Family Planning

Jennifer Brown of the University of Cincinnati in the U.S. will apply cultural consensus modeling (CCM) to identify cultural factors that affect contraceptive practices among South African adolescent girls aged between 14 and 17. This demographic currently has one of the highest rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, there is limited empirical data on the underlying reasons, particularly related to the use of so-called dual contraceptives, which protect against both pregnancy and STIs.

Kevin Osteen of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the U.S. is developing a three-dimensional cell model that mimics the lining of the human uterus (endometrium), including different cell types and a vascular system, that can be used for affordable medium-to-high-throughput compound screening to discover new contraceptives with minimal adverse side effects. The endometrium is a multi-layered tissue that supports embryo implantation and maintains pregnancy and responds to hormonal cues to undergo renewal during each menstrual cycle.

Paul Fleming of the University of Michigan School of Public Health along with Jay Silverman and Holly Shakya at the University of California, San Diego Center for Gender Equity and Health in the U.S. will learn about the social networks of husbands of adolescent girls in Niger, and how these networks influence decisions to use of family planning. The study will be conducted in collaboration with Pathfinder International, building on their Reaching Married Adolescents program.

Marion Sumari-de Boer and Kennedy Ngowi from Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute in the United Republic of Tanzania and Rosalijn Both from Segel Research and Training Consulting in Ethiopia will use mobile phones to learn about the contraceptive needs and behaviors of young unmarried men in Ethiopia and Tanzania in order to promote the use of contraception. This group is mostly overlooked in studies aiming to improve contraceptive and family planning practices, even though their behavior is directly relevant.

Jane Harries of the University of Cape Town in South Africa will take a multisensory approach to increase the use of contraception, particularly over the long term, across South Africa. By exploring how different contraceptives are perceived via multiple senses, not only visual perceptions but also how they feel, and how their use impacts the daily life of the woman, and her wider network, they hope to identify new barriers that influence uptake.

Paul Crits-Christoph and Chelsea Morroni of the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. will develop a mobile phone application that enables women to identify the method of contraception best suited to their needs to help reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in Botswana, which is currently estimated at 44%. Although around 61% of women are reported to not want any more children, the most commonly used contraceptives are single use, such as condoms, despite the availability of longer-term measures like intrauterine devices.

Martin Matzuk, along with Nicholas Simmons of Baylor College of Medicine in the U.S. and Masahito Ikawa of Osaka University in Japan, will build a male contraceptive drug discovery platform comprising a library of two billion small compounds generated by DNA-Encoded Chemistry Technology (DEC-Tec) at relatively low cost, and a panel of male-specific fertility proteins. Contraception options for men are currently limited to condoms or vasectomy. A safe, low-cost small molecule contraceptive similar to the female "pill", could also help men to better control family planning.

Jianjun Sun of the University of Connecticut in the U.S. is developing non-hormonal contraceptives using a fly-based ovulation assay to identify compounds that specifically block the rupture of follicles, which is required to release eggs for fertilization also in mammals. The popular female contraceptive "pill" alters the hormonal cycle and is widely used throughout the Western world. However, it can have undesirable side effects.

Patricia Donahoe and David Pepin of Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. are using a cell-based screening platform to develop a new class of hormonal contraceptive that works at the early stage of primordial follicle activation to prolong the contraceptive effect and reduce side effects, thereby promoting wider use particularly in the developing world. This early stage of follicle development in the ovary is suppressed by a hormone (Mullerian inhibiting substance or MIS) to regulate egg production.

Alison Norris of Ohio State University in the U.S. will perform a prospective study to assess how individuals' contraceptive needs and identified barriers explain contraceptive use over time for developing a simple tool to prevent unintended pregnancies in Malawi. In collaboration with a Malawi NGO, they will access their cohort of one thousand reproductive age women and their partners in rural Malawi. Study team members will visit each participant in their home four times over eight months to assess factors related to contraceptive need such as pregnancy desire, and perceived fecundity.