News You Can Use

Sexual Assault Awareness MonthApril is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Help your patients understand sexual assault by printing the HHS Office on Women’s Health (OWH) Sexual Assault fact sheet for your office. Our partner American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated recommendations regarding teen sexual assault in the clinical report Care for the Adolescent After an Acute Sexual Assault, published in March 2017.

In a CDC study, 40% of women who have been raped were under 18 when it happened.

OWH Continuing Professional Development

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Grand Rounds: “Addressing the Unique Challenges of Opioid Use Disorder in Women”
OWH and CDC developed a Grand Rounds session on opioid misuse in women; you can still view the presentation and gain continuing education credits. Be sure to also view “Beyond the Data,” a one-on-one interview with Mishka Terplan, M.D., M.P.H., FACOG, FASAM.

OWH National Meeting on Opioid Use, Abuse, & Overdose in WomenCheck out our panel discussion from the OWH National Meeting on Opioid Use, Abuse, & Overdose in Women held in September 2016. It covers topics like reproductive health, abuse of fentanyl and heroin, and use of naloxone. The panel was facilitated by OWH Director of the Division of Strategic Communications Jennifer Bishop-Crawford, Sc.D., M.P.H.

What are your plans for this year’s National Women’s Health Week? We are live! Dive into the National Women’s Health Week website and see what we have in store for you! Celebrate with us May 14–20, 2017. If you haven’t already ordered your health professional toolkit with sample social media messages, sample newsletter text, and links to helpful tools you can share with your patients, contact Cheryl Thompson.

Funding OpportunityThe purpose of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention funding is to provide partial support for specific non-federal conferences in the areas of health promotion, disease prevention information and education programs, and applied research. Conferences supported under this program announcement must be specific to one or more of the following focus areas: HIV and AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, or adolescent health. Applications are due May 30, 2017.

“Putting Science to Work for the Health of Women Healthy Women Make Healthy Communities: Women as Makers”Please join the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health during National Women’s Health Week for the 2nd Annual Vivian Pinn Symposium on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at 2 p.m. ET. Register here.

Congenital SyphilisDid you know that congenital syphilis is increasing in the United States? According to the CDC, women accounted for about one in 10 syphilis cases in 2015, or 2,298 total cases. The syphilis rate increased 27.3% among women 2014–2015. CDC has a number of tools and resources to protect women and pregnant patients.