Latina Lessons

January 14, 2001|By BOB LaMENDOLA Health Writer

If you're a drugmaker promoting birth control pills to young Latin women, no messenger is better than Lauren Velez.

She has a high profile, thanks to starring roles as prison doctor Gloria Nathan on the HBO series Oz and as Detective Nina Moreno on the ultra-hip New York Undercover.

And she has put aside taboos against birth control, safe sex and sex education held strongly by some Hispanics.

She came to Miami to talk about a Harris survey showing that 44 percent of Latin women do not use contraception, 86 percent mistakenly think the pill causes weight gain and 75 percent do not know the pill can protect against ovarian and cervical cancer.

She was joined by Dr. Ricardo Estape, chairman of gynecologic oncology at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Q. What did you learn from the survey?

Velez: Latinas are really lagging behind when it comes to being informed not only about health but about birth control. It's not something that's part of our culture. We're not even supposed to be having sex. The fact is that we have one of the highest rates of unplanned pregnancy. But there just seems to be no real idea about where to go or how to prevent this before it happens.

There are so many cultural barriers, not having enough access to the information. My mom reads a lot of Latin magazines and they don't have anything. You can open anything else -- Cosmo, whatever -- and there's an ad for Ortho Tri-Cyclen.

There are so many myths involved with it that women really don't want to take it. The first thing I remember my mom saying was, `Nina [girl], it causes cancer.' Or you gain weight.

Q. How do you broach the subject without turning people off?

Velez: Having a doctor. It makes us feel safe if we have a doctor saying, `It's OK, I'm saying you can do this.' If you have someone who can answer questions for you immediately, right there, so there's no guesswork. You don't have to ask mami or ask titi [auntie].

Estape: The physicians need to be trained on social issues and they need to ask questions. Either because of taboo or whatever, [women] are not going to bring up the subject of birth control or safe sex or anything like that. They just don't feel comfortable.

Q. Should families be talking about this more?

Velez: Absolutely. I'm first generation Puerto Rican. There's still a lot of stuff that only now I'm able to talk to my mom about. The family [can] start early on discussing with not only girls but boys, about what their responsibilities are, and protecting themselves, protecting a girl, a woman, as a husband knowing what your role is, whatever. That starts very early and if it's not something you're ashamed of, not a taboo, then it just becomes part of your everyday.

Estape: And it's definitely not in the media the same as it is for the whites. Every English magazine has a section on women's health. This is just not being done in the Latin community ... [Latin women] all read the same soap opera magazines, we're just not getting to them. The truth is, the men know more about birth control sometimes than the women.

Velez: We don't want to condone any behavior that you might deem improper. If you're 14 and having sex, we don't want to say OK. The prevailing sentiment is that if you advertise it, if you talk about it, you're saying it's not a bad thing. But the understanding has to be that it's out there anyway. We went to visit this clinic and there's a 9 year-old who's pregnant. I didn't know that was possible. I don't know how you talk to a 9-year-old, but the 14-year-olds, the 12-year-olds, let them have information if they start early. They're doing it anyway so they might as well have the information.

Q. Is there a higher incidence of certain gynecological problems in Latin women?

Estape: Cervical cancer, yes ... They have a higher incidence of fibroids and abnormal bleeding. Genetic makeup, I guess. It's unclear [why].

Velez: Caucasian women go to the doctor all the time. I think we're just not as prone to preventive care.

Estape: There are things they can do to prevent problems such as irregular bleeding, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, all of the PMS symptoms they have, all of the things associated with abnormal periods ... The bloating, the mood swings, the increased cramping, all that is decreased by the low-dose birth control.


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