Contemporary OB/GYN week in review: faster abortion care, hormonal contraceptive risks, and more

Thank you for visiting the Contemporary OB/GYN® website. Take a look at some of our top stories from last week (Monday, February 10, 2025 - Friday, February 14, 2025), and click each link to read and watch anything you may have missed.

Removing parental consent reduces delays in adolescent abortion care

Removing parental consent requirements for abortion is linked to a decreased gestational age during the procedure, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Parental consent requirements present significant barriers toward abortion among adolescents. This was addressed in Massachusetts by the 2020 ROE Act, which removed parental requirements for individuals aged 16 to 17 years. The study linked this act to a decrease in gestational age at abortion of approximately 60 days.

“While our study does not establish causality, these results highlight an important trend in which minors obtain abortions at earlier gestational durations when they are not required to obtain parental consent or judicial bypass,” said Isabel Fulcher, PhD.

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Hormonal contraceptives linked to increased stroke and heart attack risk

The risks of stroke and heart attack are increased by certain hormonal contraceptives, according to a recent study published in The BMJ.

In patients using combined oral contraceptives, the ischemic stroke rate was 39 per 100,000 person years. For myocardial infractions, this rate was 18 per 100,000 person years.

The adjusted incidence rate ratio for ischemic stroke and myocardial infraction were both 2 for using oral contraceptives with oestrogen and progestin vs no hormonal contraception. This indicated 21 and 10 additional ischemic strokes and myocardial infractions per 100,000 person years, respectively.

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Variations reported in state-level maternal death causes

State-specific intervention strategies may be needed to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

Texas reported the highest count of homicides at 72, with a rate of 3.82 per 100,000 live births. However, the highest prevalence of 12.86 per 100,000 live births was reported in Mississippi. Texas also reported the highest number of suicides at 49, but Montana had the highest rate of 21.5 per 100,000 live births.

Ohio had the highest number of drug overdose deaths at 173, with a rate of 26.38 per 100,000 live births. However, the rate was highest in Delaware at 36.03 per 100,000 live births.

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Later-onset menopause linked to lower heart disease risk

Healthier blood vessels later in life may present in women with later onset menopause, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The trial highlighted a significantly reduced risk of postmenopausal heart attacks and strokes among women with menopause occurring at age 55 years or later. According to study authors, this could lead to new interventions such as dietary therapies to reduce heart disease mortalities in women.

“Our paper identifies that there’s actually a physiological benefit to later-onset menopause and is one of the first to identify the specific mechanisms driving these benefits,” said Sanna Darvish, first author and a PhD candidate in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

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Study finds no causal link between maternal health in pregnancy and autism risk

In a recent interview with Contemporary OB/GYN, Magdalena Janecka, PhD, an associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry and population health, discussed her study on the relationship between maternal health during pregnancy and autism risk in offspring.

Two key findings were reported from the results. First, the study found that maternal diagnoses during pregnancy, such as asthma or depression, are associated with a slightly increased likelihood of having a child with autism. However, the absolute risk remains small. For example, women with such diagnoses may have a 50% higher relative risk, but this translates to an increase from a baseline of approximately 2.5% to only 3.75%, fewer than 4 in 100 women.

Second, the study provided strong evidence that these associations are not causal. The research found that women who had a certain diagnosis in one pregnancy but not in another still had children with similar autism risks across both pregnancies. Furthermore, paternal diagnoses were just as strongly associated with autism risk as maternal diagnoses, despite fathers having minimal direct biological impact after conception. These findings suggest that maternal health conditions during pregnancy do not directly cause autism, but co-occur with other underlying factors, likely genetic in nature.

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