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Some Experts Remain Skeptical Of Withdrawal Method, Despite Recent Study On Effectiveness

Reproductive health experts were "taken aback" by a recent study that found that the withdrawal method is nearly as effective as male condoms in preventing pregnancy, the New York Times reports. The paper -- published in the June issue of the journal Contraception -- found that 4% of couples will become pregnant over a one-year period if they consistently use the withdrawal method, compared with about 2% of couples that consistently use condoms. According to the study"s authors, a more significant finding was that the rate of "typical use" for withdrawal leads to pregnancy 18% of the time, compared with 17% of the time for typical use of condoms. They wrote in the study that "it is unfortunate that some couples do not realize they are substantially reducing their risk of pregnancy when using withdrawal, as these misperceptions may cause unnecessary levels of anxiety. More speculatively, if more people realized that correct and consistent use of withdrawal substantially reduced the risk of pregnancy, they might use it more effectively." Although the authors said the goal of the paper was to encourage discussion, some experts are concerned that spreading a message that withdrawal is effective could lead young people to have unprotected sex, potentially exposing themselves to sexually transmitted infections that can be prevented through condom use, the Times reports. Melissa Gilliam, chief of family planning and contraceptive research at the University of Chicago"s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a board member of the Guttmacher Institute, said the study"s data "don"t necessarily translate to youth today." She added, "In terms of a reliable method used over and over again, the risk of failure is quite high."Rachel Jones, the lead author of the study and a senior research associate at Guttmacher, said that dismissing the withdrawal method as a "legitimate" form of contraception is "counterproductive for the prevention of pregnancy and also discourages academic inquiry into this frequently used and reasonably effective method." She also said that health educators and providers "should discuss withdrawal as a legitimate, if slightly less effective, contraceptive method in the same way they do condoms and diaphragms." She noted that "most women have used withdrawal at some point in their lives."The study"s authors decided to examine the issue after noticing that many researchers and providers "just kind of dismiss withdrawal and don"t seem to realize that it can prevent pregnancy," according to Jones. She added, "Most people seem to be under the impression that you might as well do nothing." Martha Kempner, vice president for information and communications at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said the results of the study have "made some classroom teachers nervous to give out the truth in this instance, but we do have to tell the truth." She added, "People, kids in particular, they"re using it. It is better than nothing, and it is always available" (Belluck, New York Times, 7/21).
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Parasites Ready To Jump

Transposons are mobile genetic elements found in the hereditary material of humans and other organisms. They can replicate and the new copies can insert at novel sites in the genome. Because this threatens the whole organism, molecular mechanisms have evolved which can repress transposon activity. Professor Klaus Förstemann of the Gene Center of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich and a team of researchers working with the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster have now uncovered a new type of cellular defence that acts against DNA sequences present in high copy numbers inside the cell, even if they have not integrated into the genome. Small molecules of RNA (a class of nucleic acid closely related to the genetic material DNA) play the central role. "Transposons are genomic parasites, so to speak", says Förstemann. "If they are allowed to proliferate, the genome can become unstable or cancers can develop. We now want to find out whether mammalian cells possess this newly discovered defence mechanism and to elucidate precisely how it works." (EMBO Journal online, 30 July 2009.)