Background:  Most unintended pregnancies occur in women who are not using regular contraception. Despite improvement in access to contraception, the percentage of sexually active women who are not using contraception has remained unchanged over the past ten years. One of the most common reasons cited for non-use is irregular intercourse. There is a significant interest ...Read more >

The objective of this study was to examine the rate of ovulatory disruption when intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) is administered across graded stages of dominant follicle development. DMPA was administered to healthy, ovulatory women, ages 18-33 years, upon reaching one of three randomly, pre-assigned dominant follicle sizes: 12-14mm, 15-17mm, and ≥18mm. Dominant follicles were ...Read more >

The etonogestrel (ENG) implant is the most effective contraceptive method available. However, its use is complicated in high-HIV prevalence settings because data show reduced implant efficacy during efavirenz-based (EFZ) ART therapy. New, more effective strategies for concomitant ART/implant use need to be identified. Dolutegravir-based (DTG) ART, first-line ART in many resource-rich countries, is now being ...Read more >

Patients living in rural communities face access issues to sub-specialty care and abortion is no exception. Telemedicine has become an innovative strategy to address such access disparities and we aimed to develop a preoperative telemedicine program for our surgical abortion patient population. We performed an implementation science study documenting development and operation of a new ...Read more >

Background: Medication abortion is a common method of pregnancy termination in the United States, however, the best way to manage pain during medication abortion is unknown. Most providers offer a combination of over the counter pain medications (most commonly ibuprofen) and narcotics. However, because narcotic pain medications can lead to addiction, better pain medications are ...Read more >

Immediate post-abortion contraception is safe, acceptable to patients, and effective at reducing unintended pregnancy and subsequent abortion. However, many people face financial barriers that limit their ability to obtain effective contraception at the same clinic visit as an abortion. Out-of-pocket costs for abortion care and contraception can be substantial for many people, especially among those ...Read more >

After abortion care, women typically receive information from providers and staff about what to expect after the abortion. This written or verbal information often includes instructions regarding if and how to take antibiotics, suggested strategies for managing pain and/or bleeding, a list of symptoms that should trigger return to care, and a list of behaviors ...Read more >

This is a qualitative study aiming to understanding Black women’s attitudes about and experiences with abortion, and how these attitudes are filtered through their racial identity. We propose a cross-sectional study of about 40 subjects from Northern California and the St Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Participants will be asked to undergo semi-structured interviews approximately 60-90 ...Read more >

In 2017, New Mexico expanded pharmacist prescribing privileges to include hormonal contraception. In this largely rural state, we sought to explore rural pharmacists and women’s opinions on this expansion of privileges including how it might affect access to contraception in local communities. We recruited pharmacists and women working and living in rural areas of New ...Read more >

This will be a prospective, observational cohort study. The objective of this study is to evaluate for feasibility and acceptability the use of a pictorial menstrual chart via text messaging in a diverse, low income, low education, low literacy US population.  Any patient who presents for insertion of an ENG implant or LNG-IUS will be ...Read more >