News & Updates

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the endometrium, which normally grows inside the uterus, grows outside the uterus instead. Although the exact number of women affected by endometriosis is not known, current estimates suggest that 176 million women worldwide may be affected by the condition.

On December 5, 2012, the NICHD released the Scientific Vision: The Next Decade, the culmination of a collaborative process that began in 2011 to identify the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and the research community to pursue over the next decade. The Vision statement was made available during the NICHD’s 50th anniversary colloquium.

​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.

A document charting a research course for the many collaborators who share an interest in promoting the science concerning human development through the life span, child health, women's health, and rehabilitation research is now available online.

As the Institute marks its golden anniversary, we look back on the NICHD's early years, its scientific accomplishments, and its future.

During their lifetimes, many women will face a wide array of health issues. Some will seek treatment for gynecological conditions, such as endometriosis and uterine cancer. Others will experience conditions that affect both males and females, but that follow a different course in women, such as heart disease. Women's health is also affected by factors like socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity, sometimes in ways that they cannot control directly.

In 2011, the NICHD-led Endometriosis: Natural History, Diagnosis, and Outcomes (ENDO) study found that 11 percent of a group of women with no symptoms of endometriosis actually had the disorder. If this finding is applied to all the women in the United States, the number of American women with endometriosis would well exceed previous estimates of 5 million.

The newly released 2011 DIR Annual Report reviews the latest basic, clinical, and translational research being pursued by the staff scientists within DIR at the NICHD. Contributing to this effort are 79 tenured and tenure-track investigators and approximately 1,200 administrative and research staff. In 2011, DIR project areas ranged from vaccine development to genomics, from reproduction to regenerative medicine, and from the neurosciences and early human development to biophysics and imaging.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a key step in the establishment of a pregnancy. Their discovery shows how the hormone progesterone suppresses the growth of the uterus's lining so that a fertilized egg can implant in the uterus.

NICHD Director Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., initiated the NICHD Director’s Lecture Series as a way to showcase cutting-edge science relevant to the Institute’s mission. The forum also enables staff and other attendees to interact with other nationally recognized scientists.

The Division’s research programs address topics ranging from molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and endocrine and genetic disorders, to physical biology, neurosciences, immunology, reproduction, and behavioral research. Its projects are organized around the theme of the orchestration of life by molecular messengers.

Using hormonal contraception does not appear to increase women's overall risk of infection with the AIDS virus, report the authors of a large study commissioned by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Lower bone density appears to recover in adolescent females once they stop using the injected contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

A team of researchers has determined that an enzyme in sperm is necessary for sperm movement. Mice bred to lack this enzyme produce sperm that cannot swim toward egg cells to fertilize them.

The injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) appears to increase a woman's risk of acquiring the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea by approximately three fold when compared to women not using a hormonal contraceptive, according to a study jointly funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Population and Reproductive Health.

A new study confirms earlier reports that Depo-Provera, an injectable contraceptive popular among young and low-income American women, is strongly associated with bone density loss.

Women between the ages of 35 and 64 who took oral contraceptives at some point in their lives are no more likely to develop breast cancer than are other women the same age, according to findings from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study (Women's CARE).

Few of the women who undergo tubal sterilization or whose husbands undergo vasectomy later go on to regret either procedure, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a major new effort to stimulate women's health research across a variety of disciplines, the National Institutes of Health announced it will fund 11 awards to support development of new research in women's health.

In the largest study of its kind, antibiotic treatment to eliminate bacterial vaginosis failed to prevent premature birth, according to a study supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and coauthored by researchers at the NICHD and several other institutions.