Background: Unmet need for postpartum contraception in rural Nepal remains high. Strategies that integrate contraceptive counseling along the continuum of reproductive health care are more effective than single isolated counseling sessions. Through a public-private partnership, Possible, an NGO, is utilizing a system of intensive Community Health Worker (CHW) outreach to deliver antenatal, postnatal, and infant care. The ...Read more >

Objective: To estimate the effect of oral opioids on patient pain during first-trimester medical abortion. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where patients up to 10 0/7 weeks of gestation undergoing a medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol took 10 mg oral oxycodone or placebo at onset of painful cramping. Additionally, all patients ...Read more >

Intranasal fentanyl has been previously studied for acute pain reduction in children and adults.  Its use includes managment of pain with long-bone fractures, abscess drainage, cancer breakthough pain, and labor pain.  We conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing the administration of 100 mcg intranasal fentanyl to placebo for the reduction of reported pain associated with first ...Read more >

Background: Overnight osmotic dilators are an essential, yet potentially painful, component of cervical preparation prior to dilation and evacuation procedure. Little research has been done evaluating women’s experience with osmotic dilators. Gabapentin is an attractive option for dilator-associated pain due to low cost, no addictive potential, and few medical contraindications. Statement of purpose: We propose ...Read more >

Obesity is a major public health problem in the United States, and the number of bariatric procedures has exponentially increased in the last decade concordant with this epidemic. Bariatric surgery affords several important long-term benefits, but for women of reproductive age there may be complications that are of particular importance to pregnancies conceived in the ...Read more >

Adolescents are prone to high-risk sexual behavior which exposes individuals to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancy. Health disparities account for marked variations in STI and unintended pregnancy rates amongst different adolescent subgroups. Latinx adolescents have pregnancy rates that are two times higher and STI rates that are five to eight times higher than ...Read more >

Rh negative women may become sensitized to Rho D when the antigen is present on the fetal red blood cells of an index pregnancy. This sensitization can lead to hemolytic disease of the newborn in subsequent pregnancies.  ~15% of women in the United States are Rh negative and at risk of becoming immunized.  Rh immune globulin ...Read more >

This is a retrospective cohort study evaluating the effectiveness of early medication abortion between 64-70 days gestation in the UK using a mifepristone and vaginal misoprostol regimen. This study will be performed in collaboration with BPAS, whose abortion data specifically for this gestational age is impressive, with over 2700 cases of early medication abortion. This ...Read more >

This is a retrospective observational cohort study of long-acting reversible contraception uptake by women presenting for surgical abortion care at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM).  Using electronic medical records, we calculated a modern estimate of immediate post-abortion LARC use in a clinic setting with minimal structural barriers to LARC provision, as well as demographic and medical ...Read more >

Pharmacogenomics is the study of how individual genetic differences affect drug metabolism, efficacy, and side effects. Women using the exact same contraceptive method for the same period of time have wide variability in both serum drug levels and side effect profiles from their contraception. This pharmacogenomic study aimed to help us better understand how individual ...Read more >