Postcoital Contraception: Student Choices and Effectiveness

Abstract

A five-semester study was undertaken to obtain information about the selections patients make when given a choice of postcoital contraceptives and the effectiveness of those choices. Three postcoital contraceptive (PCC) regimens were used: a copper intrauterine device (IUD), high-dose estrogen (HDE), and an estrogen/progestin combination (E/P). Four hundred eighty-two patients requested PCC. Two percent selected an IUD, 9% HDE, and 89% chose E/P. There were 8 pregnancies–7 in the E/P group and 1 in the HDE group. It is concluded that PCC is an effective second chance to prevent unintended pregnancy. When given a choice, most patients will select E/P. During this same time span, 931 other students requested pregnancy tests. Forty-four percent (416) of those tests were positive, and 62% (254) of those with positive tests had a voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP).

“Yogurt–An Autodigesting Source of Lactose,” JOSEPH C. KOLARS, MICHAEL D. LEVITT, MOSTAFA AOUJI, DENNIS A. SAVAIANO. Large quantities of yogurt are consumed by some lactase-deficient population groups. We used breath hydrogen measurements to determine whether lactase-deficient subjects absorbed lactose in yogurt better than lactose in milk. Ingestion of 18 g of lactose in yogurt resulted in only about one third as much hydrogen excretion as a similar load of lactose in milk or water, indicating a much better absorption of lactose in yogurt. Ingestion of yogurt also resulted in fewer reports of diarrhea or flatulence than did a similar quantity of lactose ingested in milk or a water solution. The enhanced absorption of lactose in yogurt appeared to result from the yogurt organisms. This autodigesting feature makes yogurt a well-tolerated source of milk for lactase-deficient persons and may explain the widespread consumption of yogurt by lactase-deficient population groups. (New England Journal of Medicine 1984;310:1–3)