Teens Suffer When Doctors Don’t Understand Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

• Top Physician Experts Offer Dos and Don’ts for Health Care Providers via Videos, Curriculum
• Interview Adolescent Medicine Specialists About Teens’ Particular Needs for Sexual and Reproductive Health Care

New York, NY—Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) is proud to introduce the fourth edition of our comprehensive, evidence-based Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Education Project Curriculum, developed and taught by 46 of the top adolescent medicine specialists in the country to improve teens’ medical care.

PRCH’s adolescent medicine physicians practice around the country, and they speak from experience, having treated thousands of teens. These doctors are available for interviews—whether the audience is parents, young people, the medical profession, or the general public—as authorities on the HPV vaccine; emergency contraception; teen pregnancy; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health; and more.

Now in its brand-new fourth edition, the Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Education Project Curriculum reflects what our doctors see in exam rooms every day. They share the curriculum with their colleagues in the medical community to offer concrete advice and the latest research on such topics as:

• Which contraceptives are most effective for teens and why?
• How should one counsel a teen who wants to become pregnant?
• What are the best ways to address teen males’ needs for sexual health care?
• How can doctors help teen mothers plan their futures while also raising healthy children?
• What care can doctors provide to minors confidentially?

Watch the videos that accompany the curriculum—each shows a patient-physician scenario mixing dos and don’ts in discussing sexual health with adolescents in a medical setting. Browse and download the 17 free topic-specific PowerPoints that our physician experts use in their in-person meetings with doctors, nurses, and others who treat teens. So far, our specialists have trained more than 16,500 medical professionals across the nation.

Adolescent patients deserve medical services that fit their needs as they develop into adults. Too often, doctors and other health professionals aren’t knowledgeable about or comfortable with adolescents’ sexuality and sexual health. As a result, teens go without critical information and treatment.

For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported a modest improvement in the United States’ teen birth rate, a fall to 34.4 in 2010. But we still lag far behind most industrialized countries—for instance, Canada’s teen birth rate was 14.2 in 2008.

In May, the CDC observed what our physicians have known for years: doctors’ ability to counsel adolescents about contraception is key to reducing the teen birth rate.^*

Our expert faculty will continue to share their knowledge and experience with their peers about contraception counseling but also about STDs, male reproductive health, pregnancy counseling, and every other aspect of teen sexual and reproductive health. PRCH is determined to help the medical community do better for teens.

ADOLESCENT MEDICINE SPECIALISTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT

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Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health is a doctor-led national advocacy organization. We use evidence-based medicine to promote sound reproductive health policies. We believe in reproductive choice for everyone.

*The CDC noted, “Teen pregnancy might be reduced further if health-care professionals provide culturally competent, evidence-based sexual and reproductive health counseling on the importance of correct and consistent use of contraception.” (Source: Sexual experience and contraceptive use among female teens—United States, 1995, 2002, and 2006–2010. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). May 4, 2012;61(17):297-301.)