After CDC cuts, doctors fear that women lose access to contraception research

For most people, the eight -person team could not be distinguished from the hundreds of other scientists and researchers in April during the mass hires at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But for many clinicians who specialize in women’s health, losing the team responsible for the CDC contraceptive guidelines was a devastating blow to women’s health.

“I just remember that I felt – all things – I think contraception should not be controversial,” says Dr. Angeline Ti, a family doctor in the Atlanta, Georgia area that specializes in reproductive health care.

The team was responsible for aggregating and distributing best practices around contraception in a series of guidelines called American criteria for medical suitability for contraception -use.

“I knew things would happen at CDC, but I thought these guidelines were so important,” says Ti. She says she uses the guidelines “almost every time”, she sees a patient for contraceptive care.

Other doctors describe the feeling shocked for a moment. “I mean, there is no other source that does this,” says Dr. Andrea Braden, an midwife in Atlanta, Georgia. “All OB-Gyns use it.”

Representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Trump administration did not explain why the CDC team was cut. It was eliminated in April as part of the reduction of the Women’s Health and Fertility Branch of the Division of Reproductive Health.

NPR contacted HHS for comment on this story, but received no response.

An indispensable app

Busy doctors who see many patients, says roasting, just don’t have time to comb the latest medical examination. So the CDC team has made recommendations available in an app That doctors can download and easily refer with questions about contraception, including how they can navigate the subject for patients with specific disorders and diseases. It was downloaded 440,000 timesAccording to the CDC.

“The app was just a game change for us,” says Braden. “That was very clearly organized, very easy to digest, and it was such a nice quick reference for us. It was a source that we all trusted intuitively.”

The current guidelines are still accessible, while the team is no longer responsible for updating them.

Doctors warn that although the recommendations have been relatively recently issued, without careful monitoring will soon be outdated. “Medicine is not static,” says Dr. Deva Sharma, a hematologist who said that the guidelines are a crucial part of her medical practice. “It is constantly evolving and improves.”

The team recently issued the most guidelines in 2024. An example of a change that, according to BRADEN, had a significant impact on its conversations with its patients is on recommendations for mothers who are breastfeeding who use contraception. The new guidelines for the first time recognized that some contraception can jeopardize the milk supply of mothers.

This update, she says, represented a sea change in a way to think about the importance of enabling patients to make their own decisions about breastfeeding. “That was such an important aspect of the update,” says Braden. “It helped us to guide our practice, instead of telling people what they need after they have a baby. It really placed the patient in the middle of the conversation.”

For some patients and doctors who have to deal with specific disorders, conversations about contraception can be cases of life or death. Sharma specializes in the treatment of women with sickle cell disease – a hereditary red blood cell disorder – that patients on one much greater risk Of life -threatening complications during pregnancy than people without the disease.

Sharma calls the termination of the CDC team ‘harmful to the health of women’ and also remembers the moment she found out when a colleague sent her a message. “I remember that I just felt overwhelmed and destroyed,” says Sharma.

In the recent guidelines, the CDC team changes recommendations for women with sickle cell disease, so that patients already bring an increased risk of blood clots. Doctors who treat this disease say that they rarely prescribe certain forms of contraception to their patients because of new evidence that suggests that these types of treatments can cause an even greater risk.

Broading says that she still feels confused why such a valuable source is eliminated. “I don’t understand,” she says “why do them? Why this sector of medicine? This is a waste.”

She warns that doctors cannot compensate for the medical updates that this guide offers. “Medicine is changing so quickly and it is very difficult to keep track of it all,” she warns. “New data is emerging – new research is emerging – and we discover that there is a better way to do things. Contraceptive medicine is no different than that.”

Missing treatment options are difficult to measure

Many patients will not necessarily know about medical updates they do not benefit from, but Teonna Woolford is a patient who understands the usefulness of the guidelines of the CDC around contraception.

Woolford was born with sickle cell disease and started a non-profit, Sickle cell reproductive education guidelineThat argues for patients like themselves. Woolford says that the disease is often characterized by uncertainty and problems in making difficult decisions regarding treatment.

“Having the guidelines was really as a proactive approach to tackling contraception,” says Woolford. “There are a lot of knowledge and research locations on this subject.”

Sikkelcel disease has disproportionately influence on people of color, a group that Woolford notes that he has not historically enjoyed parity in reproductive justice. “The removal of the CDC team for me simply reminds me of dark times in our history when people were suppressed of color,” she says.

Black women in the United States have disproportionate High percentages of mother mortality.

Dr. Broading sees the elimination of the team as a setback for women everywhere. “It really hurts our health health – to focus something as contraceptives.” says roasting. “This is fundamental health care for Obgyn’s and it was really defeated. I would say that I felt angry and sad and confused.”

She and other doctors point out that many women in the US can no longer legally terminate the pregnancy. They say that it makes it especially important for them to be able to make an informed choice about the best ways to prevent him from getting pregnant in the first place.

“Bodily Autonomy has been removed from women in different states,” says Dr. Sharma, who practices in Tennessee – a state with strict abortion laws. “We have reduced people’s rights to make decisions,” she says. “Now we are taking away evidence-based recommendations.”