Women's Health News

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Health effects of isoflavones and breast cancer

Are soy products healthy additions to a person's diet, safe alternatives to hormone-replacement therapy or cancer-causing agents" The answer, according to University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor William Helferich, is, "It depends."

17 May 2007

Merits and risks of postmenopausal hormone therapy

The study was categorized as a primary prevention trial for coronary heart disease, although the fact that mean age at recruitment was 63 years was not given enough importance at that time. WHI investigators concluded that hormone therapy (HT) was not cardioprotective, and, in fact, its riskbenefit ratio did not favor the use of postmenopausal hormones for prevention of chronic diseases.

17 May 2007

Sex differences in health awareness

A majority of American women always or frequently read the labels of their prescribed or over the counter medications to see if they might work differently in women, but few discuss this issue with their doctor or pharmacist, according to a new survey released by the Society for Women's Health Research, a Washington, D.C., based advocacy organization.

16 May 2007

Just 75 minutes of exercise per week helps improve fitness levels for postmenopausal women who are overweight

New research indicates that even small amounts of physical activity, approximately 75 minutes a week, can help improve the fitness levels for postmenopausal women who are sedentary and overweight or obese, according to a study in the May 16 issue of JAMA.

16 May 2007

New educational tool for women who are thinking about breastfeeding

A new website featuring personal experiences of breastfeeding has gone 'live' in time for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week (May 13 - 19).

16 May 2007

Just 10 minutes of exercise each day helps inactive overweight women

Researchers in the U.S. say that just 10 minutes of exercise a day can help even the most inactive overweight women.

15 May 2007

Cancer experts concerned over drop in mammogram rates

Experts in the U.S. have expressed concern over the declining numbers of women receiving mammograms.

15 May 2007

Conference looks at reproductive choices, infant feeding and teenage parenthood

Child protection, reproductive choices, infant feeding and teenage parenthood (including planned teenage pregnancy and positive experiences of teenage motherhood) are among the topics to be discussed at an international conference on childrearing in the age of ‘intensive parenting’.

15 May 2007

Female reproductive function is influenced by childhood environment

This suggests there is a critical window of time from about 0-8 years of age that determines the rate at which girls physically mature and how high their reproductive hormone levels reach as adults.

15 May 2007

Calcium plus vitamin D may help prevent weight gain in postmenopausal women

Postmenopausal women who take calcium and vitamin D supplements may gain less weight than those who do not, although the overall effect is small, according to a report in the May 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

15 May 2007

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative increases breastfeeding rates

A new study in the May issue of the Journal of Human Lactation reports that being born in a Baby-Friendly hospital gives babies the best possible chance of breastfeeding to 6 months.

15 May 2007

Fifteen different pesticides in the organisms of pregnant women

Human beings are directly responsible for more than 110,000 chemical substances which have been generated since the Industrial Revolution.

15 May 2007

Should women be prescribed statins?

Women in western countries are more likely to die from heart disease than from cancer.

11 May 2007

Most women 55 years and younger who have heart attacks don't recognize warning signs

Women younger than 55 years represent less than 5 percent of all hospitalized heart disease patients, but because so many heart attacks occur in the United State each year, even this small percentage affects a large number of people.

11 May 2007

Important for pregnant women to get healthful exercise

Summer isn't the most fun time to be pregnant - heat and sweat add to the ordinary discomfort of pregnancy, and hormonal changes can make women less able to regulate body temperature.

10 May 2007

Bisphosphonates for osteoporosis treatment in women

A class of drugs called bisphosphonates has become the new mainstay treatment for postmenopausal women diagnosed with osteoporosis in the post-hormone-replacement era.

10 May 2007

One-third of pregnancies in the United States are unwanted

That is, 2 million of the 6.4 million pregnancies in 2001 were unwanted (most recent data available). Over half (54%) of unwanted pregnancies occur to women in their twenties. And there is evidence that the rate of unwanted pregnancies may be increasing.

10 May 2007

Cancer screening in women: BMI and adherence to physician recommendations

While severe obesity can be accompanied by other health problems including cancer, severely obese women are likely to skip clinical breast exams, mammograms and Pap smears, according to a recent analysis.

9 May 2007

It is highly unlikely that older women generate new eggs

Tilly reported the discovery of stem cells capable of migrating from bone marrow to mouse ovaries and generating new eggs there. The research fueled hopes that a new treatment - such as bone marrow transplantation - might one day help older women regain their fertility.

9 May 2007