Health Matters for Women

New from CDC

Grand Rounds - Preventing Cervical Cancer in the 21st Century
The first CDC Public Health Grand Rounds of 2019 features "Preventing Cervical Cancer in the 21st Century." Each year more than 4,000 U.S. women die from cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide. The Grand Rounds will highlight future screening and vaccination efforts across the country and what has been done at the local level to prevent cervical cancer.

New Opioid Use and Pregnancy Module added to CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids Series
The new module uses clinical scenarios and feedback prompts to help providers gain a better understanding of opioid prescribing considerations in pregnancy, patient-centered communication techniques, and approaches to improve provider-patient collaboration for safer opioid prescribing.

Drug Overdose Deaths Among Women Aged 30–64 Years — United States, 1999–2017
The U.S. drug epidemic is evolving, especially among women. From 1999 to 2017, the death rate from drug overdose among women aged 30–64 years increased by 260%. Drug overdose deaths involving antidepressants, benzodiazepines, cocaine, heroin, prescription opioids, and synthetic opioids all increased. Among women aged 30–64 years, the average age at death for drug overdose deaths increased by nearly three years.

Gastroschisis Trends and Ecologic Link to Opioid Prescription Rates — United States, 2006–2015
New epidemiologic data suggests an association between opioid use during pregnancy and gastroschisis. During 2011–2015, gastroschisis prevalence was 4.5 per 10,000 live births, which was 10% higher than the prevalence during 2006–2010. An ecologic analysis also found a higher prevalence of gastroschisis in areas where opioid prescriptions rates were high.

Evaluation of State-Mandated Reporting of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome — Six States, 2013–2017
The latest national data from 2014 indicate that one baby was born with signs of neonatal abstinence syndrome every 15 minutes in the United States. From 2004 to 2014, the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug withdrawal syndrome, increased 433%, from 1.5 to 8.0 per 1,000 hospital births in the United States.

CDC Releases 2016 Assisted Reproductive Technology Fertility Clinic Success Rates
The ART-2016 Clinic Report helps patients make informed decisions about using assisted reproductive technology (ART) to become pregnant. Fertility clinics in the U.S. report and verify data on the assisted reproductive technology cycles started and carried out in their clinics, and the outcomes of these cycles, ART includes all fertility treatments in which either eggs or embryos are handled.

In 2015–2017, Approximately 65% of Women Aged 15–49 Were Using ContraceptionNearly all women use contraception in their lifetimes, although at any given time, they may not be using contraception for reasons such as seeking pregnancy, being pregnant, or not being sexually active. Using data from the 2015–2017 National Survey of Family Growth, this report provides a snapshot of current contraceptive status, in the month of interview, among women aged 15–49 in the United States.