Reproductive Health
The Council conducts biomedical research to develop contraceptives and social science research to better understand the factors influencing access to and decision-making around contraceptives. Its fundamental research on reproductive and immunological processes serves not only as the basis for the development of new contraceptive methods to meet the needs of both women and men, but also for new hormone therapies and AIDS-prevention products.
In the 1960s, the Council played a key role in documenting the large numbers of people in poor countries who lacked access to contraceptives and in conducting research to design and evaluate public family planning programs. At the same time, the Council's biomedical researchers worked to develop new contraceptive methods, such as the intrauterine device.
Some contraceptives available in some countries today were developed by the Population Council: the Copper T IUD, Norplant, Jadelle (Norplant II), and Mirena. More than 50 million Copper T IUDs have been distributed in over 70 countries. Norplant was replaced by Jadelle.
The British medical journal Lancet said of the Population Council, "Most non-governmental organisations claim to promote change for the better; the Population Council actually has hard evidence of having changed the lives and expectations of hundreds of millions of people."
Read more about this topic: Population Council
Famous quotes containing the words reproductive and/or health:
“In the nineteenth century ... explanations of who and what women were focused primarily on reproductive events—marriage, children, the empty nest, menopause. You could explain what was happening in a woman’s life, it was believed, if you knew where she was in this reproductive cycle.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“A woman’s health is her capital.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)