By Dr Corrina Horan Abortion is a very common gynaecological procedure, with an estimated 1 in 3 women undergoing an abortion in mainland UK within their reproductive lifetime. Despite the common nature of abortion, it is a subject surrounded by stigma – a US study found that the majority of people, 1 week following an […]
Latest articles
Telemedicine abortion in Italy: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
By Dr Karin Brandell In Italy, abortion is legal up to 90 days of pregnancy but with restrictions that pose barriers to the service, including widespread conscientious objection and an obligatory waiting period of 7 days. Italy was one of the first countries hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with multiple restrictions imposed on the public […]
AGREE II is an agreeable, accessible tool to assess the quality of trans and gender minority clinical practice guidelines
By Sara Dahlen, Dean Connolly, Isra Arif, Muhammad Hyder Junejo, Susan Bewley and Catherine Meads Doctors trying to help their patients are bombarded with too much and often conflicting information. Well-developed clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) can help busy practitioners ground their real-world frontline care in properly considered, best available knowledge gained from high quality research. […]
Menstrual blood: no longer just a waste product
By Dr. Sara Naseri, Dr. Ryan Brewster and Professor Paul D. Blumenthal For decades, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) has been the diagnostic and prognostic standard for primary management of diabetes mellitus (DM).1 It serves as an index of long-term glycemic control and a predictive indicator of preventable micro- and macrovascular complications, making routine monitoring an essential […]
Abortion Bereavement Leave is Part of Abortion Care
By Dr Nathan Hodson Last week, changes to the bereavement policy for employees at the City of Portland, Oregon, emerged. Under the new bereavement leave policy, employees of the city government are eligible for bereavement leave following pregnancy loss, and pregnancy loss is defined broadly to include termination of pregnancy. This reflects a striking evolution […]
The indirect costs of the pandemic: disruption to contraception services and rise in unplanned pregnancies in the UK
By Dr Neerujah Balachandren and Dr Jennifer Hall One year into the pandemic, the U.N. Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (UNFPA) estimated 12 million women in low and middle-income countries may have been unable to access family planning services. 1 It has been estimated that as many as 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies may have occurred […]
Keeping race on the agenda shouldn’t continue to fall on the shoulders of Black and minoritised people
By Rianna Raymond-Williams and Uzochi Nwaosu “The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” — Ijeoma Oluo Just over a year ago, I […]
What constitutes a ‘positive’ contraceptive experience?
By CERT (Contraception Education Reform Team) CERT (Contraception Education Reform Team) are a student-led policy research group based at the University of Edinburgh. We aim to improve contraceptive care and education for all contraceptive users through research and policy-based change. Our research team, comprising of multidisciplinary university students from across the UK and Europe, was […]
“As the COVID-19 pandemic shifts the architecture of choice in abortion care, we must continue to accommodate patient preferences.”
By Rebecca Blaylock and Dr Shelly Makleff Our new research1 shows what factors contribute to shaping people’s preferences for the sort of abortion they want. For example, patients may be influenced by a previous good abortion experience they hope to emulate again, they may be worried about privacy issues in shared housing, or they might […]
Exploring the toxic relationship between mental illness and miscarriage
By Ray Jerram Dr Nathan Hodson Miscarriage and mental illness are common but often hidden life experiences. Emerging evidence reveals the toxic symbiotic relationship between these two stigmatized parts of life. To some extent their connection may be unsurprising, considering how we increasingly recognise the pervasiveness of psychiatric issues, as well as the trauma of […]