Journal of women's health
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Journal of women's health · May 2015
Observational StudyPreventing Unintended Pregnancy: The Contraceptive CHOICE Project in Review.
The Contraceptive CHOICE Project (CHOICE) sought to reduce unintended pregnancies in the St. Louis Region by removing cost, education, and access barriers to highly effective contraception. CHOICE was a prospective cohort study of over 9,000 women 14-45 years of age who received tiered contraceptive counseling to increase awareness of all reversible methods available, particularly long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods. ⋯ As a result, we observed a reduction in the percent of repeat abortions from 2006 to 2010 in St. Louis compared with Kansas City and nonmetropolitan Missouri and found substantial reductions in teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion (34.0, 19.4, and 9.7 per 1000 teens, respectively) compared with national rates among sexually experienced teens (158.5, 94.0, and 41.5 per 1000, respectively). Improved access to LARC methods can result in fewer unintended pregnancies and abortions and considerable cost savings to the health care system.
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Journal of women's health · May 2015
Observational StudyPositive Testing for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis and the Risk of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease in IUD Users.
Unintended pregnancies are a major public health problem in the United States, and intrauterine devices (IUDs) are among the most effective reversible birth control methods available. Historically, there have been concerns about IUD use and infection among young and/or high-risk women that may increase the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and subsequent infertility. ⋯ Our results demonstrate that IUD use is safe for all women, including women at high risk for sexually transmitted infections.
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Journal of women's health · May 2015
ReviewUpdate: A Review of Women's Health Fellowships, Their Role in Interdisciplinary Health Care, and the Need for Accreditation.
While Women's Health (WH) Fellowships have been in existence since 1990, knowledge of their existence seems limited. Specialized training in WH is crucial to educate leaders who can appropriately integrate this multidisciplinary field into academic centers, especially as the demand for providers confident in the areas of contraception, perimenopause/menopause, hormone therapy, osteoporosis, hypoactive sexual desire disorder, medical management of abnormal uterine bleeding, office based care of stress/urge incontinence, and gender-based medicine are increasing popular and highly sought after. ⋯ This article provides a current review of what WH trained physicians can offer patients, and also highlights the added value that accreditation would offer the field. Ultimately, accrediting WH fellowships will improve women's health medical education by creating specialists that can serve as academic leaders to help infuse gender specific education in primary residencies, as well as serve as consultants and leaders, and promote visibility and prestige of the field.
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Journal of women's health · May 2015
ReviewWomen's Health Fellowships: Examining the Potential Benefits and Harms of Accreditation.
This commentary responds to the assertions by Foreman et al. that credentialing of women's health (WH) fellows by the American Board of Medical Subspecialties and accreditation of current and future WH fellowships by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education would improve the health and healthcare of women by increasing the number of primary care providers competent to meet a growing clinical need. They speculate that such accreditation would raise the status of WH fellowships, increase the number of applicants, and result in more academic leaders in WH. They assert that curricular deficiencies in WH exist in physician training and that WH fellowships are the preferred means of training physicians to care for midlife women. We review the evidence to support or refute these claims and conclude that accrediting WH fellowships would not have the forecasted outcomes and would jeopardize the success of current WH fellowships.