How Are Hispanic Teenagers Using Birth Control?

About one out of every 40 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have a baby every year. That’s come down a lot. A generation ago, it was almost 1 in 9. But it’s still twice as high as the rate for white teenagers.

Surveys show most Hispanic teenagers who get pregnant weren’t trying to. You can keep from becoming one of them by learning about birth control. The more you learn – and the more you get comfortable talking about it with your parents and your partner – the less likely you are to have an unplanned pregnancy.

What You Use Matters

A recent survey shows a quarter of Hispanic high schoolers rely on the withdrawal method (pulling out), or nothing at all. When they do use birth control, condoms are the method of choice.

Condoms are great for preventing sexually transmitted infections. But they don’t work as well as other methods for preventing pregnancy.

Leveraging Telenovelas For Health Education

When she was completing her nursing doctoral education at the University of Miami, Dr. Madeline Fernandez got thrown for a loop – she was enlisted to help produce a Spanish-language soap opera series to teach Hispanic women how to protect themselves from the very real surge in HIV infections in Hispanic communities.

The soap opera, called a telenovela in Spanish, is a four-part series available to study participants to gauge how the telenovela functions to educate and inform Hispanic women about HIV prevention methods and practices.

“Each episode is 10 minutes, very short, and this was intentional to capture the attention of the audience online. We had actors and a director, and they put together these four episodes of HIV prevention together with women from the community and the researchers including different topics like condom use and alcohol use,” Fernandez said.

Hispanic women are less likely to get PrEP treatment-new intervention could change that

In the U.S., Hispanic women have been disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic in recent years. Yet they’ve been less likely to take advantage of PrEP, a medication that significantly reduces the risk of getting HIV.



So we created a pilot intervention to inform more people about the medication by adding it to an existing and proven HIV-prevention program aimed at heterosexual Hispanic women. All of the participants in the pilot – none of whom previously were aware of PrEP – said they were satisfied with the intervention, and the vast majority learned a great deal. These results lead us to believe that this could be a good way to lower rates of HIV in the Hispanic community.

Along with our team, we established SEPA+PrEP. It is an intervention that uses community engagement that is culturally tailored to Hispanic women to promote HIV prevention.

El Camino is a sexual health education program designed for Latino youth based on positive youth development principles. El Camino, developed by Child Trends, provides education, skills, and support to empower its participants to set their own goals, make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, and build healthy relationships. While created with Latino youth in mind, El Camino can be tailored to serve diverse populations of youth.

The El Camino curriculum is available for download—at no cost—in English and Spanish.

The Invisible Toll of Life With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Though estimates vary, between 8 and 13% of reproductive-age women have PCOS, and many experience adverse mental health outcomes. Recent studies have revealed that people with PCOS are four to seven times more likely to have depression and anxiety, three to six times more likely to have an eating disorder, and 8.47 times more likely to attempt suicide. In a survey conducted by the non-profit PCOS Challenge: The National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association, 62.15% of the 900 respondents reported high to severe mental health impacts caused by the condition.



I spoke to 10 people with PCOS, and all say they’ve felt unequipped to deal with the associated mental health impacts, partly because the syndrome itself is not fully understood. It can affect so much: self-esteem, gender identity, relationships and sexuality. Confusing medical advice, delayed diagnoses and a hodge-podge of imperfect treatments only exacerbate the emotional toll.

PCOS Symptoms Are Still Difficult For Doctors To Diagnose and Treat. Here's Why

Polycystic ovary syndrome was first identified some 90 years ago, yet there are no FDA-approved drugs to treat the complex hormonal condition.

Every morning, Jeni Gutke swallows 12 pills. In the evening, she takes 15 more, then another before bed. She also takes an injectable medication once weekly, and two other medications as needed.

Gutke, of Joliet, Illinois, has polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, and the medications and supplements help the 45-year-old cope with migraines, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, anxiety and depression that come with the complex hormonal condition. 

Not one of Gutke’s medications are technically “PCOS drugs.” 

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved a medication specifically for PCOS, which is often linked to infertility, irregular or missed periods, weight problems, and other debilitating symptoms. Gutke’s array of medications is typical of how many of the estimated 5 million women in the U.S. diagnosed with PCOS deal with it.“It’s such a vast syndrome that affects everything from your head to your toes,” she said. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer — another risk linked to PCOS — at age 37

Mayo Clinic Minute

Endometrial Cancer Associated With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Endometrial cancer, the most common uterine cancer, starts with abnormal cell growth in the endometrium. Significant risk factors include polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and a lack of physical activity, according to a recent study.



PCOS affects 13% of women globally, causing hormonal imbalances, irregular periods, excess androgen and ovarian cysts, which can lead to infertility.

Dr. Kristina Butler, a Mayo Clinic gynecologic oncologist, explains how PCOS increases the risk of endometrial cancer.

Women With Endometriosis Face Fourfold Higher Risk of Ovarian Cancer Study Suggests

The risk of developing ovarian cancer appears to jump about fourfold among women with endometriosis, compared with women who haven’t been diagnosed with the condition, a new study finds.

Scientists have known that endometriosis may be linked with an increased ovarian cancer risk, but the study details how that risk can vary by subtypes of endometriosis.



Endometriosis is a common and often painful condition that happens when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus itself. It’s estimated to affect more than 11% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 across the United States.

‘I Was Diagnosed With Ovarian Cancer at 54—These Are the First Signs I Wish I’d Paid Attention To'

Plus, why symptoms are so hard to spot in the first place.

One week before her 54th birthday, Heidi Paolone received news people don't wish on their worst enemy: She had ovarian cancer.

Paolone isn't alone—and, as you'll learn, community has been vital to her journey. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that about 1 in 87 women will receive the same news in their lifetime, and about 20,000 people will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2024. 



Age is one risk factor, and the ACS notes that the disease is rare in people younger than 40. Paolone didn't fit that bill, but she was younger than the median age of diagnosis, which is 63. And sadly, ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women.

A New Drug Could Change The HIV Prevention Landscape, But Only With A Fair Price Tag

In June, Gilead Sciences announced impressive early results from its PURPOSE 1 trial, which showed 100 percent efficacy of lenacapavir in preventing new HIV infections among cisgender women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lenacapavir is being investigated as an injectable antiretroviral medication that can be taken once every six months as preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV. This is a marked shift from current PrEP options, which are only available as a once-daily pill or a bimonthly injection.

Once again, the HIV community finds itself at a scientific breakthrough moment. And once again, it remains an open question as to whether it will also prove to be a breakthrough moment for equitable access.

We have been down this road before. It was not so long ago that the very same drug manufacturer released similarly jaw dropping clinical trial results first for Truvada and then Descovy, the first two medications approved for the prevention of HIV; it led to widespread speculation of the end of HIV as an epidemic. And yet, more than a decade after the first approval for PrEP in the United States, we still see significant disparities in getting PrEP to communities of color and cisgender women in the US.

Health care advocates are already concerned that past will once again be prologue when it comes to this new PrEP modality, and there is pressure on the company to make commitments that could change all too predictable outcomes on disparate outcomes.

Judge Rules Military Can't Turn Away HIV-Positive Enlistees

A federal judge ruled this week that the U.S. military cannot bar enlistees who have undetectable viral loads of HIV, eliminating the last major barrier in the armed forces for asymptomatic individuals who have the virus.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, in the Eastern District of Virginia, said in the ruling Tuesday that none of the arguments the Pentagon made in attempting to prevent the recruitment of HIV-positive individuals were “supported by the evidence.”

“Defendants’ policies prohibiting the accession of asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals with undetectable viral loads are irrational, arbitrary and capricious,” the judge wrote. “Even worse, they contribute to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals.”

The news comes after two previous rulings in the past few years overturned the military’s policy barring HIV-positive individuals from serving or from being promoted to a commissioned rank.

5 Things You Should Know About Suicide

More than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2022 — that’s one death every 11 minutes, and more than any other year dating to back at least 1941, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On top of that, 13.2 million people seriously considered suicide, 3.8 million planned it and 1.6 million attempted suicide.

Though rates among 10- to 24-year-olds in the US have declined, these stats are a glaring reminder that “the silent epidemic of suicide” isn’t over, said Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association.

The nation “still has some of the highest rates of suicidal attempts in the developed world, and the number of suicides, at least half using firearms, is still remarkably high,” Prinstein, the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said via email.

That’s why this National Suicide Prevention Month and always, being informed about suicide and knowing that you don’t need to be a mental health provider to lower your risk of suicide or support your loved ones is as important as ever,

The Trevor Project

2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ People

39% of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year — including 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people. LGBTQ+ youth of color reported higher rates than White peers.

The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People amplifies the experiences of more than 18,000 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 across the United States.

For the sixth year, the U.S. National Survey uncovers the reality that there is a significant association between anti-LGBTQ+ victimization and disproportionately high rates of suicide risk — and that far too many young people struggle to access the mental health care they need.

The survey critically provides data-driven ways we can all show support and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ young people in our lives, based on their own responses — as well as the potentially life-saving benefits of creating affirming spaces and communities.

The Trevor Project remains unwavering in our commitment to support them, and we will continue fighting toward a world where all LGBTQ+ young people feel safe, accepted, and loved exactly as they are.