Why Women Face Difficulty Receiving PCOS Diagnoses

Why Women Face Difficulty Receiving PCOS Diagnoses

Image Credit to Flo Health Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal and metabolic disorder that results in enlarged ovaries (sometimes with small cysts on the outer edges). It effects 5-10% of women of childbearing age, and its symptoms can be extremely painful and difficult to deal with. The cause of PCOS is unknown, but it is often associated with insulin resistance, present within familial lines, and likely connected to an irregular production of the androgen hormone.   Despite its prevalence, PCOS is frequently misdiagnosed. This is due to the range of potential causes of its symptoms. Symptoms can include pelvic pain, missed periods, fatigue, excess hair growth, trouble getting pregnant, headaches, moodiness, heavy menstrual bleeding, trouble sleeping, excess weight gain and difficulty losing weight, and more. This range of symptoms make it difficult to identify PCOS, especially from the more common symptoms like heavy menstrual bleeding. For example, heavy menstrual bleeding can be caused by pelvic inflammatory disease, bleeding disorders, medications, polyps,...
Read More
WHO and FP2030 Strengthen Collaboration on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)

WHO and FP2030 Strengthen Collaboration on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)

On November 16th, the International Conference on Family Planning in Thailand, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Special Research Programme HRP, and the FP2030 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that committed to strengthen cooperation on sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a special emphasis on family planning.   In signing this document, all three organizations pledged to continue to work together to provide high-level leadership that assists countries in realizing their family planning commitments. A WHO representative, Dr. Pascale Allotey said that ““270 million women around the world have an unmet need for contraception, jeopardizing their health, their well-being and their futures. Our MoU calls attention to the urgency of the situation and commits to accelerated action on this most fundamental issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights.”’   Further, WHO issued eight commitments that intend to expand access to modern contraceptives to FP2030, a international partnership of globally-focused organizations working on family planning. These commitments which endeavor to make...
Read More
Thinking About Medication Abortion? 5 People Share Their Stories

Thinking About Medication Abortion? 5 People Share Their Stories

In the light of excessive anti-abortion laws being passed across the United States, Vogue aims to highlight a major option for safe abortions: abortion pills. Medication abortion, which involves taking mifepristone and misoprostol 48 hours apart to empty the uterus, is not often talked about in the media. Vogue spoke to 5 people who chose to have a medication abortion over a surgical one, hoping to share their experiences with those who may be wondering what to do. Mia, a 34-year-old who was frightened of COVID-19 exposure in 2020, opted for a medical abortion in the comfort of their home. Jen had a failed vacuum aspiration and used medication abortion to finally eliminate an unwanted pregnancy. Claire had a medication abortion at 16 years old in her boyfriend’s house, too scared to tell her parents what she was doing. Alina and Amy both recalled fearing going to Planned Parenthood and being picketed by anti-abortion protesters, so they wanted to terminate...
Read More
Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights for Ukrainians

Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights for Ukrainians

In October 2022, the Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF) published a report titled “Making the Invisible Visible: An evidence-based analysis of gender in the regional response to the war in Ukraine” describing the adverse impacts of the ongoing conflict on all genders and marginalized groups. The section “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” is dedicated to discussing SRHR issues that have arisen in the war, as well as solutions through the humanitarian response. While few restrictions are present in Ukraine for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services, many surrounding countries have strict policies that limit abortions and make contraceptive access difficult. Legal, language, and financial barriers have restricted Ukrainian refugees from seeking high-quality SRH, increasing the risk of adverse SRH outcomes. The conflict has also increased the difficulty in accessing SRH services in Ukraine or neighboring countries, due to the attacks on health-related infrastructure and disruption of health and SRH organizations. According to the report, disruptions in health care services and...
Read More
United Nations Report on Sexual and Reproductive Justice Highlights Global Progress and Retrenchment

United Nations Report on Sexual and Reproductive Justice Highlights Global Progress and Retrenchment

The United Nations recognizes sexual and reproductive health (SRH) as a keystone on which sustainable development is based— and these goals were first outlined at the1994 International Conference on Population and Development. In mid-November, the 2019 High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit, or ICPD+25, released a groundbreaking new report that builds on this framework. The report examines global progress and setbacks regarding sexual health and rights that occurred since 2019. It recommends that countries take steps to “unwind” the various social, political, and economic barriers that hinder the advancement of SRH.   Positively, the report sheds light on how roughly 77 percent of low- and middle- income countries have created plans to develop or execute national commitments to sexual and reproductive health or have developed monitoring and evaluation systems. The recent progress in Latin America and Africa- notably the legalization of abortion in Mexico, Argentina, and Columbia that resulted from women’s movements- sharply contrasts events transpiring in Eastern Europe and the United...
Read More
The Respect for Marriage Act, 2022

The Respect for Marriage Act, 2022

On December 8th, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.8404, also known as the Respect for Marriage Act, by a vote of 258-169. This legislation cements the federal rights of marriages of same-sex couples and ensures that the same legal obligation to protect same-sex marriages exists as it does for marriages between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage was legalized on June 26th, 2015, in the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644. However, Supreme Court decisions are not law, which was emphasized by the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. In the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe, the concurring opinion stated that Obergefell should be overturned as well, which inspired action from Congress to protect same-sex marriage.   The law has two main components, both of which ensure that marriage equality is protected nationwide. The first component is the repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. This law allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex...
Read More
A New Mechanism of Non-Hormonal Contraception using Mucoadhesive Polymers

A New Mechanism of Non-Hormonal Contraception using Mucoadhesive Polymers

Effective family planning is critical for women’s empowerment and improvement in child and maternal health, yet nearly half of the world’s pregnancies are unintended(1), representing a clear unmet need for contraception. Hormonal contraceptive regimens offer high efficacy but may induce a systemic side effect profile that reduces compliance. New research into contraceptive development has stagnated since the 1980s, due to the exit of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry from the arena. Consequently, existing pericoital non-hormonal contraceptives, such as spermicides and gels, are unsatisfactory, suffering from high failure rates in typical use as well as high discontinuation rates, which partially stem from vaginal irritation and discomfort. To solve these issues, Schimpf and colleagues, reporting in Science Translational Medicine(2), proposed a novel mechanism that could represent the next generation in contraceptive design. They developed a formulation of chitosan mucoadhesive polymers that can be topically applied to physically reinforce the cervical mucus barrier against sperm penetration. Their vaginal gel formulation decreased average uterine sperm...
Read More
OCTOBER 2022 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

OCTOBER 2022 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Be an Outlier for Change      Next week marks almost five months since the Supreme Court handed down their decision in Dobbs versus Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the constitutional protection for abortion enshrined by Roe v Wade in 1973. Although the past fifteen years have seen an incredibly successful assault on reproductive rights and access to essential health care for pregnancy, the Dobbs decision led to the enactment of trigger bans in thirteen states, with an additional thirteen states having restrictive or very restrictive laws that are anticipated to lead to bans in the near future. In the first 100 days post-Dobbs, much has been written about the legal climate, how individuals and families have been affected and the legislative victories on both sides of the debate. One of the most striking things I’ve read, however, was a policy analysis by the Guttmacher Institute classifying the US as a global outlier on abortion rights. While the US has often taken pride in...
Read More
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. EMILY HERFEL

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. EMILY HERFEL

Emily Herfel, DO, Msc-GH, FACOG (Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists), is an assistant professor at Duke Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an affiliate at the Duke Center for Global Reproductive Health, and a volunteer professor at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania. Dr. Herfel completed her undergraduate work at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio followed by a Doctor of Osteopathy at Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio. She completed residency at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She then went on to receive her Masters of Science in Global Health through a Women’s Global Health Fellowship at Duke University. During that fellowship, she received an NIH-Fogarty grant to complete her project in Kisumu, Kenya. I had an enriching conversation with Dr. Herfel to learn more about her experiences within the global health sphere and her passion for reproductive health care. “Right in the heart of COVID, in July 2020, I moved to...
Read More
Webinar Series

Webinar Series

The Center for Global Reproductive Health and the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health recently partnered to convene a webinar on “The unfinished agenda of maternal and child health in Africa and Asia: promising directions to address maternal mortality challenges.” The panel, moderated by Dr. Megan Huchko, included: Dr. Mariam Claeson, former Director of the Global Financing Facility for Every Women Every Child at the World Bank and now at the Karolinska Institute Dr. Qjan Long, Assistant Professor at Duke Kunshan University, formerly worked at the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO Ms. Jacquelyn Caglia, Director of Learning, Communications for Merck for Mothers Experts discussed the historic and current challenges in addressing maternal and child mortality in the region, and brought up some promising innovations and strategies with the potential to effect these disparities in the future. The webinar can be seen here, with a fill description of the background and discussion on the CPIGH website....
Read More