By Melanie Atkinson Vasectomy offers non-reversible contraception to men but efficacy is not immediate and requires post-vasectomy semen testing (PVSA) to confirm success. Clearance to discontinue alternative contraception is given on a fresh semen sample with <100,000 non-motile sperm/mL. However, many men still fail to submit samples following a vasectomy, risking pregnancy by being unaware […]
Latest articles
Exploring the role of birth doulas as liminal actors in medical law and regulation
By Beverley Clough and Anna Nelson Birth doulas are not medically trained, but are seen as a source of physical and emotional support for the birthing person. Doula UK, the largest UK Doula Organisation, has explained the doula role as: “providing practical, emotional and nurturing support to the whole family during pregnancy, labour and after […]
Criminalised, Stigmatised, and Underprovided: Why Germany’s Abortion Law Fails both Patients and Providers
By Amelie Kolandt, Susanne Michl & Mirjam Faissner In Germany, access to abortion remains legally restricted and structurally constrained. Our recent qualitative study “Understanding structural barriers to abortion care under the counselling regulation in Germany”, published in BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, highlights how criminalisation, stigma, and a lack of training undermine equitable, patient-centred abortion […]
Trump’s isolationism between abortion, equality and shame
By Ezio di Nucci The British Medical Journal accuses Trump of waging war against equality (1). Why has equality become such cheap political prey? The answer to this question might end up implicating ourselves. Trump’s decisive political insight has always been, we argue, that basic normative principles such as equality can never be put away […]
On being left alone, finally
By Ezio Di Nucci Imagine being a woman living under the patriarchy for 45 to 50 years. Then, slowly but surely, men finally begin to leave you alone. Wouldn’t that be liberating? Reclaiming menopause as the long-awaited (genotypically and phenotypically) women’s liberation has been in high fashion of late, so I was surprised when one of […]
Letting Patients Lead: Improving How We Care for OBGYN Patients in Pain
By India Rogers-Shepp & Deepti Divya Gopisetty MD Images of patients biting their lips, fists clenched, eyes squeezed shut while they fight gasps of pain, follow us into the exam room. As trainees in gynecology, we are taught to use “verbi-caine” – words as a form of anesthesia – to ease the anxiety that too often […]
Sleepraping or: are men in the habit of raping women?
By Ezio Di Nucci Just as the patriarchy always finds novel (and often surprising) ways of oppressing women, men appear to have the uncanny ability to continue to find new ways of raping them. Sleepraping or, as it is sometimes called – but shouldn’t be – sexsomnia is men using a sleepwalking defense in rape […]
Women are open to receiving pre-pregnancy care invitations from general practices
By Nishadi Withanage, Sharon James, Jessica Botfield, Kirsten Black, Jeana Wong & Danielle Mazza Pre-pregnancy, the phase before conception, is an opportunity for health professionals to work with women and their partners to enhance health and pregnancy outcomes by managing risk factors such as obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and physical and mental health conditions. General […]
Recommending Privately Developed FemTech in Healthcare Part 2: Understanding Healthcare Professionals’ Responsibilities
By Anna Nelson, Maria Tzanou and Tsachi Keren-Paz In the previous blog, we introduced the issues associated with healthcare professionals (HCPs) recommending privately-developed FemTech apps. In this second blog, we turn our attention to regulatory considerations associated with this practice. There are two distinct questions which could be asked here: (1) whether HCPs should recommend […]
Recommending Privately-Developed FemTech in Healthcare Part 1: Promises and Pitfalls
By Anna Nelson, Maria Tzanou and Tsachi Keren-Paz Introduction FemTech refers to apps and wearable devices (eg. smart breast pumps and bluetooth-enabled fertility monitors) purporting to empower women and non-binary users to manage their sexual, gynaecological and reproductive health. During their recent review of the data practices of period and fertility tracking apps, the […]