The Checkup

Health in the News and in Your Life

Why Are Teen Births Rising?

After declining for 14 years, the teen birth rate increased in 2006 and then again in 2007, causing alarm that one of the nation's most successful public health campaigns was faltering.

In an article being published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers found that there appears to have been a subtle decrease in birth control measures, along with a slight increase in the use of the withdrawal method and in the proportion of teens reporting no contraceptive use. There was a small but significant drop in condom use, which fell from about 57 percent to about 55 percent from 2003 to 2007.

-- Rob Stein

MzFitz wrote:

Ugh, of course it's a lack of comprehensive education.

heatherp1973 wrote:

While I agree that abstinence-based sex education programs are not effective, I have to ask, why are we relying on the government to teach our kids about sex and contraception? Sex education begins in the home.

RedBird27 wrote:

Back when I was a teen, there was a considerable social stigma with being a single pregnant teen. It was enough to make a girl like myself venture out to a doctor and get contraception.

Now you've got Bristol Palin, Jamie Lynn Spears, Juno -- being a pregnant unmarried teen doesn't seem to be the end of the world. It's not necessarily a bad thing for the social stigma to be diminished. At least the children of these teens won't have to go through life hiding their origins.

A Former Monkee With Cancer

Peter Tork, a former member of the pop foursome the Monkees, announced in March that he has cancer, a rare form called adenoid cystic carcinoma that usually originates in the head and neck. Tork, 67, underwent surgery on his tongue, where the cancer was found, followed by radiation. But two weeks ago he announced that his cancer had returned.

How do I know all this? Because Tork "friended" me on Facebook. Social networking sites have opened up all kinds of opportunities to discuss, share information about and raise funds for and awareness of illness, disease and other conditions. In some ways, that's a great thing. But is there also something a little unseemly, or unsettling, about going Facebook with your disease?

-- Jennifer LaRue Huget

TheCatGwy wrote:

Wow. When did it become cool to pass judgment on people who have cancer and how they decide to deal with, and disseminate information on, their struggle and disease?

I applaud Peter Tork and every other cancer patient who puts themselves out there, often while ill or feeling less than perfect, and still fight the good fight to help others . . . on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and in the media. I find that extremely uplifting, not "unseemly" or "unsettling."

DCCardwell wrote:

I'm going to stick up for Ms. LaRue Huget on this issue. I didn't get the sense that she was making any kind of snide comment about people who are open about their health issues on social networking sites. It seemed to me that she was simply raising the question for discussion, and it's a question that I grapple with. I never really know how much I want to reveal about my daily life and, in particular, my family on Facebook.