Press Releases & Statements

Expert Review Shows Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Policies and Programs are Harmful and Ineffective for Adolescents and Young Adults

Commentary included on The Daily Signal website and mistakenly included in SAHM's Adolescent Health News Roundup attacked transgender surgery and support thinly veiled as a scientific, evidence-based argument. SAHM issue a response refuting her "facts".

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) strongly supports access to free condoms in secondary schools in easily-accessible locations such as schools clinics, nurses’ offices and bathrooms. Despite studies showing the effectiveness of condom availability programs in schools on rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a very small percentage of U.S. schools have implemented such a program. Lack of condom availability is a frequently cited barrier for why adolescents fail to use condoms. 

Three major pediatric journals have simultaneously published an important commentary- The Road to Tolerance and Understanding.

The journals are: Pediatrics, Academic Pediatrics, and the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The paper was written by leaders from several leading pediatric associations including President Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, FAAP, FSAHM from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. It discusses specific steps that the pediatric community can take to increase tolerance and understanding in this world, and to make this world a better one for our children. 

Oakbrook Terrace, IL – For over fifty years the US has been a leader in training health providers in the specialty of adolescent health, recognizing adolescence as a unique period of life – the gateway to adulthood – where positive interventions have long lasting benefits for the future health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and countries.

The recent Trump administration travel ban stands in direct opposition to the mission of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, an international organization committed to improving the physical and psychosocial health and well-being of all adolescents and young adults, regardless of religion or country of origin.

"On behalf of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) I would like to express our most sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who were injured and lost their lives in the Orlando shooting."

 A new statement by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) addresses privacy concerns for adolescents and young adults in situations when they might consult a doctor about pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), substance abuse, mental health, or any health issue that might require confidentiality protection.

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) has issued a statementsupporting the use of a new, recently-approved HPV vaccine by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The vaccine, 9vHPV, is used to protect against HPV-related disease and provides protection against more than double the number of HPV types than other vaccines, resulting in broader disease protection.

Emergency contraception (EC) can help women of all ages avoid pregnancy when they do not want to be pregnant. A woman can use EC after an assault, after sex without a condom or other birth control, or when she is worried that her birth control method failed or did not work properly.