Birth Control News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

The Pleasure Prescription: Why More Sex Means Less Menopause Pain

June 25, 2025 — Keeping sex on the schedule may be its own menopause medicine: among 900 women aged 40-79, those active in the last three months reported far less dryness, pain, and irritation, while orgasm and overall satisfaction stayed rock-solid despite dips in ...

New Non-Surgical Contraceptive Implant Is Delivered Through Tiny Needles

Mar. 24, 2025 — Investigators have developed a long-acting contraceptive implant that can be delivered through tiny needles to minimize patient discomfort and increase the likelihood of medication use. Their findings in preclinical models provide the technological ...

Engineers Develop a Better Way to Deliver Long-Lasting Drugs

Mar. 24, 2025 — Engineers devised a way to deliver drugs such as contraceptives by injecting them as suspended crystals. Once under the skin, the crystals assemble into a drug depot that can last for months or years, eliminating the need for frequent ...

New AI-Powered Tool Could Enhance Traumatic Brain Injury Investigations in Forensics and Law Enforcement

Feb. 26, 2025 — A team of researchers has developed an advanced physics-based AI-driven tool to aid the forensic investigation of traumatic brain injuries ...

Could the Contraceptive Pill Reduce Risk of Ovarian Cancer?

Feb. 3, 2025 — It's a little pill with big responsibilities. But despite its primary role to prevent pregnancy, the contraceptive pill (or 'the Pill') could also help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, according to new ...

Mothers of Twins Face a Higher Risk of Heart Disease in the Year After Birth

Feb. 3, 2025 — The risk of being admitted to the hospital with heart disease is twice as high the year after birth for mothers of twins compared to singleton births, according to new research. The risk is even ...

Diagnostic Stewardship Optimizes Detection of Appendicitis

Jan. 29, 2025 — Although the delayed diagnosis of appendicitis is dangerous, over-testing can also be ...

IVF Pregnancies at Greater Risk of Exposure to Medicines That Can Harm the Fetus

Jan. 15, 2025 — A new study has revealed a potential reason why some pregnancies achieved through assisted reproductive technology (ART) may result in birth defects in comparison to naturally conceived ...

How Do MS Drugs Affect Pregnancy?

Dec. 27, 2024 — Many women are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at an age when they are considering starting a family. What does the disease and its medication mean for the child? To answer this question, a research team analyzed over 3,700 pregnancies of ...

Clinical Trial Reveals Twice-Yearly Injection to Be 96% Effective in HIV Prevention

Nov. 29, 2024 — Recent results from a recent clinical trial indicate that a twice-yearly injection of Lenacapavir offers an overall 96% reduced risk of acquiring HIV. This makes Lenacapavir significantly more ...

Scientists Discover Shared Genetic Foundations Between Musical Rhythm and Human Language

Nov. 27, 2024 — A study has revealed that genetic variants associated with higher likelihood of rhythm impairments tended to be also associated with higher likelihood of dyslexia. The reverse was also the case: ...

Frequent Emergency Care During Pregnancy Could Signal Greater Risk for Severe Maternal Morbidity

Nov. 15, 2024 — A new study found that, among nearly 775,000 pregnant people in Massachusetts, 31 percent of these individuals had at least one unscheduled emergency visit to the hospital, and 3.3 percent had four ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:11pm EDT

Very Early Medication Abortion Is Effective and Safe, Study Finds

Nov. 7, 2024 — Clinics and hospitals currently defer medication abortion until ultrasound confirms a pregnancy inside the uterus. However, a large international study now indicates that treatment can be equally ...

Common Drug Shows Promise in Extending Lifespan

Oct. 25, 2024 — Scientists say mifepristone, used in cancer and reproductive care, could pave the way for anti-aging ...

U.S. Infant Mortality Increased 7 Percent in Months Following Dobbs, Researchers Find

Oct. 21, 2024 — U.S. babies died at a higher rate in the months following the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision, and infant mortality was ...

Ketamine Clinics Vary Widely in Pregnancy-Related Safeguards

Sep. 3, 2024 — With ketamine for depression & PTSD growing rapidly in use, but with concerns about potential impact on a fetus, a study shows wide variation in pregnancy testing & contraception guidance at clinics ...

Pregnancy After Sterilization Turns out to Be Surprisingly Common

Aug. 27, 2024 — Tubal sterilization is thought to be a permanent form of birth control and is the most common method of contraception nationally. But a new study reports that tubal surgery fails often enough that ...

Mapping the Sex Life of Malaria Parasites at Single Cell Resolution, Reveals the Genetics Underlying Malaria Transmission

Aug. 26, 2024 — Malaria is caused by a eukaryotic microbe of the Plasmodium genus, and is responsible for more deaths than all other parasitic diseases combined. In ...

Horse Miscarriages Offer Clues to Causes of Early Human Pregnancy Loss

Aug. 5, 2024 — A study of horses -- which share many important similarities with humans in their chromosomes and pregnancies -- revealed that 42% of miscarriages and spontaneous abortions in the first two months of ...

New Study Shows Medication Abortion Without Ultrasound to Be Safe

July 8, 2024 — Medication abortion patients who receive pills by mail without first getting an ultrasound do just as well as those who are examined and given the drugs in person, new research has ...

Analysis Suggests 2021 Texas Abortion Ban Resulted in Increase in Infant Deaths in State in Year After Law Went Into Effect

June 27, 2024 — Researchers use statistical modeling to estimate infant deaths expected if one of the country's most stringent state abortion laws had not been ...

Changing the Game for Sports Emergency Action Plans

June 26, 2024 — A national position statement on emergency action plan development and implementation in sports from an athletic training researcher sets in motion new priorities for responding to catastrophic ...

Study Reveals Rising Interest in Permanent Contraception After Roe V. Wade Was Overturned

Jan. 7, 2025 — A new study has found a significant increase in the number of U.S. young adults seeking permanent contraception, specifically tubal sterilization and vasectomy, following the Supreme Court's ...

Study Reveals Gaps in Access to Long-Term Contraceptive Supplies

Sep. 19, 2024 — Researchers find that despite the enactment of 12-month contraceptive supply policies in 19 U.S. states, most patients do not receive a long-term ...

Sterilization Rates Among Women Rose After U.S. Supreme Court Abortion Ruling

Sep. 11, 2024 — Researchers found an increase in surgical sterilization among women after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to ...

Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir for HIV Prevention Is Safe in Pregnancy, Study Finds

July 23, 2024 — Long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) was safe and well tolerated as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) before and during pregnancy in the follow-up phase of a global study among cisgender ...

Safe, Successful Pregnancies Possible After alloHCT

July 15, 2024 — Despite treatment-related fertility challenges, female patients can become pregnant and give birth to healthy children after undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT), ...

A Promising Approach to Develop a Birth Control Pill for Men

May 23, 2024 — Researchers show in animal models that a novel, non-hormonal sperm-specific approach offers a promising option for reversible human male ...

Magnetic Microcoils Unlock Targeted Single-Neuron Therapies for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Apr. 23, 2024 — Researchers deploy an array of microscopic coils to create a magnetic field and stimulate individual neurons. The magnetic field can induce an electric field in any nearby neurons, the same effect ...

Predicting Cardiac Arrhythmia 30 Minutes Before It Happens

Apr. 22, 2024 — Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia worldwide with around 59 million people concerned in 2019. This irregular heartbeat is associated with increased risks of heart failure, ...

Miscarriages Linked to Health Risks in Later Pregnancies

Mar. 28, 2024 — Researchers analyzed 52 studies involving more than 4 million pregnancies across 22 countries to investigate the health impacts of miscarriage, abortion and recurrent pregnancy loss (more than two ...

Scientists Discover New Target for Reversible, Non-Hormonal Male Birth Control

Feb. 20, 2024 — Scientists discovered a new target for reversible, non-hormonal male birth control. The drug, an HDAC inhibitor, blocked sperm production and fertility in male mice without affecting libido or future ...

Higher Infant Mortality Rates Associated With Restrictive Abortion Laws, Study Finds

Jan. 17, 2024 — New research provides evidence that U.S. states with the most restrictive abortion laws saw 16 percent more infant deaths in 2014-2018 than in states offering access to comprehensive reproductive ...

About 22 High School Age Adolescents in U.S. Died Each Week from Overdoses in 2022, Driven by Fentanyl-Laced Prescription Pills

Jan. 8, 2024 — An average of 22 adolescents 14 to 18 years of age died in the U.S. each week in 2022 from drug overdoses, raising the death rate for this group to 5.2 per 100,000 -- driven by fentanyl in ...

Genetic Variants Underlying Male Bisexual Behavior, Risk-Taking Linked to More Children, Study Shows

Jan. 3, 2024 — Because same-sex sexual behavior does not result in offspring, evolutionary biologists have long wondered how the genes associated with this behavior have persisted in the human genome, and whether ...

New Study Examines the Relationship Between the Rate of Wound Healing, the Circadian Rhythm, and 'Hair' on Cells

Dec. 21, 2023 — Nearly every organism on Earth follows a natural circadian rhythm that is coded by your cell's clock genes, which do exactly as you suspect from the name: regulate your body's rhythm on a ...

Smartwatches Can Pick Up Abnormal Heart Rhythms in Kids, Study Finds

Dec. 13, 2023 — Apple watches have some advantages over traditional ways of diagnosing cardiac arrythmias in children but need more validation, finds a new ...

Surgery Patients Now Less Likely to Get Opioids -- But Decline Has Slowed

Dec. 7, 2023 — Post-surgery pain relief has shifted away from opioid-containing medications over the past seven years, but the downward trend has slowed since 2020, a new study shows. Overall, the rate of ...

Innovative Design Achieves Tenfold Better Resolution for Functional MRI Brain Imaging

Nov. 27, 2023 — Hospital MRI scanners, using 3 Tesla magnets, provide poor spatial resolution in brain imaging. More recent 7T MRIs are better but used mainly in the rare research lab. Scientists have now ...

Hormonal Contraceptives in Teens May Alter Risk Assessment, Rat Study Suggests

Nov. 13, 2023 — Hormonal contraceptives taken by adolescents may influence development of the brain in a way that alters the recognition of risks, a new study in rats ...

Blood Clotting Risk Quickly Drops After Stopping Hormonal Contraceptives

Nov. 8, 2023 — Using birth control pills and other hormone-based contraceptives is known to elevate the risk of blood clots, but a new study suggests that this risk largely goes away within two to four weeks after ...

Contraceptive Pill Users Less Likely to Report Depression

Nov. 1, 2023 — A new study has shown that women who are taking the oral contraceptive pill are less likely to report depression. The research, which analysed data from 6,239 women in the United States aged 18-55 ...