectively.

It also reports that the Central American and Caribbean regions have been hard-hit by the pandemic. In the Caribbean, where 20,000 new cases were reported and 14,000 people died of AIDS in 2007, there are 230,000 people living with HIV.

A majority of the 33 million people testing positive for HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study presented simultaneously in Mexico City, New York, Geneva, Johannesburg and Bangkok just ahead of the 17th International AIDS Conference, to take place Aug. 3-8 in the Mexican capital.

The "AIDS 2008" conference is expected to draw 25,000 delegates from national and international bodies, experts and activists from 150 nations.

The Latin America section of the UNAIDS study says unprotected sex is common among men who have sex with other men in Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

It also warns that in countries like Bolivia and Peru, the spread of HIV is linked to the practice of unprotected sex and intravenous drug use without precautions.

In addition, the report points to a feminisation of the epidemic. "We have seen that the number of infected women has gone up in recent years, and we will see this to an even greater extent in the future," said Núñez.

More than 30 percent of people living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean are women. In Mexico alone, 40,000 women test positive for the AIDS virus.

"The visibility of the epidemic must be raised among women, in order to promote safe, protected sexual practices," said Linda Adechar, head of the non-governmental Fundación Vihdha.

Tuberculosis is still the biggest killer of people with HIV/AIDS. "The disease remains the main cause of mortality among vulnerable groups," said Philippe Lamy, the Pan-American Health Organisation’s representative in Mexico.

Núñez underscored the significant increase in prevention efforts and treatment in Latin America, where 390,000 people now receive antiretroviral medications.

However, 630,000 people in the region still lack access to the life-extending drugs, he said.

"The number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy has increased," said the UNAIDS official, who also stressed the importance of prevention.

"Measures like blood tests and increased use of condoms have provided an encouraging response," said Mauricio Hernández, deputy minister of prevention in Mexico’s health ministry.

The fight against HIV/AIDS has faced hurdles from the start because of stigma, discrimination, homophobia and ignorance.

A study of seven Latin American countries, sponsored by Brazil's International Centre for Technical Cooperation on HIV/AIDS (ICTC) and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), noted that, despite more and better government policies and laws, discrimination against people living with HIV and high-risk groups remains a major challenge.

The report, which was coordinated by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and will be presented at next week's conference in Mexico, says that one of the biggest efforts that countries must make to fight HIV/AIDS is to achieve social equality for vulnerable groups like gay men and prostitutes.

The study, to which IPS had access, notes that practically all of the constitutions in the region mention the right to non-discrimination, but without referring to people living with HIV or to members of the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.

Labour is one of the most problematic areas, since that is where laws that guarantee the right to non-discrimination are systematically flouted, a phenomenon that is hidden because of reforms that have ushered in more flexible labour relations and the difficulties in proving that someone was fired because of discrimination, says the report, which focused on Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru.

"In the case of HIV, discrimination is still very strong, because of prejudice and misinformation about how it is spread," José Aguilar, national coordinator of the Mexico City-based Democracy and Sexuality network, told IPS.

A National Survey on Discrimination carried out in 2005 showed that the two groups who feel the worst discrimination in Mexico are the disabled and homosexuals.

On average, nine out of 10 women, disabled persons, indigenous people, homosexuals, elderly persons and members of religious minorities responded that they have faced discrimination. In addition, one out of three people belonging to these groups say they have suffered discrimination at work.

Alejandra Gil, president of the Asociación en Pro Apoyo a Servidores, which provides support for sex workers in the Mexican capital, told IPS that the growing visibility of high-risk groups can help combat the stigma and discrimination.

Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru have multidisciplinary agencies to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is not the case in Argentina and Chile. But all of the countries studied have national action plans to tackle the problem.

The researchers found gaps and contradictions in laws on the right to non-discrimination in the countries studied.

While on one hand, governments try to combat the stigmatisation of people living with HIV, on the other they have laws and institutions that are themselves discriminatory against groups that are vulnerable to the disease, says the document.

"Stigma and discrimination are still major factors," said Núñez.

The FLACSO study found that while legislation in the region generally prohibits labour discrimination, such laws are usually not enforced.

"We need work places free of stigma and discrimination," said Adechar.

A study by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, which will also be presented at the Mexico City conference, concluded that even though organisations fighting the epidemic in 10 Latin American nations have gained visibility and political influence, they have more limited financial resources for carrying out their projects.

Schools "encouraging "underage sex

2008-07-24T14:21:00.001-04:00

by Kathleen Nutt and Julia Belgutay
www.timesonline.co.uk

SCHOOLS have been criticised for encouraging underage sex by giving pupils free condoms.

Teenagers at secondary schools in Edinburgh and West Lothian have received the contraceptives, in a bid to curb unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

But parent groups and education campaigners say that the scheme encourages youngsters to have sex.

Broughton High School, in Edinburgh, North Berwick High School in East Lothian, Newbattle High School, in Midlothian and West Calder High School in West Lothian have given out contraceptives.

NHS Lothian was unable to say what age the pupils were who had received the contraceptives and whether they were over 16. The schools sexual health clinics also offer pregnancy tests and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Free condoms have also been handed out to pupils at Sandwick Junior High School in Shetland under a one-year pilot scheme which is set to be extended to the seven other secondaries on the islands.

A spokesman for Shetland Isles' schools said that parents' permission is not required if the pupils are aged over 16. He said that it was "extremely rare" for underage pupils to receive condoms.

Some school nurses in secondary schools in the Borders have also obtained permission to give out free contraceptives to pupils.

However, the local authority does not keep information on how many contraceptives have been issued.

"Handing out free contraceptives to school children simply encourages teenage sexual activity," said Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education. "It is extremely worrying that condoms are being given out to pupils without the permission of their parents."

Stan Martin, one of the founders of Parents for Consultation, a group that wants parents to have more influence over sex education in schools, said: "Initiatives like these just sexualise children at an earlier and earlier age."

Scotland has one of the worst teenage pregnancy records in the world, with almost 30% of girls aged between 15 and 19 giving birth. In a league table of teenage pregnancy rates, produced by the children’s charity Bernardo, Scotland was 28th out of 31 countries. Only America, Mexico and Turkey had more teenage mothers.

Last year The Sunday Times reported that almost 5,000 underage girls, some as young as 11, were being prescribed the contraceptive pill.

Figures published last year revealed the number of cases of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia rose by 4% cent, to 17,926. More than 70% of the patients suffering from the disease, which can cause infertility, were aged under 25.

Jim Reyner, quality improvement manager at Shetland Isles' schools service, said: "From our perspective we would rather condoms were available than kids were left ignorant. They are issued responsibly."

If any child under 16 asked for a condom, parents and child protection staff would be informed, he said.

A spokesman for Scottish Borders council said: "Contraceptives could be given out by school nurses in the drop-in sessions, but it is a private matter between the pupil and the school nurse. The sessions are confidential and designed to discuss all health issues."

Shona Robison, the public health minister, said: "It is important for local agencies to provide high-quality, consistent information in a range of settings. This includes easily accessible drop-in services, staffed by health professionals and youth workers, services we know young people respond well to.

"How these services are delivered is a decision for local health boards and local authorities to make in partnership with their sexual health strategy groups."

Making it big: Bravo Condoms aims product at sports, music scenes

2008-07-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

By LAITH AGHA
www.montereyherald.com

In orchestrating his quickly growing business, Bravo Condoms, Zac Mazzotta figured out early that he is not just selling a product.

He is selling a name. He is selling packaging. And perhaps most importantly, he is selling an image.

In an industry that has traditionally focused on more general themes — safety and comfort — in its marketing, Mazzotta, a Stevenson School graduate and part-time Carmel Valley resident, is billing his product as the condom of youth culture, infiltrating the adventure sport and rock music crowds with an aggressive advertising campaign.

"We're becoming the Red Bull of condoms," said Mazzota, 28.

It is tailored toward a fast-paced lifestyle that craves convenience and lacks patience.

A cup of coffee is to be sipped. A Red Bull is "downed."

"These days kids buy image," said Bob Wecker, owner of The Wecker Group advertising design company in Monterey. "With a condom company, image and packaging is everything."

Most condoms come in three-dimensional boxes that must be ripped open. Bravo Condoms are sold in a flatter fold-open packet that borrows from Orbitz's gum packaging design. Flaps hook together to contain the contents.

While the typical condom package is easily identifiable, which can be embarrassing for those concerned about the stigma of buying or carrying condoms, Mazzotta said, Bravo's sleeker package design is less conspicuous.

The company's innovations appear within the packet, which, in addition
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to three condoms, contains a sticker of the Bravo logo — a lion's head with a flowing mane, an information booklet and a baggie for disposal purposes.

Starting a business in an established marketplace, with an industry leader, Trojan Condoms, that holds about 70 percent of the American market, "It's almost like, it's impossible to reinvent the wheel," Wecker said. "But there is always an opening."

The insurance industry, for instance, used to play it straight with its advertising, but once Aflac loosened the collar by featuring a comical duck in its commercials, "everyone else started do it," Wecker said.

Mazzotta saw a similar opportunity for the condom market.

"It's been a sleeping industry for 85 years," Mazzotta said.

The target consumer ranges from high school students to thirtysomethings, the age group most likely to use the product and to be involved in the sports and music scenes. But the company is not hyping sex to sell the product, Mazzotta said.

"We don't promote sex," he said. "We promote safe sex, and we promote condoms as a tool if you choose to do it."

And while the sales pitch is image-driven, the product retains the basic principals of its function.

"We're not just selling a mediocre product in nice packaging," Mazzotta said. "The goal was always to put out a phenomenal product in great packaging."

His company mantra, as well as his motivation to start the company, stems from personal experience.

Mazzotta's 4-year-old daughter is a blessing now, he said, but at the time he found he was going to be a father, Mazzotta was a 23-year-old race car driver living the fast-paced lifestyle that complements the profession. He hadn't planned to start a family for another decade, but he promised himself he would stop racing when he did start one because the risk of dying on the track was too great to be a responsible father, he said.

At the end of the 2003 racing season, a month before his daughter's birth, he retired early from the sport. Giving up the career and lifestyle to take care of a child — and learning how to be a father — was a major struggle, he said. Mazzotta learned first-hand the financial and emotional strains that can rise from an unplanned birth.

That was a major driving force in starting the company, Mazzotta said.

"It spawned in me a real passion to try and make options that gives someone the opportunity to keep that from happening to them," he said. "It's not easy for the adults. It's not fair to the kids."

He wanted to pursue something that inspired him more than pounding nails at construction sites, which he did for a while to make a living after racing.

Mazzotta moved to Santa Barbara from Carmel Valley in 2006 — he splits his time between the two places — and began researching for his new business idea the new-fashioned way, by Googling.

Selling the image can't happen without getting the word out, so Mazzotta is slapping the Bravo insignia on some very strategic surfaces.

The company sponsors 15 athletes in the adventure, or extreme, sports realm, starting with Mozzatta's brother, Hawk, a 26-year-old motorcycle racer from Carmel Valley who is competing in Sunday's American Motorcyclist Association Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Bull rider Tony Mendez, who competed in Wednesday's Professional Bull Riders tour event at the Salinas Sports Complex, signed with the company Thursday.

Bravo sponsors surfers, skateboarders, bicyclists and a daredevil.

Distribution is steadily increasing. Mazzotta started by stocking shelves of convenience stores and gas stations around the Monterey Peninsula and Santa Barbara. He expanded to businesses that cater to Bravo's target audience, such as surf and motorcycle shops. He has a deal with 7-Eleven stores in Hawaii.

But most of the company's volume has moved through online sales. More than 250,000 condoms have sold on the Web site, www.condomdepot.com, he said.

Mazzotta recently signed a product placement deal to put Bravo in several movies, including "Transformers 2" and "Old School 2," and the television shows "Entourage" and "The Office." And he is working out a deal with a distributor to have Bravo's logo placed on race cars in 11 NASCAR events next year.

After the label is on the race cars, Mazzotta said, he will be in a strategic position to approach major chain stores. If that door opens as Mazzotta hopes, the Bravo image could be sold across the country and, eventually, around the world.

"We're getting very close," he said.

Condom adverts should be screened before 9pm to tackle teenage pregnancies, Government advisers say

2008-07-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

By Aislinn Simpson
www.telegraph.co.uk

The Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (TPIAG) also called for the parents of children as young as four to be sent information packs about how to talk to their children about sex, relationships and contraception.

The group, which is made up of family planning advisers, medical experts and social workers picked by ministers, made its recommendations in its annual report published yesterday (Wed).

The report said: "TPIAG would like to see restrictive and outdated broadcasting standards reviewed and overhauled to ensure positive sexual health messages, including the advertising of condoms, are communicated effectively before the 9pm broadcast watershed."

Male fertility options growing

2008-07-15T09:07:00.000-04:00

By Amy Crawford
www.chicagotribune.com

NEW YORK—Though they didn't look like much, the white specks squirming under a microscope in Debra Wolgemuth's lab could have a big impact in the world of controlling fertility, not for women but for men. The specks were sperm from mice that had been treated with a new contraceptive. The healthy, swimming cells showed that the new drug did not have a permanent effect once the mice had gone off it. For Wolgemuth, this was an important step toward testing the drug in men.

Wolgemuth and other researchers at Columbia University Medical Center were using the drug to block retinoid receptors—proteins that bond with vitamin A to turn on certain genes. The drug prevented sperm from developing normally.

"We demonstrated that the mice are infertile," Wolgemuth said. "We take them off the drug, and then after a certain period of time they're fertile again."

If the method works as well in humans, it could become a true contraceptive option for men.

In 1960, "the Pill" hit the market and changed the sex lives of millions of American women. By taking a tiny pill containing female hormones, they could take control of their bodies and prevent pregnancy. Today, 12 million women in the United States use oral contraceptives, and others use hormonal implants, transdermal patches or vaginal rings. For women who can't take hormones, there are copper intrauterine devices, female condoms, diaphragms and cervical caps.

Men, on the other hand, still have only two options.

"You have condoms, which are in the moment, and vasectomies, which are permanent, and nothing in between," said Elaine Lissner, founder of the not-for-profit Male Contraceptive Information Project.

But researchers around the world are working on new options for male birth control, including retinoid blocking, implants that could be removed when a man decides to become a father, and even special underwear that prevent sperm production. A new analysis of 30 studies done between 1990 and 2006 shows that male hormonal contraception might not be that far away.

"The initial work toward producing contraceptives focused on women, because women get pregnant," said Ronald Swerdloff, head of the endocrinology department at the UCLA Harbor Medical Center. "That attitude has changed with the changing attitudes of partners."

In a 2002 survey of 9,000 men on four continents, more than half said they would use male hormonal birth control. Methods like the Intra-Vas Device and RISUG would be ideal in developing countries, where access to pills or condoms is not always guaranteed, said Lissner.

FDA sets guidelines to ensure imported condoms hold up

2008-07-11T14:55:00.000-04:00

By Elizabeth Lopatto
Bloomberg News-www.sltrib.com
No repeat shippers were listed as of June 17. A repeat offense will get a warning about manufacturing deficiencies. A bad shipment after that will lead to a full banfor example - before the shipment is freed.
Federal regulators urged steps to prevent a trickle of leaky condoms being shipped to the U.S. from becoming a flood.
One faulty sheath will cause a whole shipment to be detained, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday in its final guidelines for the industry and agency employees. Measures were originally proposed in 2000. The FDA also posted guidelines for medical gloves, which like condoms are made of latex.
''Some foreign manufacturers and shippers repeatedly attempt'' to ship leaky articles, the agency said. Condoms, when they work, help prevent pregnancy and the spread of diseases such as AIDS, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
Leaky condoms have been shipped from China, India, Korea and Thailand, as well as the United Kingdom, Greece, Japan, Italy and Germany.
Condoms and latex gloves, according to the FDA, undergo what is known as the ''water leak test,'' set forth in a ''Compliance Policy Guide.'' If just one style of condom fails in a shipment that contains a variety - ''unlubricated, lubricated, spermicidally lubricated, ribbed, etc.'' - all must be detained and ''a separate style should be taken for each style that the field office wishes to test.''
Styles shouldn't be mixed in one sample.
The FDA has three levels of detention. First offenders have to show their products are safe - using an independent U.S. laboratory, for example - before the shipment is freed.
A repeat offense will get a warning about manufacturing deficiencies. A bad shipment after that will lead to a full ban. No repeat shippers were listed as of June 17.

Brazil legislators reject legalizing abortion

2008-07-10T09:42:00.006-04:00

by Raymond Colitt
www.reuters.com/

A committee in Brazil's lower house of Congress voted down a bill on Wednesday that would have legalized abortion in the world's most populous Roman Catholic nation.

The Justice and Constitution Committee in the Chamber of Deputies voted 57-4 against a bill that had been stuck in Congress for 17 years, steeped in controversy. It is now likely to be shelved.

"This bill won't prosper in the Chamber," said Deputy Eduardo Cunha, committee leader.

Several ruling party legislators pushed the bill after Health Minister Jose Temporao last year all but endorsed legalizing abortion.

Church groups, which lobbied against the legislative proposal and witnessed the hearing, cheered and prayed in celebration after the vote.

Some deputies had placards hanging from their necks, showing pictures of aborted fetuses.

A few legislators supported the bill.

"You can't treat this issue on the basis of religion or belief. It's a public health issue," said Deputy Jose Genoino, who voted in favor of the proposal.

Temporao angered church groups by proposing a referendum on the legalization of abortion and backing increased use of contraceptives.

The government has begun distributing condoms in public high schools and in April launched its own factory to produce condoms made of rubber from Amazon trees.

Temporao has warned that the large number of women having illegal abortions was a serious public health issue because of often dangerous complications when they went awry.

Annually more than 200,000 women are hospitalized because of botched abortions, government statistics show. Based on those figures some experts estimate the number of abortions could be as high as around 1 million per year.

Many Brazilians believe it is mostly poor teenagers who abort. But a study co-sponsored by the University of Brasilia showed that most abortions were practiced by Catholic mothers, aged 20-29, with jobs, who used contraceptive devices and had steady sexual partners. (Reporting by Raymond Colitt, Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Plan for spray-on condoms shelved

2008-07-07T12:58:00.000-04:00

By Gary Fennelly, belfasttelegraph.co.uk

A German inventor has admitted that spray-on condoms may never hit the shelves after his team were unable to overcome technical problems.

Jan Vinzenz Krause of the German Institute for Condom Consultancy made headlines across the world when he announced his pioneering design in 2006.

Krause promised the spray-on condom would offer a better, safer fit for men of all sizes.

"We thought why not come up with a condom that fits the man rather than vice versa? This would represent a revolution in the condom market," said Krause.

"With our technology we could spray a condom on an erect elephant," he added.

Krause filed for a patent for the latex spraying system he invented and had hoped to have it on sale this year.

But the project hit problems and may never reach the market, according a statement on his website.

"Whether we can solve the technical problems, and whether the advancement of the idea is financially viable, remains uncertain," he wrote.

Spray-on condoms ignited a wave of online interest recently after being featured in the US forensics show CSI and getting a mention on the BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Demonstrating it on a model, CSI character Lindsay Monroe said: "Simply apply like so. Allow a few moments for maximum drying time and, boom. Instant condom."

Can You Hear Me Now?, the CSI:NY episode featuring the condom, was shown in the US in September 2007 but has not yet been aired on British terrestrial TV.

The sexual health of young people

2008-07-02T10:14:00.005-04:00

SOURCE: Alison Davis, www.communitycare.co.uk

The role of sexual health services

Rising levels of sexually transmitted infections (STI) have led many local education authorities to recognize the need for comprehensive sexual and relationship education. Meanwhile, many hard-to-reach young people are being contacted through pupil referral centres, youth offending teams and leaving care teams.

Topics covered include the factors that influence young people in their ability to form and maintain relationships. This may include discussion on how to say "no" to unwanted attention and sex.

The risks associated with unprotected intercourse should also be highlighted, raising awareness of how to access local sexual health services and how to gain the knowledge and skills to practice safer sex.

Other areas to cover include the prevalence of STIs and HIV, how they are spread and how to minimize the risk of an unwanted pregnancy.

In some areas, outreach teams may offer a trip to sexual health clinics or run virtual clinics.

Sex and the law

Although the age of consent for sexual intercourse is 16, a doctor or other professional can advise or treat someone under 16 without their parents' knowledge or consent if they meet the Fraser guidelines, named after Lord Fraser who stood in judgement in 1985 in the case of Victoria Gillick, who objected to her under-16-year-old daughter being prescribed contraception without parental consent. The five guidelines are:

- The young person will understand the advice.

- S/he can't be persuaded to tell parents.

- S/he is likely to have sex anyway.

- His/her physical or mental health would suffer without the advice or treatment.

- His/her best interests require it.

The Best Practice Guidance (DH 2004) highlighted the benefit of establishing a rapport with the young person who is engaged in sexual activity by giving support and time to make an informed choice. This can be done by discussing emotional and physical risks, and coercion or abuse and the benefits of talking to the GP, parent or other adult (especially in cases of abortion referral).

Best practice within sexual health clinics maintains that all clients have a right to a confidential service. Anyone treated for an STI should only have their identity disclosed to someone involved in their treatment or preventing the spread of infection (NHS trusts 2000).

Contraception and young people

Condoms remain the most popular first method of contraception used by young people, probably due to their high accessibility. In some areas, schools and colleges will supply condoms to pupils.

The combined contraceptive pill is probably the most popular hormonal method of contraception. This is prescribed free, and as with all consultations, confidentially - even if the person is under 16, so long as they meet the Fraser guidelines (see above). Hormonal methods of contraception do not protect against STI and HIV - condoms should always be used.

For emergency contraception, the most common form is the one-off progesterone-only pill. It has to be taken within the first 72 hours of unprotected sex. This is widely available, including from some pharmacies and via school nurses.

Taking action to prevent abuse

British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) guidance from 2003 advises to question and check that there has been no coercion (especially when there are large age differences between sexual partners), exploitation, rape or other abuse. Child protection referral procedures should be used for under-18s in these situations.

Working Together (April 2006) advises professionals to use a concern checklist when dealing with young people engaged in a sexual relationship, but also retain a professional discretion. For those young people under 13 who have disclosed sexual activity, it is vital to:

- Consult the child protection lead.

- Presume that you will always refer except in exceptional circumstances.

- If a decision is made not to refer, keep full records of reasons for the decision.

- Note that an assessment must be made in more depth than usual, and that the threshold for referral is much lower.

It is important to note that Home Office Sexual Offences Act guidance states that although the age of consent is 16, it is not intended that the law should be used to prosecute mutually-agreed teenage sex between two young people of a similar age, unless it involves abuse or exploitation.

Bush's Embattled AIDS Bill

2008-07-01T09:50:00.000-04:00

Serious Concerns Raised Over Use of Funds

By Sue Ellin Browder

WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).-Pressing the Senate to rubberstamp $50 billion in global spending on AIDS, malaria and TB, AIDS activists marched on the White House last week bearing signs with slogans like "Now or Never."

But this week, a Anglican priest from Uganda opened more serious dialogue about the bill, saying that "condom promotions have failed in Africa" and AIDS "profiteers" have subverted African fidelity and abstinence programs in order to sell commodities for a profit.

"AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry," Reverend Sam Ruteikara, co-chair of Uganda's national AIDS-prevention committee, wrote today in the Washington Post.

Stalled for months in the Senate, the reauthorization for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) would more than triple program spending from $15 to $50 billion over five years. But Ruteikara told ZENIT that if the money is misspent, it won't stop the spread of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and it could even raise HIV rates.

President George Bush wants the bill passed before the G-8 summit in Japan next week. But in a March 31 letter to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, seven senators led by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma urged delay, saying the bill has "serious problems."

Among other concerns, the senators said the new initiative costs too much and would fund "morally dubious" activities such as needle-exchange programs for drug addicts.

Further, the letter expressed major concerns about the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The senators wrote, "The [Global] Fund has serious policy problems, drug quality problems, administrative corruption, and [it] operates programs not bound by U.S. laws on abortion, needle exchange, prostitution/trafficking policy and others."

Over five years, the new PEPFAR bill would give the Global Fund $10 billion -- a quarter of the fund's budget. But the U.S. has only one vote out of 20 on how the money is spent.

The senators also want to reinstate wording from the original PEPFAR bill specifying that 55% of AIDS monies will go for treatment.

Prevention first

An AIDS-prevention authority on the frontlines in Africa, Ruteikara agreed the Global Fund has serious problems that merit more U.S. oversight, but he questioned whether 55% of AIDS monies should be spent on treatment.

"HIV-testing and treatment are good, but they won't stop the pandemic," Ruteikara said. "With six Africans becoming infected for every person who gains access to treatment, we can't treat our way out of this tragedy. Effective prevention must come first."

Coburn, a physician, and others have argued that anti-retroviral treatment will do more than just prolong lives; it will prevent new AIDS cases by making the HIV virus less infectious and, therefore, less likely to be transmitted.

But in The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, James Shelton of USAID called this theory a "myth" unsupported by science. Shelton observed that as people become healthier on anti-retroviral treatment, they're likely to become more sexually active, creating further chances for the virus to spread.

Physician Norman Hearst of the University of California, San Francisco, agreed that "treatment is important, but it's not prevention."

"In sub-Saharan Africa, prevention must be linked to sexual behavior, because that's what fuels the pandemic," Hearst explained. Whereas most Westerners are monogamous -- one sex partner at a time -- many Africans, even when married, have one or two long-term lovers on the side. In a young-adult survey in Botswana, where one-third of the population carries the HIV virus, 43% of men and 17% of women reported having two or more regular lovers.

"The latest evidence shows it's these long-term, overlapping multiple partnerships that drive the pandemic," Hearst said. "This new scientific understanding that the African pandemic is fueled by people having more than one current sex partner explains why public-health campaigns urging sexually active adults to be faithful have worked so well in Africa."

ABC

Between 1991 and 2002, Ugandans lowered the proportion of the population infected with HIV from 21% to 6% with their famous ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, or use a Condom) campaign -- with "B" as the pillar. "We promoted fidelity for sexually active people, abstinence for young people, and condoms only as a last resort," Ruteikara said.

In response to the campaign, the number of Ugandan men embracing monogamy shot up from 59% to 79% -- and the number of faithful women rose from 79% to 91%. Rates of new HIV infections fell by two-thirds.

"Uganda provides the clearest example that HIV is preventable if populations are mobilized to avoid risk," Cambridge University researchers Rand Stoneburner and Daniel Low-Beer wrote in Science magazine. They likened Uganda's plunge in casual sex to the equivalent of an AIDS vaccine that's 80% effective.

What's more, prevention advocates say, sexual behavior change is a bargain. "HIV treatment costs an estimated $1,000-per-patient per added year of life. Uganda's successful prevention campaign cost less than 30 cents per person per year," says Edward Green, head of Harvard's AIDS Prevention Research Project.

"Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded," Ruteikara wrote in the Post. But he said that when "international AIDS experts" arrived in Uganda, they came with their own "casual-sex agendas," which they forced on Africans -- even to the point of rewriting Uganda's National Strategic Plan, which guides how PEPFAR money is spent.

Ruteikara reported that he and his fellow Ugandans would repeatedly put abstinence and fidelity into the National Strategic Plan. "Repeatedly, foreign advisors erased our recommendations. When the document draft was published, fidelity and abstinence were missing." Meanwhile, a suspicious statistic blaming most HIV infections on marriage appeared. Repeated requests for the source of the statistic have gone unanswered, the priest said.

"As fidelity and abstinence have been subverted, Uganda's HIV rates have begun to tick back up," Ruteikara wrote. "The Western media have been told this renewed surge of HIV infection is because there are 'not enough condoms in Uganda,' even though we have many more condoms now than we did in the early 1990s, when our HIV rates began to decline."

Off course

Green said that Western "sexual freedom ideologies" have caused successful AIDS-prevention strategies to be derailed in Africa, perhaps costing millions of lives.

"If AIDS prevention is to be based on [scientific] evidence rather than ideology or bias, then fidelity and abstinence programs need to be at the center of programs for general populations. [...] What the churches are inclined to do anyway turns out to be what works best in AIDS prevention," Green and his Harvard colleague Allison Herling Ruark wrote in the April issue of First Things.

In a 2004 "common ground" statement in The Lancet, 150 global AIDS-prevention leaders agreed fidelity should be the first-line prevention strategy for population-wide epidemics like those in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Senate bill mentions fidelity, but not as a central priority. Instead, the initiative, if passed, will fund a wide array of commodities and services to combat AIDS indirectly -- from HIV tests and Chlamydia treatments to female condoms. The latter are more expensive than male condoms -- and so unpopular in Africa that Uganda has stopped importing them.

Only 20% of funds in the new PEPFAR bill would go for prevention. Ruteikara would like to see that percentage doubled until the pandemic is under control.

The only hint of a spending requirement for fidelity in the current bill is a clause stating that in the event a country chooses to spend less than half its prevention funding on fidelity and abstinence programs, a report must be sent to Congress.

The bill also calls for preventing 12 million new HIV infections worldwide, but doesn't specify how.

Calling for HIV/AIDS profiteers to "let [his] people go," Ruteikara wrote, "We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."

Green said, "This is a challenging moment for Congress to unite behind objective scientific evidence, and do the right thing. If Congress puts fidelity promotions at the center of our AIDS response, billions of tax dollars will be effectively spent and millions of African lives will be saved."

CondomDepot.com Signs an Exclusive Deal With Bravo Condoms

2008-06-30T12:40:00.009-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Amato, Marketing Director
813-885-4400 x16
jennifer@condomdepot.com
June 30, 2008

CondomDepot.com brings on a new line of ultra thin condoms...Bravo Condoms. CondomDepot.com signs an exclusive deal with Bravo Condoms to sell and distribute their condoms. As a special offer to Condom Depot customers, the web site is selling a 4 Wallet Pack for $11.99. Unique and stylish in its packaging, Bravo Condoms come packaged in 'The Wallet', which contains 3 "Wicked Thin" Bravo Condoms, a Bravo Lion sticker, a Bravo-stash Baggie, and an Information Booklet. For a limited time, our customers can get 4 Wallers (a total of 12 condoms) at a great price of $11.99

Bravo condoms are extremely thin for ultra sensitivity and strength that our customers depend on. We are confident that our customers will be repeat customers of this brand for years to come.

For more information on Bravo condoms, please see the Bravo Condoms page.

BRAVO WICKED THIN CONDOMS
These are Bravo's high-end 49mm straight walled condoms. Offering a bit snugger hug, their sheer thinness, silky quality latex, and vanilla scented lubricant place them in a league of their own.

BRAVO LARGE WICKED THIN CONDOMS
Giving you some more room for your zone, Bravo's Large Wicked Thin condoms are 54mm from base to head. The parallel walled design offers optimal strength and sensitivity, while the vanilla scented lube masks any latex odor. When it comes to Bravo Condoms, thin is in.

ABOUT BRAVO CONDOMS - Deeply rooted in the extreme sports industry, Bravo's mission is to save lives and ensure that good times stay good times. We are the first condom company to charge into today's culture and force progression in the industry with our innovative products and responsible image. Our focus is sponsoring pro athletes, bands, and artists who carry our company's message and style to the masses through their supernatural abilities. Our products are quality. Our approach is professional.
Life is radical; protect it... Bravo!

ABOUT CONDOMDEPOT.COM

CondomDepot.com is a provider of safe sex information, product reviews and safer sex products. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CondomDepot.com sells its products wholesale to the public through its highly visited website while offering its safe sex information free of charge. Product lines include Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, Crown, Trustex, AstroGlide, Pjur and other hard to find brands. For more information please contact Marketing Director Jennifer Amato (813) 885-4400 xt 16 or visit the website www.condomdepot.com

###

FOXSexpert: The Joys of Summer Sex

2008-06-27T11:08:00.002-04:00

By Yvonne K. Fulbright

FoxNews.com

It's the one thing hotter than the weather these days - sultry summer sex. You can all but fan yourself (among other things) thinking about it.

But what is it about the summer season that makes us so much more aroused?

There are a number of reasons summertime awakens one's libido. Males, in particular, respond greatly to external, visual triggers, like the sudden influx of women in bikinis, sundresses, mini-skirts and halter-tops. But it's not just this full moon effect of the scantily-clad that has us all howling with desire:

- Sunlight warms the libido.

You're likelier to feel more consumed with lust when it's sunny. It's hypothesized that sunlight helps to produce a hormone, MSH, which is linked to sexual desire. Also, sunlight stimulates the pineal gland, which reduces the amount of the body's hormone melatonin, elevating our mood and awakening our sex drive.

- Everyone looks sexier.

Men are hotter than ever; their summer clothes are showing off those toned arms and firm buttocks. Women have a sun-kissed, blushed appearance - the same appearance we have right after sex. This is the time for women to strip down and flaunt their assets, like our cleavage. Finally, a tan makes our curves and muscles seem more prominent, so we sport fewer clothes. No matter what your gender, feeling better about your healthy summer self helps you to exude confidence and project energy that is infectious - and sexy!

- There’s nothing like sweaty sex.

Salty kisses, the slick sliding of body parts, and wet hair spraying droplets of water onto your lover are among the many sensations that make sweaty sex raw and uninhibited.

On a summer’s evening, in a sweltering bedroom . . . the wetter, the better!

Couples hit every inch of their bed. No position goes untried. No sheet goes unsoaked. In creating sweaty, summer sex sessions, couples forgo air conditioning and make their own rainforest in no time.

- People quit hibernating.

Many lovers hole up in winter, eating more, exercising less, and are pathetically lazier. This sluggish state can affect one's sex life, making for less action. The "let there be light" of summer takes on whole new meaning in shaking off the winter blues. As lovers soak up the sun, their spirits are lifted and their energy levels swell. They are moving more, eating lighter meals - and feeling better about their physiques. Lovers find themselves in a completely different state of mind, with sex on the brain.

- Rest and relaxation.

Couples tend to go on vacation during the summer, reaping the benefits of a romantic destination. Submerged in a new environment, they thrive off a sense of adventure that emboldens their sexual ventures. With vacation lending itself to better moods, lovers find themselves experiencing increased sexual desire and response.

Being away from their laptops and cell phones further boosts a couple's summer "sexperiences." Far from office and home demands, couples feel more relaxed. The effects of simply loosening up make for more amazing intimacy, and many couples experience a boost in the quality and quantity of sex. They also appreciate the fact that they're focusing on nothing more than their relationship and each other.

- Becoming one with nature.

Summer means hiking for a lot of couples, which invites plenty of opportunities for outdoor sex. Deep in the woods and feeling one with the Earth, lovers can shed their inhibitions and go for an animalistic shag.

- Bare, smooth skin.

With bikini season comes increased nether region maintenance. Lovers step up their grooming, shaving, plucking and waxing on a more regular basis. This invites more sensations, which can have people bearing even less.

— Skinny dipping.

Summer's red hot couple can't resist an inviting body of water. A cool dip doesn't snuff out the action, however. Between weightlessness, new maneuvers, and getting wet, couples adore water sex. Just don't forget to come up for air!

- Sex on the beach.

Whether on a private beach or tucked under a big beach towel, couples like to get fresh on the seashore. Those with exhibitionistic tendencies seem to enjoy such sex even more. The risk and danger of getting caught produces dopamine, which stimulates sexual excitement. No matter what, it doesn't hurt to have a beach umbrella handy.

Just remember, no matter what the time of year, sex, like any other exercise, can result in overheating if you exert yourself for a long period of time in a hot, humid space. If you long to make love in such an environment, avoid dehydration, by drinking plenty of fluids. Taking out-of-control action to a cool shower can help keep your motor running at a comfortable temperature as well.

In the Know Sex News . . .

-New York City to Buy Female Condoms. In an effort to curb HIV/AIDS, New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has allotted $2 million to make female condoms available in health clinics and organizations citywide. Health officials said they need to increase the supply due to the condoms' popularity. These condoms cost about $3 a piece, versus the male condom, which sells for $1.

- Safe Sex Programs Really Do Benefit Teens. A study from the University of Kentucky found that safer sex programming appears to nurture positive attitudes toward practices that help to avoid the acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately 48 percent of the nearly 19 million cases of STDs that occur in the U.S. every year are among those between the ages of 14- and 24--years-old.

- Pregnancy Intention Impacts Timing of Birth. According to an article in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, women who do not intend to get pregnant have a greater likelihood of having a preterm birth.

Dr. Yvonne Kristín Fulbright is a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc. She is the author of several books including, "Touch Me There! A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots."

CondomDepot.com Continues to Spread Their Safe Sex Message with Upcoming Sponsorships in UFC 86 on July 5th

2008-06-26T11:17:00.006-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Amato, Marketing Director
813-885-4400 x16
jennifer@condomdepot.com
June 26, 2008
www.condomdepot.com

Tampa, FL - CondomDepot.com has made its presence known amongst MMA fans for over the past year. With its numerous sponsorships for MMA fighters such as Chris "The Crippler" Leben and Ed "Short Fuse" Herman, just to name a few, CondomDepot.com has been able to utilize their sponsorships to also spread a safe sex message amongst its many millions of fans, while providing the helpful support to the fighters. CondomDepot.com will continue to show its support through their upcoming sponsorship of Tyson Griffin and Chris "Lights Out" Lytle for UFC 86 on July 5th.

Mixed Martial Arts is a sport that has grown tremendously in popularity. With the risks of STDs and other sexually transmitted diseases, Condom Depot has found an avenue through the sponsorships of these MMA fighters to increase safe sex awareness. In addition, seeing the CondomDepot.com logo displayed on the fighter's clothing will make the fans aware that there is a reliable web site available in which he or she can purchase condoms from the comfort of their own home, instead of having to walking in to a store front, which can be an uncomfortable experience for some.

UFC 86 will be broadcasted on PPV Live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on July 5th. Tyson Griffin will be taking on Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio and Chris Lytle will be fighting against Josh Koscheck.

"We are proud to support such wonderful and talented fighters such as Tyson Griffin and Chris "Lights Out" Lytle In the past we have sponsored talented fighters including Andre "The Pitbull" Arlovski, Ed "Short Fuse" Herman, Chris "The Crippler" Leben, and Pete "Drago" Sell, Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga, and Thiago "Pitbull" Alves. We will continue to support these hard working fighters and spread a positive safe sex message," states John Fidi, Vice President of CondomDepot.com.

ABOUT CONDOMDEPOT.COM

CondomDepot.com is a provider of safe sex information, product reviews and safer sex products. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CondomDepot.com sells its products wholesale to the public through its highly visited website while offering its safe sex information free of charge. Product lines include Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, Crown, Trustex, AstroGlide, Pjur and other hard to find brands. For more information please contact Marketing Director Jennifer Amato (813) 885-4400 xt 16 or visit the website www.condomdepot.com

Unsafe Sex In The City: Fewer People Using Condoms

2008-06-25T14:20:00.002-04:00

By: Kate Sullivan
wcbstv.com

NEW YORK (CBS) - A new study shows more and more New Yorkers are putting themselves at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases because fewer people are using condoms.

Public service announcements have been a part of the New York City health department's campaign to get more people to use condoms. Although the department has distributed some 48 million condoms since last year, officials say not enough New Yorkers are heeding the warnings.

The department surveyed 10,000 adults in the five boroughs, and found that many are putting themselves at risk by having unsafe sex.

Forty percent of all New Yorkers engaged in sex without a condom with multiple partners.

In a year that has seen sex scandals involving top local politicians, the survey also addresses the issue of cheating. Five percent of New Yorkers admitted to having sex outside their relationship.

Men are three times more likely than women to report multiple partners.

In 2006, more than half of all New York City pregnancies were unplanned and more than 60,000 new cases of STD's were reported.

For today's seniors, it's never too late for sex education

2008-06-19T10:20:00.002-04:00

HOW TO BE ACTIVE, STAY SAFE?

By Vianna Davila
Mercury News

Like any sex education seminar, this one covered the familiar topics: how to use a condom, how to protect against sexually transmitted disease. But some of the questions - How will Viagra affect my heart medication? Where does an 82-year-old man meet women? - signaled that the needs of this particular group were, perhaps, a little different.

News flash: Older people are having sex, and increasingly open about wanting to enjoy it. But with pleasure comes complications. Today's seniors are learning they are vulnerable to STDs and HIV; this week, Stanford and Veterans Affairs researchers released a study demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of HIV/AIDS testing for adults age 75 and up.

Add disease to the list of other challenges - learning how to work with an aging body, navigating a romantic realm that now includes online dating and sex toys - and suddenly it's a whole new world for seniors.

"I think as seniors get older, they need a lot more information," said Larry Saltman, 73, of San Jose, "because we're not dead yet."

Saltman was among the seniors who attended a "Sexuality and Aging" seminar sponsored by the San Jose Office on Aging. Today, representatives will discuss offering similar talks at all the city's senior centers.

Already, signs suggest the sessions will be popular. Pfizer claims Viagra has helped 25 million men. Baby boomers, the same folks who led the sexual revolution in the 1960s, now are becoming senior citizens.

After marching for sex, "They're thinking, 'Wait a minute, maybe I still deserve to have some,' " said Bryna Barsky-Ex, a psychologist and sex therapist with Kaiser Permanente Santa Teresa, who has counseled couples in their late 90s about how to enjoy their sexuality.

Different times

But generations like Saltman's did not grow up with the same comprehensive sex education offered today in most schools; these men and women were at least in their 40s and 50s when AIDS appeared on the scene.

In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 15 percent of new HIV cases in the United States were among people over 50.

Saltman, who sits on the San Jose Senior Citizens Commission, suggested a sexuality session after he and his wife, Linda, saw a program about the rising rates of STDs and HIV in older adults.

Last week's program, led by Barsky-Ex, was a reminder that seniors can have fun but also need to protect themselves, he said.

"Sexuality is not just for the young or the pretty or for penises working perfectly," Barsky-Ex said. "It's for everybody."

Saltman still speaks in the accent of his native Boston, where he said it was a "no-no to talk about anything like this" when he was young.

But the conversations are becoming easier. Nearly 40 people - some with canes and ranging from 60 to 90 years old - attended the seminar.

"Sometimes it was really quiet, like, 'Ooh,' " said Linda Saltman, 69, describing the session, which covered everything from lubrication to vibrators. "And then, when it was over, everybody was smiling."

But the topic can make some a little antsy.

"To be honest with you, this is the first time I've even given it thought," said Nasario Gutierrez, a gerontology specialist with Gardner Senior Center.

Uncomfortable topic

Dr. Susan Kegeles, co-director for the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California-San Francisco, said people are often uncomfortable talking about sexuality; discussing the sexual proclivities of the elderly is even harder.

While the prevalence of sexual activity decreases with age, men and women still have sex well into their 80s and 90s, according to a study last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But as more people divorce now, the chance of contracting diseases through multiple partners increases.

Jane Fowler's HIV-positive diagnosis at age 55 came as a shock. The few times she had sex after her marriage ended, condoms seemed unnecessary; she thought of them only as contraception.

"There is this denial among older people that this can happen to them," said Fowler, now 73 and the founder of HIV Wisdom for Older Women, based in Kansas City, Kan.

In Santa Clara County, people over 60 make up only 1.2 percent of the total number of HIV or AIDS patients. Those 50 to 59 years old make up 8.8 percent of the county's HIV/AIDS population, said Joy Alexiou, county public health department spokeswoman.

Experts said sex education is key to ensuring the percentages stay down. Just as important: learning that sex is about more than intercourse.

"Seniors need companionship," Saltman said. "Even if it's just touch, feel, the idea that somebody gives a hoot."

"It's part of life," said his wife, Linda. "Why keep it a secret?"

'Pro-Life' Drugstores Market Beliefs

2008-06-16T12:50:00.001-04:00

No Contraceptives For Chantilly Shop

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 16, 2008; A01

When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.

That's because the drugstore, located in a typical shopping plaza featuring a Ruby Tuesday, a Papa John's and a KMart, will be a "pro-life pharmacy" -- meaning, among other things, that it will eschew all contraceptives.

The pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of drugstores around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who assert a "right of conscience" to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable.

"The United States was founded on the idea that people act on their conscience -- that they have a sense of right and wrong and do what they think is right and moral," said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Society, a Chicago public-interest law firm that is defending a pharmacist who was fined and reprimanded for refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control pills. "Every pharmacist has the right to do the same thing," Brejcha said.

But critics say the stores could create dangerous obstacles for women seeking legal, safe and widely used birth control methods.

"I'm very, very troubled by this," said Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center, a Washington advocacy group. "Contraception is essential for women's health. A pharmacy like this is walling off an essential part of health care. That could endanger women's health."

The pharmacies are emerging at a time when a variety of health-care workers are refusing to perform medical procedures they find objectionable. Fertility doctors have refused to inseminate gay women. Ambulance drivers have refused to transport patients for abortions. Anesthesiologists have refused to assist in sterilizations.

The most common, widely publicized conflicts have involved pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, morning-after pills and other forms of contraception. They say they believe that such methods can cause what amounts to an abortion and that the contraceptives promote promiscuity, divorce, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and other societal woes. The result has been confrontations that have left women traumatized and resulted in pharmacists being fired, fined or reprimanded.

In response, some pharmacists have stopped carrying the products or have opened pharmacies that do not stock any.

"This allows a pharmacist who does not wish to be involved in stopping a human life in any way to practice in a way that feels comfortable," said Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life International, which promotes a pharmacist's right to refuse to fill such prescriptions. The group's Web Site lists seven pharmacies around the country that have signed a pledge to follow "pro-life" guidelines, but Brauer said there are many others.

"It's just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "And there's new ones happening all the time."

Some pro-life pharmacies are identical to typical drugstores except that they do not stock some or all forms of contraception. Others also refuse to sell tobacco, rolling papers or pornography. Many offer "alternative" products, including individually compounded prescription drugs, as well as vitamins and homeopathic and herbal remedies.

"We try to practice pharmacy in a way that we feel is best to help our community and promote healthy lifestyles," said Lloyd Duplantis, who owns Lloyd's Remedies in Gray, La., and is a deacon in his Catholic church. "After researching the science behind steroidal contraceptives, I decided they could hurt the woman and possibly hurt her unborn child. I decided to opt out."

Some critics question how such pharmacies justify carrying drugs, such as Viagara, for male reproductive issues, but not those for women.

"Why do you care about the sexual health of men but not women?" asked Anita L. Nelson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "If he gets his Viagra, why can't she get her contraception?"

The DMC Pharmacy opening in August marks an expansion by Divine Mercy Care in Fairfax, a nonprofit health-care organization that adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church. The group runs the Tepeyac Family center, an obstetrics-gynecology practice in Fairfax that offers "natural family planning" instead of contraceptives, sterilization or abortion.

"We're trying not to leave our faith at the door," said John Bruchalski, who chairs the group's board of directors, noting that one of the organization's major goals is helping needy, uninsured patients obtain health care. "We're trying to create an environment where belief and professionalism come together."

Like the doctors, nurses and other staff members at Tepeyac, Robert Semler, the pharmacist who will run DMC Pharmacy, plans to start each workday with a prayer with his staff, which at first will just be his wife, Pam, a nurse.

"Being a faith-based workplace, it's a logical thing to do," Semler said.

Bioethicists disagree about the pharmacies. Some argue that they are consistent with national values that accommodate a spectrum of beliefs.

"In general, I think product differentiation expressive of differing values is a very good thing for a free, pluralistic society," said Loren E. Lomasky, a bioethicist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "If we can have 20 different brands of toothpaste, why not a few different conceptions of how pharmacies ought to operate?"

Others maintain that pharmacists, like other professionals, have a responsibility to put their patients' needs ahead of their personal beliefs.

"If you are a health-care professional, you are bound by professional obligations,"said Nancy Berlinger, deputy director of the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in Garrison, N.Y. "You can't say you won't do part of that profession."

California, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington state recently began requiring pharmacies to fill all prescriptions or help women fill them elsewhere, and at least another 10 states are considering such requirements. But some states exempt pharmacies that do not generally stock contraceptives, and it is unclear how other existing rules and laws and those being considered would apply to those pharmacies.

"These are uncharted waters, since the issue of so-called pro-life pharmacies are so new," said Elizabeth Nash, a public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a private, nonprofit organization that researches reproductive issues.

Virginia does not have any laws or regulations that would prohibit a pro-life pharmacy, and is not considering adopting any, according to the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

Critics also worry that women might unsuspectingly seek contraceptives at such a store and be humiliated, or that women needing the morning-after pill, which is most effective when used quickly, may waste precious time.

"Rape victims could end up in a pharmacy not understanding this pharmacy will not meet their needs," Greenberger said. "We've seen an alarming development of pharmacists over the last several years refusing to fill prescriptions, and sometimes even taking the prescription from the woman and refusing to give it back to her so she can fill it in another pharmacy."

Pharmacists at eight pro-life drugstores contacted by The Washington Post said they would not actively interfere with a woman trying to fill a prescription elsewhere, but none posts signs announcing restrictions or offers to help women get what they need elsewhere.

"If I don't believe something is right, the last thing I want to do is refer to someone else," said Michael G. Koelzer, who owns Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Mich. "It's up to that person to be able to find it."

Semler, at DMC Pharmacy, said he does not feel that will be an impediment.

"We just say there are other pharmacies in the area they can go to," he said, noting that the Kmart across the parking lot has a pharmacy and that there are several other national chains nearby. "We're not threatening anybody. We're just trying to serve a niche market of like-minded individuals."

But others worry about what will happen if such pharmacies proliferate, especially in rural areas.

"We may find ourselves with whole regions of the country where virtually every pharmacy follows these limiting, discriminatory policies and women are unable to access legal, physician-prescribed medications," said R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin lawyer and bioethicist. "We're talking about creating a separate universe of pharmacies that puts women at a disadvantage."

Condom message gets stronger as disease rates rise

2008-06-10T13:25:00.003-04:00

Jennifer Parks, Canwest News Service, canada.com

EDMONTON - Today's teens and 20-somethings grew up with safer-sex slogans and celebrity-endorsed condom campaigns. They learned from parents, teachers, government and the media, the grim realities of HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.

Their after-school TV specials dispensed the "no glove, no love" moral, and hip anti-STI messages still reach them on-the-go via cellphone or the Internet.

There's no doubt young people can talk the talk about safer sex, but are they walking the walk?

"Knowing all about safe sex doesn't mean we're practicing it," says Susie Ross, a Yukon-based sexual health advocate who thinks we need new strategies to get an old message across about condom use.

By the age of 15, many of today's young people already have had sex, and despite access to information about contraception, the rate of condom use among youth aged 15 to 24 has declined over the last decade, according to the 2007 Baseline Study on Sexual Health in Canada.

With STIs on the rise, Ross wonders what it will take to reverse a troubling trend.

"Information isn't enough to change people's behaviour. You have to start a conversation, create a comfort level. Meet people where they are. We still haven't normalized condom use," says Ross, who will discuss how creative condom campaigns in the Yukon have gotten people talking, at the Guelph Sexuality Conference, next month.

School and parents are still youths' main source for sexual health information, explains Ross. But our increasingly in-your-face media-based culture has extreme power to shape people's attitudes and behaviour, she says.

The Yukon government launched a safer-sex campaign in 2004 in which they distributed matchbook-style condom wrappers with holiday themes and hip, fun messages like "Wrap it up for someone you love" for Christmas, and ""Feeling Lucky? Don't count on luck," for St. Patrick's Day.

"They were edgy and got people talking. They're still talking," says Ross, noting groups and organizations have continued ordering the custom condoms. "Youth are happy to take them because they don't look like a condom. And this way they've got them, so in the moment of passion, they'll be more likely to use them."

Their health unit also designed a series of sports-themed condom wrappers for the last Canada Winter Games that were so popular, the athletes traded them and tried to collect all six, says Ross.

"Trading pins is so passe. Now, we're trading condoms."

Canada's STI rates have steadily risen since 1997; Alberta's gonorrhea and chlamydia rates are higher than national rates, and those most affected are youth under 25, especially women, says the baseline study.

"Just saying 'Wear a condom' isn't good enough anymore. That's old hat," says Barbara Anderson of Capital Health in Edmonton (capitalhealth.ca).

"You need to teach skills in using condoms, provide free access, and talk about the things that get in the way of safer sex."

"Condom fatigue" is responsible for the decline in condom use among young people, as well as for the current STI spike, says Carol Carrozza, vice-president of marketing for Lifestyles condoms.

"Gen X and Y were brought up with the condom vernacular. They know they need to use it, but they're not experiencing the full message," says Carrozza, who is in the midst of promoting Lifestyles' condom-dispensing Make-out Booth, which is making its way through bars and nightclubs across the U.S.

"The idea is to reach people where they're partying and hooking up. The booth takes your picture like the old-style photo booths, and dispenses free condoms," says Carrozza.

"Twenty years ago, the idea never would have flown. In the late '80s or early '90s we had to take down posters just because they contained the word 'condom.' Today's message has to be abrupt, in-your-face and relevant to young people's lives."

Planned Parenthood Edmonton puts out custom condom carriers. The case comes with two condoms and a "tube of lube" to "increase the chances of having protected sex."

At HIV Edmonton, anyone can buy a box of 144 condoms at the discounted price of $21.50. The organization uses peer-based education to reach high school students with a broader message than in the past.

"The focus is not just on safe sex, but on complete healthy sexuality," says HIV Edmonton executive director Debra Jakubec. "People still find it hard to talk about sex, so if we can get them more comfortable, it's easier to move forward."

You're never too old to get an STD

2008-06-09T08:30:00.002-04:00

By Judy Rupp, commentary, enidnews.com

Maria was offended when her daughter started to lecture her about safe sex. At age 78, she had been a widow for 11 years, and her relationship with Edward was filling an important need in her life.

"We are not going to get married," she told her daughter, "because that would complicate matters with our property and our children. And I'm too old to get pregnant. So what is it that you're so worried about?"

"STDs," her daughter answered. "Sexually transmitted diseases."

An AARP survey in 2007 found 85 percent of Americans 65 and older had some kind of intimate experience at least once a week; less than 5 percent considered themselves "too old" for sex. And sexually transmitted diseases are spreading rather rapidly among the senior set. According to Centers for Disease Control, at least 10 percent of new AIDS cases every year occur among persons age 50 and older.

One reason for the change in attitude among seniors regarding sex - if there has indeed been a change - may be the introduction of erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. ED affects at least 25 percent of males by age 65, and that percentage increases with each passing year.

For many of the erectile problems facing older males, these drugs have a high rate of effectiveness. But they do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

Unlike the younger generations, most older Americans did not have the benefit of sex education in school. And after several decades of a monogamous relationship, they may not have bothered to inform themselves about STDs. One survey found 47 percent of women older than 50 knew little or nothing about AIDS.

The most reliable protection against STDs is the use of condoms. Women past child-bearing age do not think readily of condoms. And even with the help of Viagra, many older men may find them tricky to use effectively.

AIDS: There are more than 20 sexually transmitted diseases, and, while many of them can be cured easily with antibiotics, they often go undetected. And nearly all of them increase the risk of AIDS.

With a weakened immune system and thinning of vaginal walls, an older person may be more vulnerable than a younger person to HIV, and early symptoms are sometimes difficult to distinguish from changes associated with aging or with chronic medical conditions. Dementia, ordinarily a very late symptom of AIDS, is the presenting symptom for as many as 10 percent of cases in persons older than 60.

In addition to ignorance, seniors are hampered often by denial. A married man who is having extramarital gay sex or sex with a prostitute is not going to want to admit it to his family or even to his doctor. A widowed or divorced male who is dating regularly likewise may be reluctant to admit he is having sex with multiple partners.

Major risk factors for STDs, in addition to failure to use condoms, are: 1) sex with multiple partners and 2) sex with someone who is having sex with multiple partners. Both of these scenarios are becoming increasingly common among seniors in the community and even those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. As Maria’s daughter reminded her, the rules of safe sex - including mutual monogamy - hold regardless of age.

SYPHILIS: Once the most feared of STDs, syphilis still is around and still highly contagious, although treatable with antibiotics. Left untreated, syphilis can lead to severe neurophysical impairments such as complete or partial paralysis, progressive dementia, blindness or deafness.

GONORRHEA, CHLAMYDIA: Gonorrhea often is detected by painful urination or discharge from the penis or vagina. More than a million infections occur each year in the United States, and about 60 percent of patients with gonorrhea also have a chlamydia infection. Chlamydia, the most commonly reported STD in the United States, can increase the risk of sterility, pelvic inflammatory disease and ovarian cancer as well as HIV.

HERPES: About 45 million Americans are infected with a herpes virus. Herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) usually causes cold sores and fever blisters around the mouth. Herpes simplex type 2 ((HSV-2), is genital herpes.

It once was believed HSV-1 was transmitted primarily above the waist. A recent study found women who received oral sex were nine times more likely than abstinent women to become infected with HSV-1. Vaginal sex increased the risk six-fold. The study could not prove kissing was not the means of transmission.

HPV or human papillomavirus can be spread by intimate skin-to-skin contact that does not necessarily include sexual intercourse. That’s a type of intimacy probably relatively common among older adults. And it is not necessarily prevented by use of condoms.

Although usually manifested in genital or anal warts, HPV often exists with no symptoms or with warts that disappear after a few years. As a result, many individuals are infected without knowing it. On the other hand, only a few of the many strains of warts that can occur in the genital region or elsewhere on the skin are precursors of cervical cancer.

The important thing for health care professionals and adult children to keep in mind is sex is a drive that does not stop at a certain age, at least for most adults. Nor should it stop. Sexual intimacy provides pleasure and a sense of self fulfillment; and research has found regular sex helps prolong life.

Whatever message Maria gave to her daughter years ago, the message her daughter is giving back today is not abstinence but "keep yourself safe."

Teens Having More Sex and Using Fewer Condoms, U.S. Study Says

2008-06-05T08:26:00.002-04:00

June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Teenagers are having more sex than they were in 2001 and condom use declined after the U.S. government increased spending to promote sexual abstinence.

The percentage of teens who said they had sex rose to 47.8 percent last year from 45.6 percent in 2001, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Condom use fell from 63 percent in 2003 to 61.5 percent in 2007, the survey of high school students found.

The Bush administration has more than doubled grants for abstinence programs since 1999 to a proposed $191 million in next year's budget. The programs limit discussions of contraceptives and advocate that teens avoid sex. The CDC study didn't attempt to explain why teen sex isn't declining and condom use isn't rising, as they were during the 1990s.

``We are concerned about what appears to be a flatting-out of sexual risk behaviors,'' said Howell Wechsler, director of CDC's division of adolescent and school health, in a conference call with reporters today.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the government's Administration for Children and Families, said he had no immediate comment on the study.

The CDC study also found that Hispanic teenagers more often engaged in risky behavior than black or white teenagers. Hispanic teens were more likely to commit suicide or abuse intravenous drugs than their peers, the study said. More than 1 in 10 Hispanics said they had made a suicide plan in the last 12 months and about 7 percent attempted suicide.

`Do Something'

``That is alarming and unacceptable and we need to do something now,'' said Glenn Flores, professor of pediatrics and public health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Hispanic teens' feelings of depression and hopelessness could come from difficulty integrating with American culture and economic strains on many immigrant families, Flores said.

The CDC has surveyed teenagers every two years since 1991. The 2007 results showed fewer teens engaged in risky behavior including sex, drinking and smoking cigarettes when compared with data from 10 to 16 years ago. The upswing in sex began in 2001 and the reduction in condom use began in 2003, the study said.

SOURCE: Shannon Pettypiece, bloomberg.com

The Real Deal on STDs - Raw Data

2008-06-01T20:52:00.002-04:00

Random facts and figures.
* One out of 4 women and one out of 5 men have no knowledge about their sexual partners' history.
* Two-thirds of 1,000 women age 18 to 60 knew nothing or very little about STDs (other than HIV/AIDS) in 1995.
* The highest at-risk groups are adolescents and gays. African American and Hispanic women are also in the high-risk group.
* The rate of unwanted pregnancies and incidence of disease is alarming.
* There are over 15,000,000 new cases of STDs a year.
* Over 70,000 Americans have a viral STD--like genital herpes, HIV/AIDS, or Hepatitis B.
* Individuals under 25 have two-thirds of the STD cases in the U.S.
* 1 out of 4 teens will contract an STD.
* 1,000,000 teenage pregnancies each year.

Rates of curable STD cases in the U.S. are the highest in the developed world.

* There are 150 STD cases per 100,000 in the U.S. versus 3 cases per 100,000 in Sweden.
* Over 70,000 Americans have viral STD--like genital herpes, HIV/AIDS, or hepatitis B.
* Viral STDs such as HPV, herpes, and hepatitis B are lifelong diseases.
* Many people experience no noticeable symptoms initially, but can still pass on the disease.
* Women are up to 5 times more likely to become infected and suffer more serious consequences.

Over 20,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS are diagnosed each year in the U.S.

* 62% of those cases reported before 1996 have died (319,000 Americans).
* Women now represent 30% of new HIV/AIDS cases reported.
* 75% of the cases are from heterosexual sex.
* 3 out of 5 Americans with HIV were infected as teens.
* HIV infection rates are 10 times higher when STDs are not treated properly.

Sexual habits reinforce the need to use condoms.

* Age of sexual maturity is decreasing; age of marriage is increasing.
* More sex, more partners, more risk.
* 46% of teens (14-18) have had intercourse.
* 50% divorce rate means reentering the dating scene to deal with new health challenges.

Sources: American Social Health Association, CDC, Kaiser Foundation.

Gloucester birth control flap prompts resignations

2008-05-27T12:07:00.001-04:00

By Mike Underwood
www.bostonherald.com

Two fed-up medical officials have quit Gloucester High School's health center amid a teen pregnancy "crisis" in a fight over handing out condoms and birth-control pills.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly resigned in outrage after their recommendation to confidentially give contraceptives to students was rejected by Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers state funding for the school clinic.

"We had 17 teen pregnancies this academic year . . . a real worsening of the problem," Orr told the Herald yesterday. Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year.

"We wanted a comprehensive program that would address this crisis, including giving condoms to the guys and oral contraceptives for teen women."

But, Orr said, the hospital rejected his proposal over fears it could be held liable if teen women suffered health complications after being given the pill.

"This risk is almost nil," said Orr, a pediatrician for 18 years.

He said the confidential distribution of contraceptives is practiced at many other school clinics in the state.

The hospital's executive director, Cindy Donaldson, expressed concern about community reaction as well liability if a teen had ill effects from taking contraceptives.

"I'm surprised to hear of the resignations," Donaldson told the Gloucester Daily Times.

"When the issue came up of confidential contraception around February, we said 'yikes,' " Donaldson was quoted as saying by her hometown paper.

Orr, who will continue to work for Cape Ann Pediatricians, said he felt he had no choice but to resign Friday from the school clinic.

"This was not an easy decision for me at all," he told the Herald. "I believe in this (program)."

Gloucester birth control flap prompts resignations

2008-05-27T11:10:00.000-04:00

By Mike Underwood
www.bostonherald.com

Two fed-up medical officials have quit Gloucester High School’s health center amid a teen pregnancy “crisis” in a fight over handing out condoms and birth-control pills.

“We had 17 teen pregnancies this academic year . . . a real worsening of the problem,” Orr told the Herald yesterday. Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year.

“We wanted a comprehensive program that would address this crisis, including giving condoms to the guys and oral contraceptives for teen women.”

But, Orr said, the hospital rejected his proposal over fears it could be held liable if teen women suffered health complications after being given the pill.

“This risk is almost nil,” said Orr, a pediatrician for 18 years.

He said the confidential distribution of contraceptives is practiced at many other school clinics in the state.

The hospital’s executive director, Cindy Donaldson, expressed concern about community reaction as well liability if a teen had ill effects from taking contraceptives.

“I’m surprised to hear of the resignations,” Donaldson told the Gloucester Daily Times.

“When the issue came up of confidential contraception around February, we said ‘yikes,’ ” Donaldson was quoted as saying by her hometown paper.

Orr, who will continue to work for Cape Ann Pediatricians, said he felt he had no choice but to resign Friday from the school clinic.

“This was not an easy decision for me at all,” he told the Herald. “I believe in this (program).”

Ex-surgeon general: Condoms, not promises, help teens

2008-05-22T13:02:00.000-04:00

Ex-surgeon general: Condoms, not promises, help teens

By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN — Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on Monday said condoms are more likely to protect teens against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy than vows of abstinence.

"Many of our children don't use condoms because we don't teach them about condoms," she said. "Our government tells them that condoms will break. I always say, the vows of abstinence break far more easily than latex condoms."

The 74-year-old pediatrician said the best place for children to get information about sexual health is from their parents.

She spoke outside a bus sponsored by condom manufacturer Trojan. The bus was at an Austin hotel where public health officials from around the state are attending the Texas HIV/STD conference sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Elders said she knows that many parents are uncomfortable talking about sexual issues with their children. But she said it is particularly important in Texas, where students receive little information at school beyond a message of abstinence.

President Bill Clinton named Elders the first African-American surgeon general in 1993 but fired her 15 months later after she made controversial remarks about masturbation after a speech at the United Nations on World AIDS Day.

She said she continues to speak out about the need to educate young people about safe sex because the United States is a "sexually unhealthy nation."

"Compared to other industrialized nations, we have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates," she said. "More than 65 million people in our country have an incurable STD. These are just unacceptable numbers."

In March, a federal study found that at least 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Nearly half the black teens in the Centers for Disease Control study had at least one sexually transmitted infection, versus 20 percent among whites and Mexican-American teens.

The most common one is the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer, which was the subject of heated debate in Austin last year after Gov. Rick Perry ordered schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the virus. The Legislature overturned Perry's order and made the vaccine voluntary.

An estimated 100,000 new cases of STDs were reported in Texas last year, including 5,000 HIV infections. The state does not track HPV cases.

"We still have a major challenge with HIV and STDs, not only nationally but here in the state of Texas," said Dr. David Lakey, Texas health commissioner.

Prevention, early diagnoses and treatment are critically important in the fight against STDs, Lakey said.

CondomDepot.com Sponsors Thiago "Pit bull" Alves for the UFC 85 Main Event and Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio for UFC 86

2008-05-21T15:09:00.003-04:00

Tampa, FL - CondomDepot.com announces their sponsorship deals with mixed martial artists Thiago "Pit bull" Alves and Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio. CondomDepot.com will show their support for Alves as he takes on former two-time UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes in the UFC 85 Main Event. This sponsorship deal with Alves also marks the first time that CondomDepot.com will sponsor a fighter for the main event. CondomDepot.com who sponsored Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio for UFC Fight Night April in which he defeated Ryan "Are You Ready" Roberts, will be cheering for his victory again as he fights Tyson Griffin for UFC 86.

UFC 85 will be broadcasted live on PPV from the O2 Arena in London England on June 7^th. UFC 86 will be on PPV Live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on July 5^th.

"We are proud to support such wonderful and talented fighters, Thiago Alves and Marcus Aurelio. To be a fan of the UFC and participate as a sponsor is something that we are extremely proud of. In the past we have sponsored talented fighters including Andre "The Pitbull" Arlovski, Ed "Short Fuse" Herman, Chris "The Crippler" Leben, and Pete "Drago" Sell, and Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga. Our participation as a sponsor for these fighters has also been a great way to nationally promote our positive safe sex message. Our entire staff will be cheering for Alves' and Aurelio's victory," states John Fidi, Vice President of CondomDepot.com.

ABOUT CONDOMDEPOT.COM

CondomDepot.com is a provider of safe sex information, product reviews and safer sex products. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CondomDepot.com sells its products wholesale to the public through its highly visited website while offering its safe sex information free of charge. Product lines include Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, Crown, Trustex, AstroGlide, Pjur and other hard to find brands. For more information please contact Marketing Director Jennifer Amato (813) 885-4400 xt 16.