New regimens with combined oral contraceptive pills--moving away from traditional 21/7 cycles.

The practice of extending combined oral contraceptive use (COC) and eliminating or reducing the hormone free interval has been in use for many years. More recently a range of products with new dosing options has been developed and marketed. Women and physicians in developed countries are comfortable with and many prefer the use of extended COC regimens which provide an option to eliminate or reduce the frequency of regular withdrawal bleeding.

Marrying research, clinical practice and cervical screening in Australian Aboriginal women in western New South Wales, Australia.

Introduction: Research shows that Australian Aboriginal women experience a significantly higher rate of mortality from cervical cancer than non-Aboriginal women. We now understand that infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary pre-requisite for cervical cancer. This knowledge, together with the development of prophylactic vaccines against the HPV types most commonly associated with cervical cancer (16 and 18), made it vital to gain nationally representative HPV genotyping data for Australian women, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

The abortion debate in Australia.

I recently watched a fascinating documentary about the crusade of Dr Bertram Wainer in the 1960s to bring the practice of illegal abortion in Victoria to an end. It documented the profound horror of the backyard abortion that so often ended in infection, sterility or death, and served as a potent reminder of a practice to which we must never return. Of course that cant happen again, abortion is legal now, isnt it? In Victoria in 1969 a Supreme Court judge ruled that an abortion is not unlawful if a doctor believed that: the abortion is necessary to preserve the woman from serious danger to her life or physical or mental health (Menhennit ruling).

Working with an Aboriginal community liaison worker.

FPA Health (Family Planning NSW) has conducted two integrated clinical and health promotion projects with Aboriginal communities in western NSW, Australia. The first was in Coonamble, a small rural community which had been selected as a pilot site for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Women's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Project and was managed by FPA Health with support from the Dubbo/Plains Division of General Practice and Macquarie Area Health Service. The second was in Dubbo, a regional city where FPA Health had an existing centre and which had funding support from the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation.