For some couples, arriving at the miracle of birth is more complex than sperm + egg = embryo = pregnant. The human body is incredibly complex, and few processes are as complicated as human reproduction.

For example, consider the first five days in the reproduction process:

Day 0 – Egg meets sperm in the fallopian tube. Sperm penetrates egg.
Day 1 – Fertilization occurs and a zygote forms, which includes DNA from both the male and female.
Day 2 – The zygote has evolved into an embryo. Cell count is now four.
Days 3 to 5 – Even more growing as the cells split. There are now eight cells. The embryo leaves the fallopian tube and enters the uterus.
Day 5– Embryo hatches, blastocyst embryo erupts and implants into the uterine wall, and a woman is deemed pregnant.

As we close out National Women’s Health Week, Health Talk thought it fitting to provide women seven things they should know about their health.

Why seven? Why not? There are seven oceans, seven colors in the rainbow, seven wonders in the world, and most importantly – seven days in National Women’s Health Week.

To compile the list, Health Talk spoke to University of Minnesota Physicians women’s health expert Carrie Ann Terrell, M.D., director of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School and director of the Women’s Health Specialists Clinic.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Cari Clark, Sc.D., M.P.H., never sought out to be a crusader for women’s health. However, her work has positioned her as a true champion for women’s health as she’s advanced an understanding around the public health impact that violence against women has on our society in the U.S. and abroad.

In early April, Clark, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and adjunct assistant professor in the School of Public Health, presented the public health impact of violence against women at a press conference convened by U.S. Senator Al Franken and Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau to support the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.

The bill provides funding for victim services, law enforcement, and violence prevention. Importantly the bill also supports research on the health effects of violence against women, the impact of violence on the health sector, and improvements in the health sector’s response to violence victimization.

Pelvic exam. Just the thought causes women of all ages to shudder. Yet, year after year, ladies make pelvic exam appointments because it’s the right thing to do.

What if it wasn’t necessary to endure the awkward and often uncomfortable procedure?

Susan Perry of MinnPost challenged the tradition in an article citing the New York Times, which said:

An increasing number of experts now challenge the value of this time-honored practice, which is done as a matter of course when women come in for routine gynecological checkups or Pap smears.

To clear up some questions, Health Talk turned to Carrie Ann Terrell, M.D., director of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School and director of the Women’s Health Specialists Clinic.

United States hospital-based births covered by private insurance are associated with higher rates of obstetric intervention than births paid for by Medicaid, according to new research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

The latest study was led by health policy researcher Katy B. Kozhimannil, Ph.D., M.P.A., who partnered with fellow University of Minnesota researchers Tetyana P. Shippee, Ph.D. and Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., M.P.H., as well as UCare Minnesota health care analyst Olusola Adegoke, M.P.H., M.B.B.S, who worked on the study as a masters student at the School of Public Health.

The study appeared this week in the American Journal of Managed Care.

To arrive at their conclusion, the researchers studied the relationship between the primary payer and trends in hospital-based childbirth obstetric procedures, such as cesarean delivery and labor induction. They examined 6,717,486 births across the United States between the years 2002 – 2009.

Though obstetric intervention rates have increased over time for all births, the presence and type of health insurance affected the type of care women received during childbirth.

Great news for women everywhere: a woman’s employment status during pregnancy does not cause a negative impact on her baby’s health.

When comparing women who worked full-time while pregnant with women who were not employed while pregnant, full-time employment was not directly associated with preterm birth or low birth weight, found a recent University of Minnesota study.

The latest study was led by University of Minnesota researcher Katy Backes Kozhimannil, Ph.D., Division of Health Policy and Management, who partnered with fellow University of Minnesota researchers Laura B. Attanasio, B.A., Division of Health Policy and Management, Patricia M. McGovern, Ph.D., Division of Environmental Health Sciences, Dwenda K. Gjerdingen, M.D., Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Pamela Jo Johnson, Ph.D., Division of Epidemiology and Community Health and Medica Research Institute.  The study appears today in the online edition of Women’s Health Issues.