Family Planning among Teenagers Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Family Planning among Teenagers - Term Paper Example The provision of family planning services to a minor depends on the legal concept of â€Å"personal representative.† According to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2003), a personal representative is a person who has the legal authority to make health care decisions on behalf of the individual as in the case of minors (n.p.). Parents are often the personal representatives of minor children; thus, parents have the right to obtain health information about a minor child. However, the Privacy Rule specifies three circumstances in which certain minors can obtain specified health care without parental consent such as when the State or law does not require parental consent when obtaining particular health services (e.g., mental health treatment), when the court determines other authority rather than the parents to make treatment decisions for the minor, and when the parent to confidential relat ionship between the minor and the physician (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003, n.p.). In the case study presented, the 14-year-old teenager in an unemancipated minor with parents acting as the legal authority. ... A physician can prevent the transfer of billing/insurance information to reach parents by letting the minors use the option of requesting restrictions on disclosure of confidential communications. 2. What is the normal age range for menarche? According to Pillitteri (2009), the normal or usual age range for menarche is 9 to 17 years with average age of onset at 12.4 years (p. 99). The 14-year-old female in the case study experienced menarche at age 13 and thus, falls within the normal range. 3. What are some common treatments for dysmenorrhea? In the case study presented, the teenager stated that she experiences pain when she has her menses. The teenager also stated that the pain is occasionally bad enough that she misses school. The teenager suffers from a condition called dysmenorrhea or painful menstruation where treatment measures are geared towards pain relief and development of coping strategies. Treatment measures are grouped into three, namely: administration of low-dose oral contraceptives or Depo-Provera to suppress endometrium, administration of prostaglandin inhibitors or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to reduce pain, and initiation of lifestyle changes. Patients treated with NSAIDs are usually prescribed to take Ibuprofen 400-800 mg or Naproxen 250-500 mg both three times a day (Ricci & Kyle, 2009, 94). In addition, patients treated with NSAIDs must be advised to take it with meals, cautioned against taking with aspirin or alcohol, and watched for signs of GI bleeding. Meanwhile, low-dose contraceptives are taken daily with advice to take active pills for an extended period of time to reduce the number of monthly cycles while the 150 mg of Depo-Provera is administered intramuscularly every 12th week with information that one could be