It’s a condition practically unheard of in the United States and most Western countries. But in a culture where a woman’s status and dignity is decided by her ability to provide a husband with multiple children, it can be a fate worse than death. (CNN)

Female genital mutilation, the cutting of sexual organs, is thought to affect 66,000 women in the UK. (BBC)

MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. (New York Times, op-ed by Angelina Jolie)

A doctor who was responsible for cutting the spines of babies after botched abortions was convicted Monday of three counts of first-degree murder in a case that became a sharp rallying cry for anti-abortion activists. (New York Times)

Each year, worldwide, nearly 1 million babies die on the day they are born, according to a new report from Save the Children. Giving birth is also risky for mothers; nearly 800 women die every day during pregnancy or childbirth. While we’ve made significant strides in reducing child and maternal mortality rates since the 1970s, there are still many lives to save. (CNN)

A new, free iPad application developed at UCLA helps women navigate through the sometimes confusing process of selecting a birth control method without sacrificing quality of information. The app is appealing to look at, easy to use, and highlights the most effective types of birth control, while also revealing any potential side effects, risks and warning signs. (Medical Xpress)

Girls who received two doses of human papillomavirus vaccine had immune responses not worse than those who had three doses, Canadian researchers say. (UPI)

Successful IVF treatment brings joy to couples who needed medical help to get a child. But what is it like for the egg donors? Three egg donors share their experience with Felista Wangari. (The Nation)

The weight of evidence from epidemiological studies indicates cosmetic breast implants are not associated with increased risk of breast cancer, but concern remains because implants may impair the ability to identify breast cancer at an early stage by mammography because cosmetic breast implants are radio-opaque, impairing the visualization of breast tissue with mammography and making detection of breast cancer at an early stage more difficult. (UPI)

When hit songwriter and former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi and husband Mike McCuddy welcomed son Greyson James Carroll via gestational surrogate in January, it was a dream come true for the couple following five years of heartbreaking fertility issues. But that’s only part of her story. Two years ago, the music publisher learned she was a carrier for the BRCA2 gene mutation, which is linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. (People)

Lautenberg introduced a bill Thursday called the Peace Corps Equity Act of 2013, which echoes the law that extended the coverage for military women, the Shaheen Amendment. The new bill, also co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), would overturn a 1979 appropriations bill that banned the Peace Corps from offering this benefit [abortion coverage in the case of rape or incest] in its federal health plan. (NPR)

In America, when a woman goes to her gynecologist, she is typically given a pelvic exam whether or not she has symptoms or concerns that might warrant one. That’s one reason an estimated 63.4 million pelvic exams are performed annually in this country. (New York Times)

Abortion clinics and women’s health centers have kept the cost of abortion stable since the onset of the 2008 recession, at a time of escalating health costs. But now state legislatures are considering a wide range of restrictions that will make the procedure less accessible, driving up costs. (Reuters)

The American government’s goal of vaccinating young girls against the human papillomavirus has been disappointing, with less than a third of teenagers having completed a full course of HPV vaccine. But now the United States can look to Australia, which six years into a successful nationwide HPV vaccination campaign has experienced a sharp decline in the number of new cases of genital warts among young men and women. (New York Times)

Hundreds of American couples are hiring women in India as surrogate mothers. For many couples, the only hope to create a child of their own is to fertilize an egg in a test-tube and implant it in a surrogate. (CBS News)

After 15 years of research by 200 scientists from all over the world, their findings have been recently published.  Sellers says, “What we have found are six new genetic regions across the genome that appear to influence whether a woman will get ovarian cancer.” (ABC News)

The creation of new blood vessels in the body, called “angiogenesis,” is usually discussed in connection with healing wounds and tumors. But it’s also an ongoing process in the female reproductive tract, where the growth and breaking of blood vessels is a normal part of the menstrual cycle. But abnormal growth of blood vessels can have painful consequences and resultant pathologies. (Medical Xpress)

It is characteristic of the American condition that we want to save the world. This may be seen economically, politically, in terms of human rights, consumption of resources, education or healthcare - any way one chooses. (The Yemen Times)

The Guttmacher Institute just released a review of the research that’s been done on the impact of access to contraception on women’s lives. It’s not just a nice to have. It’s a need to have. (Forbes)

In a little-noticed move, the leading body for US fertility clinics has given a green light to helping women over 50 to become pregnant. The former policy of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, formulated in 2004, was that just as “fertility is the norm during reproductive years… infertility should remain the natural characteristic of menopause”. The physical and psychological risks were too great. (BioEdge)

A comprehensive review finds that a woman’s ability to control her own fertility is good for women — and society. (Salon)