Addressing Gender-Based Constraints in Youth Reproductive Health: Experiences and Behaviors about Infertility among Young Couples in Rural Maharashtra, India

This study by International Centre for Research on Women, which also provided infertility counselling services, is part of a larger Foundation for Research in Health Systems (FRHS) intervention research program examining the role of community mobilization and government services in increasing the use of reproductive health services by young married women. Its findings are being used to train state and local government health providers who counsel, treat and make referrals for young couples with fertility concerns. Find out more →

Fertility Decline and Gender Bias in Northern India 
Eminent Indian demographer Late P N Mari Bhat and A J Francis Zavier co-authored this research report analyzing gender preferences and fertility rates in the country. The report's analysis shows that as desired family size falls, son preference also falls in northern India. Evidence is presented to show that son preference also declines with the modernizing influence of education, urbanization and exposure to mass media. This seems to contradict the observed rise in juvenile sex ratios with the declines in fertility.The report elaborates and suggests a reconciliation. It also estimates wanted fertility by sex and measure the potential impact of fertility decline on sex ratios.Find out more →

Gender in Medical Education: Perceptions of Medical Educators 

This research report and analysis by CEHAT is based on a study conducted across seven medical colleges in the state of Maharashtra, exploring the perceptions of medical educators regarding the relevance of gender in medical education, their perceptions regarding patients and gender sensitivity in teaching and practice on issues such as abortion, sex selection and violence against women. What emerged is the lack of understanding about relevance of gender in medical teaching, gender stereotyping of women in general and patients in particular and misconceptions about access to abortion. The report aims to be useful for those working in the field of women’s health and rights, public health and policy. This study was undertaken as part of a pioneering project being implemented by CEHAT in collaboration with the DMER, MUHS and the UNFPA for integrating gender sensitive training modules in the under graduate curriculum of the MBBS. Find out more →

Engaging Midwives in the Global Campaign to End Female Genital Mutilation 

This document is a toolkit employed in UNFP's efforts in mobilizing midwives in the prevention and care of FGM through a joint initiative in the context of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C and the UNFPA Midwifery Programme. Building on the expertise and networks of the two global programmes, UNFPA will empower midwives to serve as role models, counselors and advocates in the campaign to end FGM.Find out more →

Establishing a Comprehensive Health Sector Response to Sexual Assault
The Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes have long engaged with gender based violence and its health concerns. This report is based on the experience of engaging with the public health sector to develop a health-system based model to respond to sexual assault. This initiative, which began in 2008, has been built on an earlier initiative in which the Public Health department of MCGM and CEHAT had collaboratively developed a model hospital based crisis counselling department (Dilaasa), to respond to women facing domestic violence. The comprehensive health care model for sexual assault survivors included development and implementation of a gender sensitive examination and treatment proforma, operationalization of informed and specific consent, free treatment, provision of crisis intervention services, legal aid and police assistance. Only trained health providers were vested with the responsibility of managing the sexual assault interventions. Find out more →

Inclusion, Analysis, and Reporting of Sex and Race/Ethnicity in Clinical Trials: Have We Made Progress? 

In this study, health services researcher and epidemiologist Stacie Geller along with her colleagues analyze the gender sensitivity of clinical trials. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act of 1993 requires that NIH-funded clinical trials include women and minorities as participants; other federal agencies have adopted similar guidelines. The objective of this study is to determine the current level of compliance with these guidelines for the inclusion, analysis, and reporting of sex and race/ethnicity in federally funded randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and to compare the current level of compliance with that from 2004, which was reported previously. Find out more →

Sex and the CT: An Evolving Story of the Heart
Gail D’Onofrio of Yale School of Medicine, in this issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, focuses on a cohort of low-risk chest pain patients determines whether there are sex differences in the receipt of follow-up tests in patients within 1 month of undergoing coronary computerized tomographic angiography (CTA) for ACS symptoms. Find out more →

GME Phase II: Workshop for GME Faculty 

This workshop was organized for the GME faculty on January 18 & 19, 2016. The main objective of the workshop was to orient the faculty to the proposed interventions, To share the finalized gender- integrated modules, to acquaint them the tools for process documentation and to develop the timeline for the intervention. Find out more →