We have heard it often, but we’ll say it again: 2020 was a difficult year! It wasn’t all bad though. 2020 highlighted the importance of virtual spaces like the Contraceptive Technology Innovation (CTI) Exchange where stakeholders in the contraceptive R&D space came together to share knowledge and collaborate. Over the course of the year, the CTI Exchange has shared a lot of exciting new content and started important conversations. Take a look at our most popular original content and resources from the year:
Four of our top five posts this year come from a blog series examining non-contraceptive health and lifestyle benefits of family planning methods. Amy Alspaugh, a Clinical Instructor at the School of Nursing, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses this post to explain the need for contraceptive methods that fit the lives of women in midlife and the potential for some of these methods to minimize the perimenopausal symptomology. Read the blog here.
Because reversible male contraception is still under development, it is not possible to definitively describe non-contraceptive benefits for these methods. However, in this post, guest blogger Kathryn Carpenter, an Advocacy Strategist at the Male Contraceptive Initiative, discusses the real possibilities, including better health, education, and economic outcomes for men and their children. Read the blog here.
This post explores another element of non-contraceptive benefits: sexual pleasure and well-being. The author, Jenny Higgins, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin and Director at the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity, calls on contraceptive researchers and product developers to consider sexual satisfaction when designing new methods. Read the blog here.
In this post, author Megan Christofield, Technical Advisor at Jhpiego, imagines a world where we could obtain personalized predictions on efficacy, side effects, and non-contraceptive benefits from each contraceptive method prior to embarking on its use. Read the blog here.
And the #1 post for the CTI Exchange in 2020 (drum roll…) was a recap of the virtual event hosted by Policy Cures Research and the CTI Exchange in August that reviewed contraceptive R&D investments and resources. If you missed it, visit our brand new YouTube channel and read the post here.