Women's Health News and Research

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Australians misinformed regarding fertility

According to a latest survey many Australians do not know what age their fertility starts to decline. Experts warn both men and women could be “dangerously optimistic” about their chances of conceiving - and IVF is too often viewed as a “silver bullet”.

26 Mar 2012

Pregnancy raises risk of heart attacks

According to a new study pregnancy and related hormonal changes that continue 12 weeks after giving birth increase a woman's risk of heart attack. Although the likelihood of having a heart attack during pregnancy is very low - just 1 in every 16,000 deliveries - it is still 3 to 4 times higher than non-pregnant women of the same age.

26 Mar 2012

Amped up health law debate creeps into presidential, congressional races

Mitt Romney raises his attack on the Democrats' health care law while GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum assails Romney for championing the Massachusetts health law -- and takes the fight to the steps of the Supreme Court.

26 Mar 2012

Hutchison calls on Perry to work with feds on women's health funding

The fight in Texas over its Women's Health Program and the dual defundings of Planned Parenthood by the state and the entire program by the federal government gained a new wrinkle as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called on Gov. Rick Perry to work out the state's differences with the feds.

23 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Ryan budget not a balanced diet; DEA war on pharmacies; The debate over Medicaid block grants

The mother of all tax expenditures - the tax-free treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance - amounts to $2 trillion over 10 years in lost income-tax revenue, not including the additional impact on payroll tax collections.

23 Mar 2012

Va. voters divided over support for ultrasound law; Other related news

Voters are split over a new Virginia law that mandates women get ultrasounds before an abortion. Abortion and contraception issues are also making news in Iowa, Idaho, Texas, Washington, Kansas and Utah.

23 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 23, 2012

Today's health policy headlines are full of previews of next week's health law action at the Supreme Court.

23 Mar 2012

Longer looks: Health literacy's effect on costs

In many families, women are the health care decision makers. When children go for their checkups, we are often the ones who make the appointment and sit in the room holding their hand. When elderly parents see a new specialist, we are the ones carrying the folder with all their health information. ... In the past, this also meant that many women would take care of their own health last. By the time they got around to it, women found a system stacked against them. But thanks to the health care law, that's changed.

23 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Health law's threat to individual liberty; Conflicting opinions on the constitutionality of the individual mandate

On Monday, the Supreme Court will begin an extraordinary three-day hearing on the constitutionality of ObamaCare. At stake are the Constitution's structural guarantees of individual liberty, which limit governmental power and ensure political accountability by dividing that power between federal and state authorities. Upholding ObamaCare would destroy this dual-sovereignty system, the most distinctive feature of American constitutionalism.

23 Mar 2012

Study shows gender gap in medication management

Women use more prescription drugs than men; yet they are not prescribed proper amounts. In a new study presented at Women's Health 2012: The 20th Annual Congress by Medco Health Solutions, Inc. and the Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) women are prescribed more drugs than men, have poorer adherence rates to using the drugs than men, and, perhaps most surprisingly, lag behind men in receiving the appropriate drugs for their documented diseases.

22 Mar 2012

NAFC honors VUMC nurse practitioner with Rodney Appell Continence Care Champion Award

The National Association For Continence (NAFC) presented Margaret "Amy" Hull, RNC, MSN, WHCNP, with its Rodney Appell Continence Care Champion Award at the Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates (SUNA) annual awards luncheon on March 3, 2012 held during the 2012 SUNA Annual Symposium in San Francisco.

21 Mar 2012

State lawmakers consider abortion, contraception legislation; Other states deal with fallout

A bill in Arizona would allow employers to deny contraception coverage on religious grounds and a Tenn. bill would require the state publish the names of doctors who perform abortions.

21 Mar 2012

State-level resources may contribute to risk of heart disease in women

According to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), a state's level of wealth or poverty is linked with levels of cardiovascular inflammation in women.

21 Mar 2012

Ever-evolving birth control issues affect fundraising, messaging

As the birth control issues pumps up some campaign coffers, one prominent Republican says his party needs to stop talking about it.

20 Mar 2012

Texas files lawsuit over federal defunding of Women's Health Program

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed the suit Friday, saying that the federal government improperly decided to stop funding the state's Women's Health Program.

20 Mar 2012

Two Cedars-Sinai physicians to receive ACC Distinguished Scientist Award

Two physicians from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute will receive the American College of Cardiology's highest honors for scientific research and clinical care during the organization's upcoming annual scientific meeting in Chicago.

20 Mar 2012

Soy-based S-equol lowers HbA1c, LDL cholesterol and improves vascular stiffness

A 12-week treatment of the fermented soy germ-based nutritional supplement containing S-equol significantly lowered hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), LDL cholesterol and improved vascular stiffness, all factors that occur as part of metabolic syndrome, according to a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed study reported in a poster at the Women's Health 2012 annual meeting.

19 Mar 2012

Gender gap in medication management

There is a wide gender divide when it comes to how men and women are prescribed and adhere to their medications. According to a new study, while women use more prescription drugs than men, they are less likely to be prescribed drugs according to clinical guidelines and are not as good about adhering to the medications they are prescribed.

19 Mar 2012

Komen being pressured by Catholic bishops over Planned Parenthood

Four years back on his visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI blessed a box of silver ribbon-shaped pins for breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure and sent them to its founder, Nancy Brinker. Brinker was touched by the gesture and thanked the pontiff in person on the day of his departure.

18 Mar 2012

Feds begin funding cuts to Texas Women's Health Program

Federal officials said they would begin to phase out their 90-percent portion of the Texas Women's Health Program as they had promised to do after Texas lawmakers banned Planned Parenthood from the program. CMS officials said the reductions would be gradual.

17 Mar 2012