Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University

In Kinshasa, a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo with over 3.7 million regular churchgoers, working with faith leaders is key to realizing long-lasting and far-reaching change in transforming gender norms.

The USAID Global Health-supported Passages Project “Masculinity, Family and Faith” activity brought together young Gender Champions and faith leaders to transform gender norms in their faith communities, where intimate partner violence is common, and access to modern voluntary family planning services is limited. As a result of this intervention, young Gender Champions in the DRC are bringing about change in their own lives, intimate relationships, and families. Learn more during of Activism against Gender-based Violence:

From My Transformation to Yours “Gender Champions” share their journeys to transform gender norms in faith communities

Most downloaded article of the European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care - ESCRH Perfect- and typical-use effectiveness of the Dot fertility app over 13 cycles: results from a prospective contraceptive effectiveness trial Victoria Jennings, Liya T. Haile, Rebecca G. Simmons, Jeff Spieler & Dominick Shattuck To cite this article: Victoria Jennings, Liya T. Haile, Rebecca G. Simmo...

Have you ever seen a performance you just couldn’t stop talking about? In the Karamoja region of Uganda, EDEAN- a community theater program- had this effect on Nakut, a performer in the short dramas who continues to promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies to her family and community. In a new blog post, learn how IRH and Save the Children, funded by USAID, implemented this unconventional, but culturally-sensitive approach which was able to improve fertility awareness and intention to use family planning. Read the full story:

Sharing Knowledge Through Theater In Uganda, community members perform in skits to help couples learn about family planning

This earlier this month, we launched a series of mobile games in Nepal to reach young people with information about fertility awareness and family planning. Our hope is that these games will give adolescents a safe space learn about their bodies.

The free games are available now for Android. Download or see a preview of the games here!
http://www.stories.irh.org/pragati #/using-apps/

On Monday, the Dot Study team published results of their study of the Dot fertility app. The first-of-its-kind study examined how women used the app to prevent pregnancy over 13 menstrual cycles.

The researchers found that the app had a typical-use failure rate of 5 percent and a perfect-use failure rate of 1 percent, which makes Dot comparable to family planning methods such as the pill, vaginal ring, and other fertility awareness-based methods.

Check out the full study:

Fertility App “Dot” Found to be As Effective Other Family Planning Methods - Institute for Reproductive Health WASHINGTON (March 18, 2019) – Results of a first-of-its-kind prospective study with a family planning app find it to be as effective as other modern methods for avoiding an unplanned pregnancy. Researchers from the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) at Georgetown University Medical Center stu...

Fertility App ‘Dot’ Found to be As Effective Other Family Planning Methods - Georgetown University Medical Center WASHINGTON (March 18, 2019) — Results of a first-of-its-kind prospective study with a family planning app find it to be as effective as other modern methods for avoiding an unplanned pregnancy.

"Forbidden to participate in daily life, Nepalese girls are speaking out against menstrual shaming."

Opinion | I Am Not Untouchable. I Just Have My Period. Forbidden to participate in daily life, Nepalese girls are speaking out against menstrual shaming.