In recognition of the barriers to optimal reproductive and sexual health for women affected by HIV, The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) recently launched the Midwest HIV Prevention and Pregnancy Planning Initiative which aims to reduce HIV infections and increase pregnancy planning among women in high HIV prevalence communities in the Midwest by increasing the ...Read more >

This Community-Based Participatory Research Grantsproject aims to expand access to reproductive health services, particularly for adolescents and young adults, in an underserved, primarily Native Hawaiian, rural community in Hawai‘i. Partners include the University of Hawai‘i Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health, the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, and Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest ...Read more >

Objectives: Misoprostol-alone is an increasingly common method of induced abortion in countries such as Pakistan where abortion is legally restricted, but measurement poses significant challenges. The list experiment is a secret-answer technique that has been shown to more accurately measure sensitive behaviors like abortion compared to traditional face-to-face interviews. This study developed measures of misoprostol ...Read more >

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of two oral analgesic regimens in first trimester medical abortion. Methods: We randomly assigned 250 women undergoing first trimester abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol at three clinics to two ibuprofen regimens: therapeutic (800 mg every 4-6 hours as needed for pain), or prophylactic (800 mg starting 1 hour before the ...Read more >

Background: Women undergoing abortion are at high risk of poor contraceptive use and future unintended pregnancy. We sought to to investigate whether an informational phone call three weeks after having an abortion would improve contraceptive use six weeks after the procedure. Methods: This was a single-blinded, randomized controlled trial in women who chose a combined ...Read more >

Background: Over one quarter of reproductive-age women experience migraine, a condition disabling over 12 million American women annually. Hormonal contraception (HC), used by 20 million women, may cause or aggravate migraine, leading to contraceptive discontinuation. However, scientific evidence linking HC and migraine is poor. Objectives: To estimate incidence of headache due to hormonal contraception use ...Read more >

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether oral contraceptives (OCPs), Levonorgestrel (LNG) intrauterine devices (IUDs), and Copper IUDs block the up-regulated expression of the L-selectin ligand to determine if this mechanism of action makes feasible a non-hormonal, highly effective “on demand” contraceptive. Methods: We studied L-selectin expression in the endometrium of women ...Read more >

Background: The 2010 elections in Myanmar installed the country’s first civilian-elected government in more than 50 years, and subsequent growth and change have been rapid. However, reproductive health indicators are generally poor and reflect significant regional and geographic disparities. Rural populations are increasingly migrating to urban centers, like Yangon, in search of better economic opportunities ...Read more >

Objectives: Describe the experiences of leaders of abortion services. Define the leadership role and explore leaders’ motivations, challenges, sources of resilience, impact of stigma on their lives and work, and impressions of the future of abortion care leadership. Methods: In-depth interviews with 29 US abortion-care leaders in diverse practice settings. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and ...Read more >

Women with intellectual disabilities (ID) face significant barriers to accessing reproductive health care options, including contraception and abortion. Though reducing health disparities for adults with ID has emerged as an important public health priority, disparities in reproductive health care access remain largely unaddressed, and somewhat taboo, even among disability researchers. The existing literature has focused ...Read more >