Megan Huchko – Global Reproductive Health at Duke

Director’s Blog, Spring 2019

March 26, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

On March 8, we celebrated International Women’s Day, which coincided with the one year anniversary of the Center’s launch in 2018. We took this opportunity to celebrate the activities and achievements of the past year with a tweetstorm celebrating the amazing women who have worked with the Center—from our team in the field, to the team of Duke undergraduates running our communications strategy, and a lot in between! Check out our twitter feed (@RHatDGHI) to keep up to date on all of students, faculty, residents and fellows who have contributed to the Center this year. This’s year’s IWD theme, “think equal, build smart and innovate change,” was a call to address the need for truly transformative solutions to advance gender equality and empowerment for women and girls. There is increased recognition that the growing gender divide in STEM fields will continue to hinder innovation and development of the disruptive solutions necessary to address disparities in reproductive health outcomes in the US...

California Right to Access Act Revisited

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 There was a recent attempt in September to require California to provide medical abortion in public colleges and universities. Medical abortion is otherwise known as the abortion pill. Unfortunately, this bill was not signed by by Governor Jerry Brown. California’s governor announced that he vetoed the bill because “the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus” within five to seven miles off California state university campuses, meaning that he found it an unnecessary government expenditure. The problem with going off-campus to seek these services is that half of students in the California state university school-system are low-income students, meaning that they are likely to struggle to pay for abortions off-campus. Furthermore, the majority of these students do not have a car, making transportation very difficult and not accessible to everyone. Reproductive health rights activists have not given up, as there has been an introduction of updated version of the bill into the state’s legislature...

Intake of caffeine during pregnancy and neonatal outcomes

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 Experts are beginning to warn pregnant mothers who drink coffee on the daily in heavy loads about potential impacts on their pregnancy. Researchers at the University College Dublin have found results that have correlated increased consumption in caffeine during pregnancy to premature births. The National Health Service (NHS) of the UK suggests to that the safe caffeine intake for pregnant women should be kept at around 200 mg, or about 2 regular cups of coffee. Their data suggests that even drinking the below what is considered the “safe” cutoff for caffeine during pregnancy, it may still lead to giving birth to a small baby. The study consisted of 941 mother-baby pairs born in Ireland. Tea was the source of caffeine to 48% of mothers, and coffee was the source of caffeine for 38% of mothers. Results at the end of the study indicated that for the first trimester for every additional 100 mg of caffeine consumed...

Nesterone, a birth control gel for men, could come to the market soon

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 A new form of contraceptive for men might be out on the market soon, in the form of a birth control gel. This gel is called NES/T and is rubbed on the back and shoulders on a daily basis to be absorbed by the skin. This gel is supposed to reversibly lower sperm count to a very they cannot get a woman pregnant. It contains segesterone acetate — which contains progestin — and a dose of testosterone and is made under the brand name Nestorone. Testosterone production in the testes is hindered by progestin, which results in very low sperm production. This gel is very similar to a vaginal ring used as a female contraceptive, which contains Nestorone combined with a hormone called estradiol. The hormone mimics pregnancy in women, which causes women to stop releasing eggs. If there aren’t any eggs released, she can’t get pregnant. In men, the hormone makes the body think it...

New Drugs for Resistant Strains for Gonorrhea

January 2, 2019January 2, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 About 78 million people around the world are infected with gonorrhea according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2017, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported gonorrhea as the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. According to WHO, two-thirds of the world’s countries have reported antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea to all antibiotics. This may result in not being able to treat gonorrhea at all. Although a gonorrhea infection is not life-threatening, it can lead to many health problems such as pelvic inflammatory disease which can lead to ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women. In men, untreated gonorrhea can lead to epididymitis which can also lead to infertility. The problem with the bacteria is that rather than losing resistance after not being exposed to an antibiotic, they instead retain their resistance genes. This allows for gonorrhea strains to become more resistant and transfer their genes to other strains, thus, allowing for gonorrhea...

The Effects of Complete Ban on Abortion in El Salvador

January 2, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 With the reality overturning Roe vs Wade becoming increasingly likely, El Salvador can teach us what some of the consequences might be to that. El Salvador is one of six countries in Latin America that has an absolute ban on abortion. They imposed a total ban on abortion since 1998 and are very strict about the enforcement. There isn’t an exception, whether rape or incest was involved, or even if the pregnancy is life-threatening to the mother, an abortion remains completely legal. One of the biggest problems with this law, is that many times when a woman has a miscarriage, doctors can falsely assume that the woman had an aborted pregnancy, when in fact it was a miscarriage. Others can also report someone suspected of having an abortion, even if it was a miscarriage, and the woman can be prosecuted for an abortion. Many women have been incarcerated for supposed abortions. Many women’s rights groups...

How does pain after childbirth affect the risk of postpartum hemorrhage?

December 28, 2018 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno-Bueno, T'21 Previous research has focused on the link between pain during labor and delivery and postpartum depression. It wasn’t until recently that a study was presented at the Anesthesiology 2018 meeting suggesting that the pain experienced after childbirth is the bigger issue in terms of increasing postpartum depression. Researchers studied pain scores from 4,327 first-time mothers from the beginning of labor to the end of childbirth. One week later, researchers compared these pain scores to a mothers’ postnatal depression scale scores. They found that women who experienced postpartum depression had complaints more related to pain during recovery than anything else. As a result, women who had a higher postpartum pain score was more likely to develop postpartum depression. Additionally, women who had C-sections were more likely to experience postpartum depression. Postpartum pain can take forms of cramps, constipation, vaginal soreness, and painful C-section recovery. Postpartum depression affects 1 out of every 7 women, in which they experience disinterest in...

New South Wales Opening First Breast Milk Bank

December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 New South Wales (NSW), Australia has opened it’s the first ever Breast Milk Bank this month in order to aid the survival of premature babies. This is great, as donated human breast milk has not always been accessible in NSW. It relies on human donor breast milk, milk originating from lactating women in a center run by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and NSW Health. The bank is designed to provide nutritious milk for premature babies. The premature babies have access to this nutrient-rich milk to fight off life-threatening infections and disease. This breast milk bank is very important because around 1000 babies are born before premature or with low birth-weight in NSW. Many are calling this milk “liquid gold” because the milk contains all of the nutrients that are essential for growth and for fending off diseases. Research has shown that breast milk reduces the risk of potentially life-threatening bacterial infections in premature babies,...

Yale implements Plan B in its vending machines

December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Amelia Steinbach, T'21 Yale University recently announced that it would make emergency contraception, or Plan B, available in its school vending machines for $49.99 – a comparable price at local pharmacies. While emergency contraception is available through Yale Student Health, including it in vending machines is meant to make it more accessible to students, as well as remove some of the stigma surrounding the product. While emergency contraception is free to Yale students, no matter their health insurance plan, that fact on campus is plagued with rumors and misinformation. Even staff at student health are often unaware of the policies and regulations surrounding emergency contraception at the school, meaning that the majority of students are unable to take advantage of these services. As is the case with emergency contraception handed out by the school’s pharmacy, if a student purchases Plan B more than three times, they will be required to meet with an OB-GYN to discuss effective forms of birth...

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