Gynecology News and Research

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Episiotomy usually provides no benefits

According to a systematic review of existing studies, to appear in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the surgical procedure known as an episiotomy, performed in up to 35 percent of U.S. vaginal births, usually provides no benefits.

5 May 2005

Vitamin C may have potential to counteract negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies

Research conducted in monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, suggests high doses of vitamin C may have potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies.

1 May 2005

Link between insomnia and obesity

A possible link between lack of sleep (insomnia) and obesity has been traced to hypocretin/orexin cells in the hypothalamus region of the brain that are easily excited and sensitive to stress, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the April issue of Cell Metabolism.

13 Apr 2005

History of preeclampsia increases lifetime risk for cardiovascular illness and death

In a study of mothers with a history of preeclampsia, a hypertension complication in pregnancy affecting five percent of all women, researchers at Yale have found that these women have an increased lifetime risk for cardiovascular illness and death.

13 Apr 2005

Levels of anti–clotting proteins influence pregancy outcomes

Recurrent miscarriage, stillbirth, preeclampsia, poor fetal growth, preterm delivery and bleeding in pregnancy are influenced by low levels of the anti–clotting proteins Z and S, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the March issue of Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

12 Apr 2005

Low doses of bisphenol–A (BPA) can impair brain function

Low doses of the environmental contaminant bisphenol–A (BPA), widely used to make many plastics found in food storage containers, including feeding bottles for infants, can impair brain function, leading to learning disabilities and age–related neurodegenerative diseases, according to Yale researchers and colleagues.

12 Apr 2005

ACNM joins call to make every mother and child count on World Health Day 2005

Increasing the number of trained midwives, especially in low resource countries, is a life-saving intervention that must receive support from policy makers and funders if we expect to lower maternal and infant mortality rates, said the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) as it prepared to participate in World Health Day activities set for April 7th, 2005.

5 Apr 2005

Important that menopause not viewed as a disease

An independent panel convened last week by the National Institutes of Health found that many women move through the menopausal transition with few disabling symptoms, and that it is important that menopause not be viewed as a disease.

28 Mar 2005

Pregnant women should exercise to keep depression away

While much research focuses on healthy babies for pregnant mothers, little has been published about the physical and emotional health and changes that the mothers go through themselves.

23 Mar 2005

Women’s attitudes toward a potential cervical cancer vaccine

In a study of 200 women, a group of physicians has found that a vast majority of women would be willing to take a cervical cancer vaccine themselves and would allow it to be administered to their children.

23 Mar 2005

Tiny scaffolding allows stem cells to become working fat cells

Researchers here have used a new microscopic, three-dimensional scaffolding to coax mouse stem cells to transform themselves into fat cells, and then to function identical to how fat cells naturally do in the body.

22 Mar 2005

African-American women with advanced endometrial cancer have more aggressive tumors than Caucasian women

In two studies of African-American women with endometrial cancer, a group of investigators from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Cancer Institute has found that African-American women with advanced endometrial cancer have more aggressive tumors than Caucasian women, potentially leading to worse outcomes.

21 Mar 2005

Cetrorelix progresses to full development for the treatment of Endometriosis in women

Solvay Pharmaceuticals has decided to undertake full Phase III development with cetrorelix for the treatment of endometriosis in women.

16 Mar 2005

Most infertile women want to choose the sex of their child

Many women being treated for infertility would choose the sex of their next child if given the option and those who were childless would choose baby girls and boys in approximately equal numbers.

14 Mar 2005

Significant number of women being treated for infertility would choose the sex of their next child

A new survey says a significant number of women being treated for infertility would choose the sex of their next child if given the option -- and those as yet childless would choose baby girls and boys in approximately equal numbers.

14 Mar 2005

Pregnant women should exercise to keep depression away

While much research focuses on healthy babies for pregnant mothers, little has been published about the physical and emotional health and changes that the mothers go through themselves.

8 Mar 2005

Substances in the urine of pregnant women could serve as a screening/diagnostic tool for preeclampsia

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that specific substances in the urine of pregnant women could serve as a screening/diagnostic tool for preeclampsia (hypertension and proteinuria during pregnancy).

7 Mar 2005

Researchers can now predict who will benefit from cerclage

Doctors treating pregnant women with threatened preterm birth sometimes sew the cervix closed, a procedure known as cerclage. Despite this traditional intervention, many women still lose the pregnancy.

1 Mar 2005

Quicker recovery time with new laparoscopic hysterectomy

More than 600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year in the United States at a cost of $5 billion, which doesn't take into account the 144 million work hours lost to the average six-week recovery time. Billie Williams of Grapevine had been considering having one for years, but major surgery and a long convalescence didn't fit with her plans.

1 Mar 2005

More experienced physicians less likely to falsely characterize a mammogram as abnormal

Physicians who specialize in screening mammography and who have at least 25 years of experience are more accurate at interpreting the images and subject fewer women to the anxiety of false positives for cancer, when compared to physicians with less experience or those who don't have the same focus, according to a new study.

1 Mar 2005