SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!.................The three (3) best papers chosen from all the JOGR articles published from 2002-2004 will be awarded in the XIXth AOCOG, Seoul Korea in 2005.

The 1^st quarter of the year was busy with international, regional and local conferences in our federation. FOGSI started off with its annual general meeting in Agra and there were 2 AOFOG sessions on emergency obstetric services. Unfortunately, some of us couldn’t get to Agra due to difficulty in airlines bookings but we heard it was a well-attended meeting.

Soon after, JHPIEGO held a regional conference on Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH) in Bangkok and this was attended by delegates from countries with MMR > 100 (unfortunately, these include about 10 nations from the AOFOG fraternity). It focused on the Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor where skilled attendants are present and possibly, prophylactic Misoprostol in areas without skilled medical attendance. This matter of maternal deaths due to PPH was discussed during the January Executive Board Meting in Chennai during the 3^rd SSRatnam Foundation Workshop and the Board passed the proposal of an AOFOG-funded PPH INITIATIVE project aimed at training of educators in the 10 countries of the region where MMR due to PPH exceeds 100. Several countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan) have already heeded the challenge though everything is still in the planning stage. Indonesia and the Philippines have on-going projects along both the PPH initiative and the ALARM courses.

In February, there was the ISGE (Gyn Endocrinology) meeting in Florence where several AOFOG personalities spoke. The majority of the presentations were dedicated to menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) topics. Most presenters at the Congress harshly criticized these new studies (WHI and the Million Women Study), partly secondary to methodology issues, and partly secondary to misinterpretation of the reported outcome. These opinions are published in most gynecologic journals in the form of editorials or commentary and in the popular press as well. What these discussions may have brought about is the fact that many physicians and patients are unsure about the indications, benefits, and risks associated with HRT. Another way of looking into it is that the controversy surrounding HRT may translate into benefit by stimulating research in the field of menopausal medicine. By better understanding the effects of hormones in various organs, new drugs with a more favorable profile can be developed and offered to menopausal women. (Unfortunately, several days after this conference, the estrogen-only arm of the WHI study broke into the news!). Maybe, it is time our AOFOG Committee on Menopause should put up a Committee Opinion for the guidance of the federation’s members.

This March, the 1^st ISUOG-Asia Conference was held in Singapore, co-sponsored by the Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Singapore. Several papers presented new findings on 3D / 4D ultrasound which vividly depicts fetal structure and fetal activity (there must be fetal emotions in utero!). Predominant too were papers focused on scanning for fetal anomalies, infertility causes and gynecologic tumors. A lot of members of our federation were there either as paper presentors or delegates.

Traveling to conferences can be tiring but the experience is unequaled in terms of new knowledge, new insights and new friends (refreshing old friendship, too!). It was of course nice to see the involvement of our national societies in these endeavors. The 2^nd quarter should be as busy with the Japan Society meeting in Tokyo and the Fetus as a Patient Congress in Fukuoka, Japan. Please alert the secretariat regarding your country meetings so we can help circulate news about them.

Fraternally,