Lifetime intimate partner violence (IPV) among individuals seeking abortion is estimated to be between 26% and 39%. The economic and psychosocial stressors associated with COVID-19 mandatory lockdowns have resulted in increased IPV. The prevalence of medication abortion has increased over the past decade, while surgical abortion has decreased. Yet individuals who are not safe at ...Read more >

During the COVID-19 pandemic, video visits have been more widely used for contraceptive counseling. Patient satisfaction with video visits for contraceptive counseling has not yet been evaluated. A patient-reported outcome measure (PRO-PM) was developed to evaluate the interpersonal quality of contraceptive counseling (Dehlendorf 2018). This will be an exploratory survey with the primary outcome being ...Read more >

Public health disasters lead institutional medical priorities away from family planning services. Reproductive health suffers when healthcare systems are not prepared for public health or natural disasters. The objective of this study is to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of sexual and reproductive health providers of in the US during the time of the ...Read more >

In 1980, China implemented a one-child policy to curb population growth they believed would stifle the standard of living in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. This was implemented through mandatory intrauterine devices for women with one child, abortion for “unauthorized ” pregnancies, and permanent contraception for couples with two or more children. A lack ...Read more >

Hemorrhage is the most common complication of dilation and evacuation (D&E). Prophylactic tranexamic acid has shown been shown to reduce maternal mortality from postpartum hemorrhage with no adverse effects, but has not been studied to reduce bleeding complications with D&E. We propose a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled pilot study to determine whether routine use of intravenous ...Read more >

Racial inequities in maternal health, although present over centuries, have worsened in the last several decades. Despite growing interest in racial disparities in maternal health, little research has examined disparities in abortion practice specifically. One of the challenges of tracking abortion complications is the overall low complication rate. Cited complication rates of surgical abortions range ...Read more >

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of virtual group contraceptive counseling for patients presenting to abortion care. Study design: Patients scheduled for induced abortion consultation and interested in initiating a contraceptive method at a University of Pennsylvania Family Planning clinic will be offered participation in virtual group contraceptive counseling. Groups of 2-10 participants will ...Read more >

Breast pain following second-trimester abortion is common. Breast engorgement and milk leakage following second-trimester perinatal loss and abortion can cause both physical pain and emotional distress. Dopamine agonists have previously been shown to be effective in lactation inhibition for third-trimester fetal/neonatal loss or contraindications to breastfeeding. In a head-to-head trial, cabergoline was more effective with ...Read more >

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research commonly combines Asians into one entity. However, subgroup-specific interactions between cultural/religious values, health beliefs, and acculturation lead to different SRH utilization patterns and outcomes. For example, Filipinos experience some of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy and severe maternal morbidity among Asian subgroups. Disaggregating Asian health data is therefore ...Read more >

Dilation and evacuation (D&E) is the safest and most common method of second trimester abortion. D&E’s safety depends largely on sufficient cervical preparation which traditionally has been done with osmotic dilation. Adequate dilation can be achieved quickly with Dilapan-S allowing for same day procedures, even in the mid-second trimester. Recently, however, the cost of Dilapan-S ...Read more >