By Sita Shahi, Anandi Yuvaraj, Florence Anam, Sophie Dilmitis, Jenifer Gatsi, Lillian Mworeko, Francine Nganhale, Dorothy Onyango, Assumpta Reginald, Martha Tholanah, Patricia Ukoli, Lucy Wanjiku, Tendayi Westerhof, Rita Wahab, Susan Bewley, Rico Gustav, Bakita Kasadha, Angelina Namiba, Mercy Ngulube, Luisa Orza, Silvia Petretti, Sophie Strachan, Marijo Vazquez, Alice Welbourn, Svitlana Moroz, Olena Stryzhak, Arely Cano, […]
Latest articles
Asking the right question: Why are abortions underreported?
Dr Rachel Scott @rachelhvscott Underreporting Abortions are known to be underreported in surveys. This has important consequences for demographic research. If reporting of abortions in surveys is incomplete, there are knock on effects on other pregnancy data collected in surveys. Conceptions comprise births, miscarriages and abortions; Incomplete data on abortions means incomplete data on conceptions. […]
Book Review: The Gynae Geek by Dr Anita Mitra
Review by Louise LC Turtle Studying a diagram of the vulva on a train is less discrete than scrolling her Instagram page, @gynaegeek, but this is what I found myself doing. I was drawn in by the familiar female voice that reads like a Dolly Alderton column. Sipping my turmeric latte – it’s her favourite […]
Medical devices and the legacy of the Dalkon Shield: The struggle for evidence-based contraception
Evidence from Natsal-3 published in BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health showed that women need contraception from doctors, but men largely get it from the shops. For many of us, this kind of disparity tends to set off our sexism alarms. In some ways the results are a natural consequence of biological differences. Men tend to […]
Sexuality, Reproduction, and The Etymology of Abuse
By an Anonymous Historian I love looking up archaic uses of words and uncovering their etymologies. Researching the origins of the word ‘abuse’, I was struck by how the meaning of abuse has journeyed alongside sexuality and reproduction for centuries. ab – uti The Vulgar Latin abuti meant use up or consume as well as […]
Bad Tweets: Reflections on @BMJ_SRH’s mentions
Sexual and reproductive health provokes the kind of righteous anger that Twitter thrives on. By trying to provide a beacon of nuance and open-mindedness we’re running against the grain, but I don’t always get that right so I have to take responsibility for some of the bad tweets posted on Twitter over the last month. […]
Barriers, Facilitators and Improvements to Abortion Care
by Jodie Smith In 2017 we celebrated 50 years since abortion was legalised in Great Britain under the 1967 Abortion Act, putting an end to the unsafe back-street abortions that were causing high frequencies of maternal death and severe morbidity. In these 50 years, there have been numerous clinical developments in abortion care, including the […]
Perforation Following IUD Insertion
by John Reynolds-Wright and Rebecca Heller We all know perforation is a recognised risk of IUD insertion. However, that doesn’t make it any less upsetting for either the clinician or the patient. It is often not recognised at the time it occurs and can go unnoticed for weeks, if not months. This can be […]
The Emotional Journey of My Decision to Undergo Risk-Reducing Surgery
By Clarissa Foster, Author of ‘Understanding BRCA’ After learning that I carried a harmful BRCA2 gene mutation, I needed to make the decision on how I would manage my increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. For a very brief moment, I considered the possibility of doing nothing at all – after all, I […]
Coercive and Controlling Behaviour in The Taming of the Shrew
The RSC’s new gender-flipped production of The Taming of the Shrew highlights the often overlooked coercive and controlling behaviour in the script. Gender Rewriting male characters as female can be done without changing much at all, as in the production of Timon of Athens at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) earlier this year, where the […]