Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0917816 (mental retardation)
 15,867 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The age of menarche, characteristics of the menstrual cycle, sexual activity and contraception of 15 Danish Down syndrome adolescents and 33 controls matched for age and residence were compared. The girls were born between January 1965 and December 1970 in Aarhus county, averaging 18.2 and 18.1 years old. The cohort of 15 Downs syndrome females, ascertained from Danish mental retardation and cytogenetic registers, was considered complete. Controls were randomly selected from medical clinic lists. The mean age of menarche was 13.6 (SD 20.9 months) for Downs patients, and 13.5 (SD 13.8) for controls. 86.7 and 87.9% of the groups had menstruated regularly since. Mean duration of bleeding was 5.5 and 5.4 days; mean length of the cycle was 28.3 and 28.6 days. 3 of the Downs patients were incapable of managing menstrual hygiene. No Downs syndrome subjects had, according to the interviewed person, with certainty, had sexual intercourse. 77.2% of the controls had been sexually active, according to their own statements. 3 of the Downs subjects used oral contraception, and 1 Depo-Provera, compared to reports of use of pills by 19, diaphragm by 3 and condom by 16 controls. This is a high incidence of regular ovulation among Downs syndrome females compared to some reports in the literature.
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PMID:Menarche, menstruation, sexual relations and contraception of adolescent females with Down syndrome. 296 86

The tubal sterilizations of Minnie and Mary Alice Relf, ages 14 and 12, on June 14, 1973, had been arranged by the Montgomery County Community Action Agency which is the largest organized provider of family planning services in Montgomery. In their class action suit the parents have charged that the operations were performed without their knowledge or consent. The mother, who is illiterate, claims that she approved "some shots" for her daughters. Both had been receiving Depo-Provera an injectable contraceptive drug, which has been withdrawn from use by the agency following Senate hearings conducted by the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee. The agency response is that the operation has been explained to the mother, that she understood the nature of the procedure, and consented to it by placing an "X" on the consent form. The 14-year-old daughter also gave her consent, and this is in accordance with Alabama law which allows competent persons over the age of 14 to consent to their own medical care. In separate letters to Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, President of the Planned Parenthood A ssociation, and the 4 women members of the Black Caucus, Barbara Jordan, Yvonne Burke, Shirley Chisholm, and Cardiss Collins, urger Caspar Weinberber, secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to delay the July 5 deadline for guidelines in order to give the agency an opportunity to consult with leaders in the fields of medicine, law, psychiatry, family planning, and mental retardation. They raised the key issue of the problem of making family planning information and services available to all those who want and need them while assuring that the programs are totally voluntary. The women also favored a national program with uniform federal guidelines for the state delegated Medicaid programs as well as for the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
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PMID:Sterilization of minors leads to controversy. 1225 56