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Kristen A. Sullivan, PhD, is first author and Anne Drapkin Lyerly, MD, is corresponding author of an article that examines women’s views about contraception requirements for biomedical research participation. Both are in the Department of Social Medicine and the UNC Center for Bioethics.

Kristen A. Sullivan, PhD, is first author and Anne Drapkin Lyerly, MD, is corresponding author of an article titled, “Women’s views about contraception requirements for biomedical research participation,” that was published May 8 in PLOS ONE.

The article is based on 140 interviews, 70 in the U.S. and 70 in Malawi, with women either living with or at-risk for HIV, exploring their views about the practice of requiring contraception in clinical trials.  It argues that “contraception in research should be sensitive to actual fetal risk assessments; directed where justified at optimizing effective pregnancy prevention; responsive to women’s reproductive preferences; and made available as an ancillary benefit even where risk thresholds do not justify requirement–in order to facilitate trials that are both ethical and robustly oriented around the interests and lives of women who will participate in them.”