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Reproductive Health
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- Increase in breastfeeding
- Increasing women's lifespan
- Policy of inclusion of women in clinical trials
- Improvements in breast cancer screening
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- Decrease in breast cancer deaths
- Decrease in smoking rates for women
- Decrease in teen pregnancy
- Cervical cancer prevention and screening
- Decrease in HIV/AIDS deaths in women
- Federal funding to address violence against women
- Decrease in lung cancer deaths in women
- Mother-to-child transmission of HIV decreased
- Decrease in deaths from women's leading killer – heart disease
- Making birth control better, safer, and more accessible for women
- Creation of Offices on Women's Health at the federal level
- Cancer and Steroid Hormone (CASH) study
- Approval of emergency contraception
- Building better osteoporosis treatments
- Efforts to improve pregnant women's health and outcomes
- Dangerous drugs and devices for women removed from market
- Improvements in support to caregivers
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- Largest women's health prevention study ever – Women's Health Initiative
- FDA helps women and families meet their nutritional needs
- Addressing sex differences in health
- Addressing minority women's health
- Recognizing the needs of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women
- Creation of women's health information resources
- Affordable Care Act improves women's health
- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
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- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
- Mother-to-child transmission of HIV decreased
- CDC, HIV Among Pregnant Women, Infants, and Children
- CDC, Achievements in Public Health: Reduction in Perinatal Transmission of HIV Infection --- United States, 1985--2005
- CDC, HIV Among Pregnant Women, Infants, and Children
- FDA, HIV/AIDS Historical Time Line 1981-1990
- NIH, NIAID, HIV Infection in Women
- CDC, Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing of Adults, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women in Health-Care Settings
- CDC, STDs & Pregnancy – CDC Fact Sheet
- CDC, Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing of Adults, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women in Health-Care Settings
- HRSA, Part D: Women and Families in a Circle of Care
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30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
Call the OWH HELPLINE: 1-800-994-9662
9 a.m. — 6 p.m. ET, Monday — Friday
OWH and the OWH helpline do not see patients and are unable to: diagnose your medical condition; provide treatment; prescribe medication; or refer you to specialists. The OWH helpline is a resource line. The OWH helpline does not provide medical advice.
Please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if you are experiencing a medical emergency.Mother-to-child transmission of HIV decreased
Women with HIV who take antiretroviral medication during pregnancy can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their babies to less than 1%.1 The rates of mother-to-child transmission peaked in 19922, and continue to fall to very low levels, despite an increase in the number of women with HIV giving birth.3
In 1987, the FDA approved the antiretroviral drug azathioprine (AZT) as the first drug for the treatment of HIV.4 Treatment with AZT slows the progression of HIV infection and helps prevent the transmission of HIV from infected pregnant women to their babies. In a 1994 NIH study, babies born to HIV-infected women were two-thirds less likely to become infected with HIV if their mother took AZT during pregnancy and if they received AZT after birth.5 These results prompted the U.S. Public Health Service to recommend that pregnant women be given AZT to reduce the risk of perinatal transmission of HIV. In 2003, the CDC updated its recommendations to make HIV testing a routine part of all medical care and to endorse universal prenatal testing, with rapid tests during labor and after delivery if the mother was not screened prenatally.6 The CDC also recommends repeat screening in the third trimester for those at high risk.7
Within 10 years of CDC’s initial recommendation in 1994, the mother-to-child transmission of HIV had declined by 94% in the United States, thanks to continued improvements in HIV treatment.8 In 2007, the CDC launched the One Test. Two Lives. campaign for health professionals to promote HIV testing of all pregnant women.
Another leading contributor to the decline in mother-to-child transmission of HIV is HRSA’s Ryan White Services for Women, Infants, Youth, Children, and Families, Title IV (now Part D) program. The program contributed to a drop in mother-to-child transmission of HIV from about 2,000 babies born HIV-positive in 1990 to around 200 in 2005.9
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All material contained on these pages are free of copyright restrictions and may be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without permission of the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Citation of the source is appreciated.
Page last updated: April 01, 2019.
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A federal government website managed by the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201
1-800-994-9662 • Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET (closed on federal holidays).
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