Women's Health News and Research

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New York Hospital Director fired after cancer screening tests bungle

A flawed system at the Jacobi Medical Center in New York, which meant that hundreds of women were not informed of the results of their cancer screening tests has resulted in the firing of its executive director just a week after the slip up was discovered.

23 May 2005

Call for action on static Australian breastfeeding rates

New laws to protect the rights of breastfeeding women who return to work may be needed if Australia is to meet national breastfeeding targets.

10 May 2005

No glass ceiling for women when it comes to dying from heart disease, say experts

While many of us assume that heart disease mainly strikes men, the fact is 12,000 Australian women die each year from illnesses like stroke, heart attack and heart failure - that's four and a half times the number of lives claimed by breast cancer.

10 May 2005

American women focus on their own health more

According to "Women Talk," the first annual national women's health survey from the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC), being healthy to women means both physical and emotional wellness and having a healthy family and suggests that women place a greater priority on the health of their family than their own personal health.

8 May 2005

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

National survey reveals critical barriers to improving women's health

For American women, being healthy is far more than getting a good checkup or being disease-free. According to "Women Talk," the first annual national women's health survey from the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC), being healthy means both physical and emotional wellness and having a healthy family.

4 May 2005

Discrimination leads to coronary artery calcification in African-American women

The more discrimination African-American women report, the more likely they are to have coronary artery calcification, a buildup of calcium in the vessels that is associated with atherosclerosis, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's 45th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

1 May 2005

Canadian Diabetes Association, UBC partner on funding for childhood diabetes research

A new partnership announced by the Canadian Diabetes Association and the University of British Columbia (UBC) will help fund research in childhood diabetes. Not only will this research further investigate type 1 diabetes, it will also explore the areas of type 2 diabetes and obesity in children, a problem of growing concern and proportions.

23 Apr 2005

Enhancing the resources available to low-income, urban African American women could protect against poor health and symptoms of depression

Enhancing the resources available to low-income, urban African American women to make their neighborhoods safer could protect them against poor health and symptoms of depression, says Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine community health researcher Adam Becker.

20 Apr 2005

C-section crisis demands congressional review

April is Cesarean Awareness Month and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) is renewing its call for Congressional hearings into the nation’s rising Cesarean section rate and the impact on women’s health and the overall health care system. Recent data indicates that as many 4 women in 10 gave birth by Cesarean in 2003, with an increasing percentage of first-time Cesareans being performed with no medical indication.

19 Apr 2005

Women respond as well as men to treatment with drug-eluting stents

Despite the fact that symptomatic coronary disease afflicts men and women equally, only 33 percent of the 1.2 million interventional procedures conducted in the U.S. each year are done on women.

19 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

Women with heart attacks benefit from stenting

Female heart attack patients undergoing angioplasty have a higher risk of death than men, but stenting may improve their outcomes, according to a study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

12 Apr 2005

Contrary to old wives tales, alcohol, does not aid lactation

A new study has found, contrary to common wisdom, that alcohol does not appear to boost the mother's production of breastmilk, and actually has a counterproductive effect.

12 Apr 2005

Mothers' poor health revealed in new study

Sleep deprived new mothers are doing it tough, but getting help from early parenting centres improves their mental health, according to a new report.

7 Apr 2005

Women with heart attacks benefit from stenting

Female heart attack patients undergoing angioplasty have a higher risk of death than men, but stenting may improve their outcomes, according to a study reported in Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association.

7 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

Midwives credited with reducing C-section rate at New Jersey hospital

Certified nurse-midwives working for a federally qualified health center in New Jersey are credited with helping reduce the Cesarean section rate at one of the state's hospitals, according to a report in the Plainfield Courier-News this week.

4 Apr 2005

Vaccine prevents deadly pneumonia in African children

Global health leaders today presented new research showing that vaccinating infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae -- a bacterium that causes deadly pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis -- could substantially reduce death and serious illness among children in the developing world. If used widely, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine could prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths each year.

28 Mar 2005

Calcium crucial to benefits of osteoporosis drugs

Although an increasing number of people are taking powerful new prescription drugs to treat osteoporosis, chances are the majority of patients are not getting the greatest effect from these medicines because they do not have an adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, according to a paper published in the March 2005 issue of The Journal of Women's Health.

23 Mar 2005