NICHD News Releases

Research Funding News: New policy on NIH grant awards, new NICHD funding strategies
A new policy has been posted on the NIH Web site regarding NIH Fiscal Operations for the remainder of FY 2013 in light of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6), signed by President Obama on March 26, 2013, and the sequestration provisions of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act.

Harnessing Research to Combat Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
STDs and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have affected health and human relationships throughout history. For STD Awareness Month this April, the NICHD highlights some of its research efforts related to STDs and STIs.

Drug safety for children and pregnant women topic of March NICHD Director’s Podcast
Once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a drug, physicians can use their best judgment to prescribe it to their patients—whether or not their patients are similar to those who took part in the clinical trials. Physicians can also prescribe drugs for diseases or conditions other than those for which they were originally tested.

Scientific Vision: The Next Decade
The NICHD embarked upon a collaborative process in 2011 to create a scientific Vision, identifying the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and its partners to pursue over the next decade. The newly published Scientific Vision statement presents the results of that process and outlines scientific goals for the coming decade.

NICHD reorganizes extramural program
​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.

Research for a Lifetime: Commemorating the NICHD’s 50th Anniversary
On October 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the legislation establishing the NICHD to examine “the complex process of human development from conception to old age.” The Institute marks its golden anniversary with Research for a Lifetime, an all-day scientific colloquium to highlight the Institute’s mission, accomplishments, and future research directions.

Study shows benefits, drawbacks, for women's incontinence treatments
​Oral medication for treating a type of incontinence in women is roughly as effective as Botox injections to the bladder, reported researchers who conducted a National Institutes of Health clinical trials network study, with each form of treatment having benefits and limitations.

Extra Treatment During Prolapse Repair Reduces Incontinence Rate
Surgery to repair pelvic organ prolapse often carries a risk of incontinence. To avoid scheduling a second surgery, some women may opt to have a second procedure to reduce incontinence at the time of their prolapse repair surgery.

NICHD Highlights Neuroscience Research
​​Neuroscience research plays a critical role in advancing the NICHD mission of improving the health of children, adults, families, and populations across the lifespan. The NICHD Director showcased some innovative research findings from the Institute's neuroscience research portfolio at the 41st annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Neuroscience Research at the NICHD
​NICHD research includes a variety of efforts in the neurosciences, from developing systems to rehabilitation. Interested researchers can meet with NICHD program staff throughout the 38th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, November 15-19, 2008, in booths 3515 and 3517 in the exhibit hall.

Roughly One Quarter of U.S. Women Affected by Pelvic Floor Disorders
Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Their analysis is the first to document in a nationally representative sample the extent of pelvic floor disorders, a cluster of health problems that causes physical discomfort and limits activity.

Hormonal Contraception Does Not Appear to Increase HIV Risk
Using hormonal contraception does not appear to increase women's overall risk of infection with the AIDS virus, report the authors of a large study commissioned by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Combined Surgery Reduces Incontinence in Women with Pelvic Organ Prolapse
By performing two surgical procedures during the same operation, researchers in an NIH network reduced by half the incidence of urinary incontinence in women with a condition known as pelvic organ prolapse.

Bone Density Appears to Recover After Adolescents Discontinue Injected Contraceptive
Lower bone density appears to recover in adolescent females once they stop using the injected contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Enzyme Essential To Sperm Movement Provides Target for New Contraceptive Approach
A team of researchers has determined that an enzyme in sperm is necessary for sperm movement. Mice bred to lack this enzyme produce sperm that cannot swim toward egg cells to fertilize them.

Depo Provera Appears to Increase Risk for Chlamydial & Gonococcal Infections
The injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) appears to increase a woman's risk of acquiring the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea by approximately three fold when compared to women not using a hormonal contraceptive, according to a study jointly funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Population and Reproductive Health.

Study Confirms Breast Cancer Risk in Continuous Combined Hormone Therapy Risk Begins to Return to Normal After Women Stop Taking Hormones
Researchers confirmed that a daily, combined dose of estrogen and progestin increases breast cancer risk in post menopausal women, but added that this risk begins to return to normal about six months after women stop taking the hormones.

NICHD Study Finds No Association Between Oral Contraceptive Use & Breast Cancer For Women from 35 to 64
Women between the ages of 35 and 64 who took oral contraceptives at some point in their lives are no more likely to develop breast cancer than are other women the same age, according to findings from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study (Women's CARE).

New Study Finds Vasectomy Does Not Increase Prostate Cancer Risk
Contrary to some earlier studies, a new study funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that men who undergo vasectomies are no more likely to develop prostate cancer than are men who do not.

Few Women Regret Sterilization Procedures
Few of the women who undergo tubal sterilization or whose husbands undergo vasectomy later go on to regret either procedure, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).