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Meeting on
Relationship of Hormonal Contraceptive Use to HIV Transmission (May, 2005)
In May, 2005 Gynuity held a meeting on the relationship of hormonal contraceptive use to HIV transmission and disease progression. The meeting examined the most up-to-date evidence on the topic, needs and strategies for future research, and what actions family planning and HIV prevention programs should currently be taking in response to what is known. Executive and extended summaries of meeting outcomes are available below.
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> Expert Meeting Held on Improving Current Therapies and Exploring New Options in Abortifacient Technology (June 2004)
In June 2004, Gynuity convened a small group of international experts in the field of medical abortion and women’s health for a symposium entitled “Improving Current Therapies and Exploring New Options in Abortifacient Technology.” In this one-day meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland, participants discussed current activities around novel abortifacient development and debated how best to balance resources between this research and efforts to improve existing medical abortion regimens. Participants included basic science researchers, social scientists, clinicians, and pharmaceutical industry experts. Much of the meeting focused on promising avenues of research and drug candidates in the areas of antiprogestins, other antihormones, prostaglandins and analogues, antifolates and antimetabolites, and angiogenesis inhibitor drugs (currently being developed as cancer therapies). More broadly, participants explored the qualities of an “ideal” abortifacient, as well as the social and political considerations involved in developing and promoting new therapies. Among the priority areas identified for future collaborative work were: 1) continuing to introduce medical abortion in countries where it is currently unavailable; 2) determining the lowest effective dose of misoprostol and developing single-dose regimens for mifepristone-misoprostol medical abortion; 3) establishing the minimum technology required for medical abortion; and 4) improving medical abortion for gestations >9 weeks.
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> Misoprostol: A New Addition to Post Abortion Care
(October 2003)
On October 20, 2003, a group of researchers, policy makers, and program developers came together to explore the use of misoprostol for Post Abortion Care (PAC). The goals of the meeting were to exchange information about misoprostol for PAC and discuss strategies for bringing misoprostol into current PAC protocols. The meeting included a roundtable discussion on the obstacles affecting access to misoprostol and concluded with a discussion of plans for the future. Follow the link below for a brief summary of the discussions at the meeting, highlights from the presentations, and a summary of the plan for moving forward with this promising technology.
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> Route of Misoprostol Administration: Examining Efficacy, Side Effects and Acceptability (September 2003)
To date, the large body of high-quality scientific work on misoprostol for women's health has not systematically addressed the importance of route of administration. Often, the use of misoprostol for women's health indications follows untested practices with different routes of administration. Clinical research comparing different routes of administration for some indications is relatively scarce. Consequently, assertions about the "best" route of administration for a particular indication are often not grounded in scientific evidence. Moreover, many comparisons do not take into account either the population or provider effect on the efficacy or acceptability of a given route.
As a result, experts at a previous meeting entitled "Misoprostol: An emerging technology for women's health" held at the Population Council in New York in May 2001 identified the need for consensus on the clinical importance of route and an examination of the implications of route for future research and drug development (Shannon and Winikoff).
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> Misoprostol: An Emerging Technology for Women's Health
(May 2001)
The meeting summarized in this report was organized because a large body of scientific work supporting the use of misoprostol for induced abortion, uterine evacuation after pregnancy failure, cervical priming, labor induction, and management of the third stage of labor, had not been synthesized in an accessible way. As a result, there has been no consensus on issues surrounding the use of misoprostol for women’s health and no strategic agenda for continuing development of the technology, with most research proceeding in an ad hoc manner.
The report highlights the potential of misoprostol to improve women’s health. Meeting participants agreed that a major priority for research and policy is creation of a solid clinical science base for all women’s health problems for which misoprostol is effective. Providers must be trained, guidelines created and women educated so that the use of the drug is safe and effective. Finally, a broader policy strategy is necessary to support program development in identified priority areas. Download this document in PDF.
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