Background: Intimate partner violence is a globally acknowledged public health problem. Violence against women is unsurprisingly common albeit under reported in both developing and developed nations. It impacts the physical and mental health of affected women adversely. Even though it appears in different forms it is a malady that deserves increased attention. It is a social menace that is common in Africa with Nigeria being no exception. This study sets out to determine its prevalence, contributing factors and the spectrum of violence against married women in Southeast Nigeria. Methods: A cross sectional study of prospectively consenting women within a community based setting was done in Orlu, Nigeria during a period between 1st August to 31st August 2016. A total of 695 respondents were initially recruited and given structured questionnaires, of this number 13 failed to answer questions on intimate partner violence and hence were excluded, thus the final study population was actually 682. Using a 95% confidence interval, 5% margin of error, population proportion of 0.5, the minimum sample size was calculated as 384 using the Cochran's formula for sample size. The data was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: A total of 682 (100%) respondents met the criteria for the study, of this number 382 (56%) had experienced some form of IPV while 300 (44%) had not. The factor most frequently associated with abusive behavior was financial requests/constraints accounting for 123 cases (32.2%). Injuries were sustained by 130 women (34%) with 66 of them suffering miscarriages (17.28%). Two hundred and twenty four women (32.8%) had experienced only one form of abuse while 158 (23.17%) reported multiple forms of abuse. Intimate partner violence was most prevalent among women within the 25-34 years age range constituting a total of 170 (44.5%) cases of abuse. Those married women with only primary education were the subset of the study population that had the greatest number of abused women; 138 cases (38.1%). Conclusions: Intimate partner violence is a pervasive problem in Nigeria with a prevalence of 56% in this study. Various factors particularly financial constraints, incitement, alcoholism and substance abuse were contributing factors in cases of IPV. Intimate partner violence may appear as a single form or as multiple forms of abuse.

Background: Gynecological lesions are a common reason for women to seek specialist care. Even benign lesions manifest with a wide variety of clinical features. This study set out to analyze the prevalence of histopathologically evaluated benign lesions of the genital tract and their diverse clinical presentations within a tertiary healthcare institution.Methods: This was a retrospective study of 265 cases of gynecological specimens sent for histopathology at department of morbid anatomy, relevant clinical data on each case was retrieved from patient case notes obtained from the medical records department of the Imo State University Teaching Hospital Orlu, all data were retrieved from these departments from the period of 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2013. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.Results: A total of 265 specimens (100%) were received during a 5 year period. The benign lesions seen included; uterine leiomyomas 120 cases (45.3%), cervicitis had 32 (12.1%), there were 22 cases (8.3%) of uterovaginal prolapse, product of conception had 20 (7.6%), cervical polyps and cysts had 11cases (4.2%), adenomyosis and endometriosis had 4 cases (1.5%), serous cystadenoma reported 9 cases (3.4%). Cystic teratoma and simple ovarian cyst had 8 cases (3.0%) each. Endometrial hyperplasia, ovarian thecoma and corpus luteum cyst all had 7 cases (2.6%) respectively. There were 3 cases (1.1%) each of Nabothian cyst and ectopic pregnancy. Fibromas accounted for 2 cases (0.6%). Bartholin’s cyst and hydrosalpinx had 1 case (0.4%) each.Conclusions: Uterine fibroids were the commonest benign lesion for which women underwent gynecological surgery.

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus sero-discordance is high among heterosexual couples in Africa. However, only few studies have explored the factors that are associated with the prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of female sero-discordance among HIV positive pregnant women in Owerri and to assess its possible associated factors.Methods: A cross sectional study of pregnant women (and their partners) who tested positive to HIV I and II at the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) clinic from December 2015 to May 2016 in Federal Medical Center Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria.Results: A total of 106 HIV positive pregnant women (and their partners) were studied. The prevalence of female serodiscordance was 63.2% (67/106). Pre-marital serodiscordance contributed about 52.2% (35/67) female serodiscordance among couples in the study. Sero-discordance rate for the lower, middle, and upper classes were 50% (28/56), 76.1% (35/46) and 100% (4/4) respectively and was statistically significant (p<0.01). Condom use was significantly associated with female serodiscondance (P<0.01). CD4+ count of the female partner at booking was also found statistically significantly associated with female serodiscordance (P<0.01).Conclusions: There is high prevalence of female serodiscordance among HIV positive pregnant women in Owerri. Pre-marital serodiscordance contributed significantly to high level of female serodiscordance among couples. Higher social class, condom use and high female- partner CD4+ count are significantly associated with female sero-discordance.