Developments in new medical technologies and increased access to health-related information online have led to a surge in self-care or “DIY medicine,” loosely defined as the attempt by lay people to self-manage their healthcare outside of the formal medical setting. This study will explore the influence of social networks on a particularly stigmatized health behavior: ...Read more >

Objective: Pre-gestational diabetes increases the risks of adverse maternal and neonatal pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, preterm delivery, neonatal macrosomia, and birth defects. These risks are further increased if the pregnancy was unplanned. This study aims to examine the prevalence, predictors, and consequences of unplanned pregnancy among women of reproductive age with pre-gestational diabetes in ...Read more >

Despite the method’s effectiveness and safety, vasectomy remains an underutilized contraceptive method in the US. National data has shown there are significant disparities in vasectomy use based on men’s racial/ethnic identity, education, and income, however, questions remain about why these differences exist. Currently, there is limited empirical data on men’s views on vasectomy to help ...Read more >

Anna Chatillon is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara concentrating on reproduction, race, gender, and intersectionality. Her research traces the connections among reproductive healthcare policy and provision, women’s organizing, and intersecting structures of marginalization. Prior to entering graduate school, Anna worked as the Director of Policy and Advocacy for ...Read more >

Subasri (Suba) Narasimhan completed her PhD in Community Health Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health where she was a Bixby Doctoral Fellow, Child and Family Health Trainee, and a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Development Pre-Doctoral Trainee. Her MPH in Maternal and Child Health ...Read more >

Alexandra Calderon is a second year medical student at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. As a Spanish-speaking, first-generation Latina immigrant, Alexandra looks forward to becoming a clinician able to provide comprehensive health care, including reproductive health services, to underserved families. Alexandra completed her BA in English Literature at the California State University, ...Read more >

Medical assistants (MAs) have been largely overlooked in research on abortion providers. The proposed research narrows that gap by documenting the integral role MAs play in abortion care. MAs are a rapidly growing occupational group in healthcare and often come to abortion work without a prior ideological commitment to reproductive rights. Using ethnographic methods, I ...Read more >

Despite its critical importance in reproductive health, access to safe abortion care in the US and globally continues to be impaired by laws and policies based on religious, political, or other ideologies. Although there is substantial anecdotal evidence about specific beliefs and rationales for opposing abortion provision, identifying specific attitudes, and exploring how those attitudes ...Read more >

Young transgender men (including young people who are transmasculinizing) face disparities in the provision of reproductive health care including contraception, despite their biologic capacity for pregnancy and evidence that this population has a need and desire for these critical services. There is a paucity of evidence describing the contraceptive preferences of transmasculine patients, with almost ...Read more >

Black women in the US are more likely to experience unintended and short-interval pregnancies, which are associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes for mothers and infants. Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), including the placement of intrauterine devices (IUDs) or implants, is the most effective contraceptive method for reducing unintended and short-interval pregnancies; however, Black ...Read more >