2015 Women’s Health Research Day showcases advances in women’s health
In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned women “of child-bearing potential” from participating in clinical trials. This was in part due to thousands of children worldwide being born with missing and malformed limbs after their mothers had taken thalidomide – often prescribed in the 1950s for nausea and as a sleep aid.
A decade and a half later, in 1993, the FDA lifted this ban after Congress passed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act. However, as Alina Salganicoff, PhD, noted in her keynote address at the 2015 Women’s Health Research Day on April 28, 2015, women are still poorly represented in research and clinical trials.
Women’s Health Research Day was held at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey for the second year in a row, and more than 70 faculty members, students and trainees from both Hershey and Penn State University Park attended. Because of a high number of applications this year, two more research presentation slots and 11 more poster presentations were added.
Poster presentations featured the work of faculty members, residents, graduate students and medical students. The researchers’ fields of expertise ranged from obstetrics and gynecology to kinesiology to public health sciences, covering an array of women’s health topics.
Alina Salganicoff, PhD
She also discussed the ACA requirements for covering preventive services, including contraception and intimate partner violence counseling, leading off a day full of posters and presentations about women’s health research being conducted at Penn State by students and faculty alike.
The 10 oral presentations covered topics ranging from intimate partner violence to pregnancy to cancer. The best presentations – one by a student or trainee and one by a faculty member – both focused on pregnancy this year.
Ayesha Abid, then a resident in Family and Community Medicine, was awarded for her talk “Patterns in the rate of term stillbirth and gestational age at delivery following the adoption of the 39-week rule.” Kristen Kjerulff, MA, PhD, professor of public health sciences, received the faculty award for her talk “Cesarean delivery at first childbirth and subsequent fertility: A 36-month prospective cohort study.”
The day also featured a panel discussion on emerging issues in contraception. Joining Salganicoff on the panel were Penn State College of Medicine researchers Cynthia Chuang, MD, MSc, and Carie D’Agata. The three researchers discussed the cost issues of contraception and the confusion about what forms of birth control are and aren’t covered under the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
It turns out that there is no clear-cut answer, and it in part depends on the health care plan. D’Agata pointed out the wealth of misinformation about forms of long-acting reversible contraception for women. Salganicoff brought up that some plans will cover the hormonal birth control options of the vaginal ring and the patch, but others will not. However, vasectomy – a form of male birth control – is not covered at all under the mandate.
Chuang noted that due to the contraceptive mandate, she and others are presented with unique research opportunities.
The conference was co-chaired and organized by Chuang and Danielle Symons Downs, PhD, with support from a cross-campus planning committee. Funding for the conference was provided by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Penn State College of Medicine and the Center for Women’s Health Research.
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