News

NICHD is co-hosting several workshops and virtual meetings on women’s health topics in summer 2024. Please consider registering to participate in discussions and to help shape future research and care.

As we ring in 2024, we’d like to take a brief look back on our accomplishments during 2023. These activities illustrate the institute’s continued commitment to research and training in its mission areas.

For the 35th observance of World AIDS Day, NICHD reflects on recent progress in HIV/AIDS research to optimize outcomes for infants and children, tailor care for adolescents and young adults, promote reproductive health, and support pregnancy and parenthood.

In a mouse study, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a potential non-hormonal contraceptive that men could take shortly before sexual activity and have fertility restored the next day. Researchers gave male mice a compound that temporarily disables soluble adenylyl cyclase, the enzyme essential for activating a sperm cell’s ability to swim and mature so that it can travel through the female reproductive tract and fertilize an egg.

Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2022.

A safe, highly effective, reversible method of male contraception would fill an important public health need. Additionally, multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs)—products that prevent both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections—would increase sexual and reproductive health options for both women and men. NICHD supports a broad range of contraceptive research, including efforts to develop male contraceptives and MPTs.

Learn about an experimental male contracteptive gel called NES/T, which was developed in collaboration with NICHD and the Population Council.

Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2021.

Mouse studies targeting gonadotropin regulated testicular helicase (GRTH) appear to be a promising approach.

A new website offers reproductive health researchers a way to search for genes, proteins, and other molecules that could provide the basis for studies to develop new contraceptive methods and infertility treatments. The Contraceptive Infertility Target Database (CITDBase) is a free public resource developed by the Contraceptive Development Program in the NICHD’s Division of Population Health Research.

A hormone-releasing intrauterine device (IUD) appears to be as effective at emergency contraception as a copper IUD, suggests a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The hormone-releasing IUD contains levonorgestrel, a synthetic form of the reproductive hormone progesterone. Compared to the copper IUD, the levonorgestrel IUD has been shown to reduce heavy bleeding and menstrual discomfort.

Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2020.

Read about NICHD’s notable research findings and activities from 2019.

Long-acting contraception after childbirth could help teens avoid short-interval pregnancies, suggests NIH-funded study.

NICHD was established more than 50 years ago to help understand maternal health and improve pregnancy outcomes. These selected advances highlight NICHD’s contributions to advancing the health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers, and families everywhere.

In 2018, researchers funded by NICHD made significant progress in advancing the health and well-being of infants, children, teenagers, and adults across the United States and around the world.

A clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health will evaluate a male contraceptive gel for its ability to prevent pregnancy.