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Listening to the "Medically Silenced" Improves Contraceptive Design

Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan—physician, researcher, writer and consultant in sexual health and HIV medicine working with the NHS—recently published the opinion piece “Listen to the voices of the medically silenced” in PLOS Global Public Health. A clear call to center patients and an example of her work to improve health equity, Dhairyawan writes:  

 

“...we in health care and research need to learn to listen better and do so in ways that do not cause further harm. This includes acknowledging the inherent power imbalance between doctors and patients and more highly valuing patients’ expertise in their own bodies.” 

 

It is a message with profound resonance for contraceptive innovators in particular. With a history of harm in its wake, impactful advocates have long been committed to holding the field of family planning accountable, helping it constantly to become more alive with real intentions to repair and to shift power to communities of the “medically silenced” and marginalized. Current and potential contraceptive clients belong to many medically silenced communities, and it’s worth observing at least a few examples of how advocates, researchers and developers are actively centering the lives and lived experiences too often overlooked across health care:  

 

 

With a rights-based approach and human-centered lens, contraceptive scientists must continue to listen more intently to all current and potential users, with extra attention to those our systems continue to squelch. But funders can also listen to users and the scientists who work with them to better understand the imperative to support these opportunities for innovation, with contraceptives holding the potential to address so many and varied health needs and personal desires. Investing in the development of new methods—and new method uses—can fuel medical discoveries, improve wellbeing, increase client satisfaction, strengthen markets and nurture the R&D ecosystem. 

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