The latest research on reproductive coercion -- a type of intimate partner abuse in which the man threatens the woman to become pregnant -- shows that a simple intervention at a family planning clinic can empower women to protect themselves from future abuse, Time reports...

By using telemedicine to dispense abortion medication, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is applying the technology "as it was intended: to expand access to legal health services in rural Iowa," the Des Moines Register states in an editorial...

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Electronic Mnemonics and the Pill," Laura Lloyd, National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy's "Pregnant Pause": Although oral contraceptives are the most popular birth control method among U.S. teens and young adults, the pill "tends to be less effective than it could be thanks to user error," Lloyd writes...

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Electronic Mnemonics and the Pill," Laura Lloyd, National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy's "Pregnant Pause": Although oral contraceptives are the most popular birth control method among U.S. teens and young adults, the pill "tends to be less effective than it could be thanks to user error," Lloyd writes...

Experts gathered at a joint meeting of UNAIDS and the WHO last week called for two additional clinical trials to test the effectiveness and safety of a microbicide vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir, which previous studies have shown reduces the risk of HIV transmission in women who used it before and after sex by 39 percent, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (9/5)...

The rising U...

Today's updates on the continuing implementation of the health law include Medicare chief Don Berwick's behind the scenes push for 'accountable care organizations,' tax anxiety in the medical device industry, and the promise of new help for pregnant women...

Ahead of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit on September 20-22, the media examines different aspects of the MDGs. The Daily Nation reports on a United Nations Development Program report which showed poverty eradication remained one of Kenya's greatest challenges to meeting the MDGs. "'Poverty is still at 2006 levels...

"Since the 2008 election, progressive leaders have done little to address the obvious national appetite for female leadership," Anna Holmes, founding editor of Jezebel, and author Rebecca Traister write in a New York Times opinion piece. Hampered by their "continuing obsession" with former Alaska Gov...

The U.S.-based conservative Christian group Focus on the Family has launched a program teaching abstinence to students in China's Yunnan Province, the Washington Post reports...

Donors have not committed enough money to move forward with two studies needed to confirm the efficacy of a vaginal microbicidal gel infused with the antiviral drug tenofovir to prevent HIV transmission in women, the New York Times reports...

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today released a series of free evidence-based guides designed to help Spanish speakers understand and compare the risks, benefits and side effects of treatments for eight health conditions. The guides provide valuable information that patients can use in talking with their clinicians...

Giving birth in an alternative setting within a hospital - like a bed-free birthing room or one designed to be "homelike" is just as safe for healthy women as laboring in a traditional hospital bed and women who use these rooms are nearly twice as likely to be satisfied with their birth experiences, according to an updated Cochrane review...

There are currently no reliably safe and effective treatments for morning sickness, according to Cochrane researchers who conducted a systematic review of the available evidence. There was very limited evidence for all pharmaceutical and alternative medicines tested. Morning sickness is the term used to describe vomiting and feelings of nausea in pregnant women...

While preterm birth is a known risk factor for cerebral palsy, an examination of data for infants born at term or later finds that compared with delivery at 40 weeks, birth at 37 or 38 weeks or at 42 weeks or later was associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy, according to a study in the September 1 issue of JAMA...

Two new studies have shed more light on how smoking may damage fertility, and give further weight to advice that mothers and fathers-to-be should stop smoking before attempting to conceive. The research is published online in the reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction (Wednesday 8 September)...

There are currently no reliably safe and effective treatments for morning sickness, according to Cochrane researchers who conducted a systematic review of the available evidence. There was very limited evidence for all pharmaceutical and alternative medicines tested. Morning sickness is the term used to describe vomiting and feelings of nausea in pregnant women...

Two new studies have shed more light on how smoking may damage fertility, and give further weight to advice that mothers and fathers-to-be should stop smoking before attempting to conceive. The research is published online in the reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction (Wednesday 8 September)...

Newborn babies with low levels of vitamin D have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute have found. The research team used tiny samples of blood taken as part of routine screening from newborn babies in Denmark...

Many kids head back to school today�if they haven�t already�so as a reward for getting them out the door, read Jenny Rosenstrach�s brilliantly funny letter to her husband (served by �attorneys� Almuerzo & Snaks) to ensure that he will be packing lunches and snacks exactly HALF of the time this school year.