| Burke promotes abstinence
Many STDs can cause serious health problems, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and increased risk of HIV. Johanna Nestor, director of the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs at DHHS, said President Bush initiated the "Parents Speak Up" campaign in his state-of-the-union speech in 2004, urging parents to talk to their children about waiting to have sex. "The message is to get parents to talk to their children early and often about waiting to have sex," Nestor said. In recent decades, a national political and philosophical battle has raged over whether children should be told to wait to have sex until marriage, or instructed to use condoms to prevent STDs. Republicans have long called for abstinence education, primarily based on moral reasons.
The minipill (progestogen-only Pill, or POP)
If you enjoy a good sex life, you almost certainly want to protect yourself against unwanted pregnancy. The minipill can do that for you. But you have to remember to take it every single day of the year. No breaks at all - even when you're on your period. It's not quite as effective as the ordinary Pill, but it's a good deal freer of side effects. And it's particularly useful for some groups of women who cannot take the Pill - for instance, new mums who are breast-feeding. However, it does have some disadvantages, and we'll tell you about them in a moment. What is the minipill? There's a lot of confusion about this name. Many women don't understand it - and, regrettably, even a few doctors have got the wrong end of the stick about it! The minipill is not just a low-dose version of the Pill.
Ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tube
About 97% of ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tube. The remainder implant in the abdominal cavity, on the ovary, or within the cervix. Heterotopic pregnancies occur in one of these areas, while there is also a pregnancy in the uterus. Approximately 100,000 ectopic pregnancies occur each year. Approximately 1 in 66 women will experience this type of pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is a very serious condition. When the pregnancy grows in these abnormal areas, it can easily cause massive, rapid bleeding, and even death.
Most ectopic pregnancies occur in the Fallopian tube (so-called tubal pregnancies), but implantation can also occur in the cervix, ovaries, and abdomen. The fetus produces enzymes that allow it to implant in varied types of tissues, and thus an embryo implanted elsewhere than the uterus can cause great tissue damage in its efforts to reach a sufficient supply of blood.
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