Over the past few weeks members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees have decided how much money to give to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is a crucial funder of contraceptive research. Scores of readers of our newsletters for the public and for family planning providers took the time to let congressmembers know how important this to them, and Congress has listened!
The Senate Appropriations Committee budgeted $461 million for family planning and reproductive health programs, which is $137 million above the President’s request and about $20 million above the 2007 level. This is a good sign that Congress considers USAID’s work important. If some of the money is set aside for research rather than sent out to field offices, that will allow research to be maintained, rather than be cut severely like in recent years.
Why does this matter so much? Because USAID is one of only two public funding sources for contraceptive development in the US. Last year, an external review stated that USAID’s departure from this field would have devastating impacts; yet influential officials advocated getting USAID out of the research business entirely. Thankfully, the new head of USAID seems to value research more than the previous one did.
Your letters were very helpful, and got the attention of Congressional offices involved in this issue. We hear that there may be Congressional action soon to defend research funding at USAID, and USAID has also let the affected organizations know that it is listening carefully to them on this issue.
Now that the subcommittees have written in the funding and the Appropriations Committees have approved it, we will monitor the bill’s progress as it moves forward in the Senate, the conference committee, and signing process.
Read more:
• Committee Passes Fiscal Year 2008 State And Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
Press release from the Senate Appropriations chairman’s office
• Planned Parenthood Applauds House Vote to Support International Family Planning
Press release from Planned the Parenthood Federation of America
Many family planning providers have heard patients ask about (or, more often, joke about) the do-it-yourself heat methods, in which sitz baths or special underwear can provide free, readily available male contraception to highly-dedicated men willing to read up and follow through. However, not everybody knows about the third heat method: ultrasound.
In the 1970s, a researcher at the University of Missouri tested a nearly ideal male contraceptive. It was cheap, effective, and painless. It didn’t require surgery, and there were no drugs involved. When applied to the testes, a few minutes of sound waves – the same kind used by physical therapists to help heal injuries – provided six months of contraception.
Does it work? Scientists always want to see results from two independent labs before drawing conclusions, yet no one has duplicated those initial studies. Now a team has come together to test ultrasound on rats using the latest equipment and assays. The new ultrasound team includes top-notch university and research institute male contraception specialists. Last month they won funding from a new foundation, and the study is now beginning. The team hopes to report very preliminary results — basically, whether the ultrasound had a contraceptive effect — at the “Future of Male Contraception” conference in Seattle this September.
Read more:
• See the review of ultrasound in MCIP’s heat methods section
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the latest version of Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers. "This new handbook offers clinic-based health care professionals in developing countries the latest guidance on providing contraceptive methods." It is one of the WHO’s Four Cornerstones of Family Planning Guidance, and was developed jointly by the World Health Organization, Johns Hopkins University, the United States Agency for International Development, and partner clinics around the world.
An excellent accompanying wall chart would be useful for communicating with clients in any clinical setting. The methods are summarized in jargon-free terms, and they are arranged by effectiveness. Both the handbook and the wall chart are available for free online; paper copies are available for order on the website, as well. Both the handbook and the chart cover vasectomy.
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Dr. Roy Jacobstein, clinical director of EngenderHealth’s ACQUIRE Project (ACcess, Quality, and Use In REproductive health), underlines the importance of long-acting methods of contraception in the family planning method mix. He argues that long-acting contraceptives – such as vasectomy and the IUD – will be critical birth spacing tools for the cohort now entering their reproductive years, the largest in history. “Recent scientific findings and new understanding about long-acting and permanent methods of contraception underscore their safety and effectiveness. This has led to new guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as continuing strong support by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for family planning in general, and for long-acting and permanent methods of contraception in particular.”
Read more:
• Long-Acting and Permanent Contraception: An International Development, Service Delivery Perspective
Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, July 2007, 52(4):361-7.
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On the occasion of Men’s Health Week, the Guttmacher Institute features information on the current gaps in men’s access to sexual and reproductive health care, and how to improve the situation. In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, the organization argues that current policies are actually making it more difficult for young men to continue their progress as they make the transition toward adulthood and eventual fatherhood. Also hot off the press: a report on the more than 100 million married women living in developing countries who have unmet need for contraception. Twenty years ago many women were not aware of contraceptive options. Is that still the case, or is their use blocked by other barriers and beliefs?
Read more:
• Women with Unmet Need for Contraception in Developing Countries and Their Reason for Not Choosing a Method
By G Sedgh, R Hussain, A Bankole and S Singh, Guttmacher Institute Occasional Report No. 37, June 2007
• Strides in young men's health
By Laura Lindberg, Boston Globe, 12 June
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More about Bayer’s decision to quit research on hormonal male contraception; includes quotes from MCIP’s director.
Big pharma not interested in 'male pill'
Chemistry World, 22 June
Hormonal male contraception development at Edinburgh University in Scotland has been hit by the lack of funding from drug companies.
Hopes for Male Pill hit by lack of cash
Scotsman, 2 July
“With male birth control's possible ability to ease these problems, it's time for women, and especially men, to change the way they look at contraceptives. And if women and men are to continue to share responsibilities in the workplace and at home, they must also share the responsibility of birth control.”
Viewpoint: Why we need male birth control
The Daily Texan, 20 June
Researchers found that a high semen level of macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF for short, was a good predictor of a man’s reduced fertility. The researchers make the news wondering whether administering MIF might work as a form of male contraception.
Key to male infertility
Science Daily, 2 July
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Editors
Elaine Lissner, Director of the Male Contraception Information Project (MCIP)
Email: info@NewMaleContraception.org
MCIP is entirely nonprofit and works in three areas: raising public awareness of promising nonhormonal male contraceptives, advocating increased and expedited government research, and serving as a resource for journalists who wish to write about the subject.
Kirsten Thompson, Director of the Male Contraception Coalition (MCC)
Email: info@MaleContraceptives.org
The Coalition’s objectives are to speed the development of new male contraceptives through increased legislative and institutional support, to raise funds for applied male contraception research and development, and to educate the public about the work of the research community.
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