Establishing a Child Care Center in a Kenyan Hospital and the Summer Ahead

Establishing a Child Care Center in a Kenyan Hospital and the Summer Ahead

Babies were crying. Mothers were patting them on the back. Names were being called for appointments. “With all this information, what will you do about it?” Florence Mawere, a research technician with the Center for Global Reproductive Health, was taking us on a tour of the Lumumba Sub-County hospital in Kisumu, Kenya and specifically demonstrating her work testing samples for HPV in the lab. She asked us that question at the end of the day, referring to a different project we were working on. At that moment, though, we had a different idea.   Isabel, Melat, and I (Sydney) spent two months in Kisumu working on launching the pilot study of a mobile health app that facilitates HPV screening for cervical cancer prevention. Part of our work was to understand how Florence processes samples at her lab, hence our presence at Lumumba. In our conversations with her, she explained the barriers to reproductive health and mentioned how the lack of childcare sometimes...
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Effects of vaccine hesitancy have now reached pregnant individuals as the winter season approaches

Effects of vaccine hesitancy have now reached pregnant individuals as the winter season approaches

Vaccine hesitancy has long remained a pervasive and global issue. The unwillingness to receive vaccines despite their availability and accessibility, remains a major global health issue. This phenomenon was especially felt during the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago. Misinformation and limited trust in institutions are main factors that increased vaccine hesitancy during this time. Unfortunately, we are still seeing patterns of vaccine hesitancy today, particularly in pregnant individuals. As winter approaches, 2023 will be the first year that four vaccines are recommended during pregnancy. However, trends already show that fewer pregnant individuals are getting vaccinated. A maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UCLA Health Dr. Neil Silverman, expresses that he has never seen this kind of pushback before the pandemic. Now, he says that all vaccines are lumped together as “bad”. Before COVID-19, the CDC reported that about 17.2% of pregnant people were “very hesistant” about getting a flu shot. Now, that hesitancy has been raised to almost 25%. Luckily, people tend...
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How OPT Sexual and Reproductive Health is Shaped by Israeli Forces

How OPT Sexual and Reproductive Health is Shaped by Israeli Forces

In “SRH in Palestine: A Medical Student’s Experience in Health Education,” Duha Shelah, a medical student at An-Najah National University, explains the strengths and weakness in sexual reproductive health care in Palestine. Shelah has worked as a volunteer health educator for the Palestinian medical Relief Society since 2020, working with communities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Surprisingly, the majority of Palestinian women receive adequate antenatal care and had a skilled health staff at livebirths. However, a lot of the research on Palestinian reproductive and sexual health is incomplete, especially on menopause, preconception, and psychosocial services. Shelah found that the Israeli involvement in Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the imposition of closures and military checkpoints, restricts access to medical facilities. Therefore, sexual and reproductive health is heavily impacted by times of heightened violence, such as the 2014 bombing of the Gaza strip. Moreover, between 1999 and 2002, home births grew by over 20% due to increased Israeli military presence. Shelah argues that...
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Deep Learning for Breast Cancer Diagnosis via MRI

Deep Learning for Breast Cancer Diagnosis via MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a sensitive modality for detection of breast cancer; yet, as its use in screening is expanded from high-risk patients to intermediate- and average-risk individuals, positive predictive value deteriorates, leading to unnecessary biopsies and follow-up. To improve the overall accuracy of breast cancer diagnosis and allow for personalization of patient management, Witowski et al., reporting in Science Translational Medicine(1), propose an artificial intelligence-based solution. A system of deep neural networks was trained to output the probability of malignancy given the MRI sequences of a patient’s breast. The deep learning system performed equivalently to board-certified breast radiologists, generalized well to different patient populations in three external test sets, and was unbiased with respect to patient race. Importantly, the model predictions could serve as an aid for downgrading certain breast lesions from BI-RADS 4 to BI-RADS 3, enabling patients with lower risk of malignancy to opt of unnecessary biopsies. The results of the study underscore the value of...
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News: Harmful Vaginal Cleaning Practice

News: Harmful Vaginal Cleaning Practice

Almost 20% of women aged 15 to 44 years old douche, which is the harmful act of cleaning or washing out the inside of the vagina with a mixture of fluids. Douches are often sold at as prepackaged mixtures containing water with some combination of iodine, vinegar, or baking soda and squirted into the vagina. While it is popularly known to be a sterilizing practice, douching actually changes the balance of vaginal flora (which is the good, natural bacteria inside the vagina) and increases rates of harmful vaginal bacteria. This bacterial increase can lead to yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis (a vaginal infection), or STIs including HIV and pelvic inflammatory disease (an infection in female reproductive organs).   Douching can also cause fertility challenges. It can make it more difficult to get pregnant, as women who did not douche had an easier time getting pregnant than women who douched often (at least once a month). Douching can also increase the risk of ectopic...
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The Use of Liquefaction Inhibitors as a Non-Hormonal Birth Control Method

The Use of Liquefaction Inhibitors as a Non-Hormonal Birth Control Method

A recent study from researchers at Washington State University has shown success in keeping semen in its gel form to block sperm movement and possibly prevent pregnancy. The methods used in this study may eventually materialize into a non-hormonal female contraception method that could be available for over-the-counter purchase. Past research on mice found that the use of a non-specific protease inhibitor called AEBSF prevented the degradation of the protein of Semenogelin 1. Semenogelin 1 (SEMG1) is a protein that traps semen and prevents movement; therefore, its degradation is necessary for sperm liquefaction, where semen is transformed from a gel-like consistency to liquid. By inhibiting the degradation of SEMG1, the researchers were able to prevent the female mice from becoming pregnant. To determine the efficacy of these inhibitors in humans for contraception, the study tested the effects of AEBSF on SEMG1 degradation, which prevented degradation and reduced sperm motility. They next tested the results of a neutralizing antibody that directly inhibited...
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Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infection

Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infection

The global incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is high, which has adverse effects on sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Given the widespread use of hormonal contraceptives (HC), it is important to consider their potential etiological association with acquisition of STIs. In a systematic review and meta-analysis recently published in Scientific Reports(1), Akter et al. examined associations between HC use (progesterone-only, combined estrogen-progesterone, or unspecified) and prevalence, incidence, or recurrence of STIs, compared with a control group of non-users of HC. A positive association with HC use was observed for risk of chlamydia trachomatis and herpes simplex virus type 2, in contrast to a negative association for risk of trichomoniasis and bacterial vaginosis. Importantly, only around half of all associations included in the meta-analysis were adjusted for condom use. Furthermore, while a plausible biological explanation based on the interaction between pathogen, host immune response, and vaginal microbiome can be proposed for these findings, the effects of differential sexual behavior, testing,...
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Self-administered contraception positively impacts women in Nigeria

Self-administered contraception positively impacts women in Nigeria

In 2021, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) found that only four out of every ten women use contraception in Nigeria. To help address this sexual and reproductive health disparity (SRH), the World Health Organization (WHO) has coordinated with Nigeria’s Ministry of Health employing a people-centered, and gendered approach to increase the accessibility of SRH services. In particular, WHO has found that self-administration of injectable contraception has already made strides in improving contraceptive uptake regionally. This method has been made available directly within communities through pharmacies and drug stores.   The UN reports that self-administered methods are popular because women can use it in any setting, whether they are in a community setting, refugee camp, or anywhere else. The injection provided by WHO allows up to three months of contraceptive cover, which assists women who desire long-lasting protection. The organization states that this intervention helps give women greater autonomy, and even reduces the pressure on health workers, especially in conflict settings where...
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Why Bringing Back Midwives is Vital During the Pandemic

Why Bringing Back Midwives is Vital During the Pandemic

In “Midwives can alleviate the maternal health crisis. Here’s how,” The Hill reporters Lauren K. Hall and Elise Amez-Droz argue that bringing back midwives is an essential maternal health care initiative. Right now, the United States has the worst maternal mortality rate of developed nations and has a host of issues threatening delivery care. Medicaid covers 42% of births a year in the United States, but its poor reimbursement rates incentivize providers to opt out of the program. Because of low provider pay and COVID-19 overwhelming hospitals, 7 million Americans live in areas with limited access to maternity care, putting their health in danger. Hall and Amez-Droz argue that the United States should remove regulations to midwives practicing autonomously by splitting Medicaid reimbursement for birthing care, making it easier for non-medical providers to cooperate, and roll back some licensing laws around midwifery. Black mothers, who face the highest rate of maternal mortality in the United states, are increasingly seeking midwives...
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International Conference on Family Planning 2022

International Conference on Family Planning 2022

The annual International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) took place November 14-17 in Pattaya City, Thailand. This conference featured various stakeholders, organizations, government officials, and care providers who met to discuss the current global trends in family planning and reproductive health and discuss creative solutions to address some of the major issues. The conference designates itself as “a platform, a movement, and a community” where commitments, advancements, and achievements can be shared and made. The conference offered a wide array of sessions and speaker events, discussing relevant issues, such as “From idea to implementation: Delivering on the promise of contraceptive technology innovation,” “FP2030: An all-Inclusive Look: Tailored FP Services to Meet the Needs of LGBTI groups,” “Progress and Rollbacks: US restrictions on abortion rights in a global context,” and many more. Many organizations and researchers were able to present their current research on new family planning technologies. The 2022 conference theme explored Universal Health Coverage and how it relates to...
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