Women's Health News

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HIV prevention must include economic empowerment of women

"Transactional sex, sexual intercourse driven by material exchanges," occurs worldwide, but "[i]n poor regions with high HIV prevalence rates like sub-Saharan Africa … transactional sex poses an even higher threat to one's wellbeing and health because the chance of HIV infection is greater," Daniella Choi, staff member at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, writes in CSIS' Commission on Smart Global Health Policy blog.

12 Aug 2011

Hysterectomy rates across Germany vary

Hysterectomy elevates the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease in young women when combined with the removal of both ovaries in the same operation. This fact provides the background for the epidemiological report by Andreas Stang and colleagues on hysterectomy rates in Germany, which appears in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

12 Aug 2011

Experts troubled by global rise in c-section rates

Almost one-third of infants in the U.S. are delivered by caesarean section (c-section), a trend that is now growing globally, PRI's The World/PBS NewsHour reports. "The c-section rate in Thailand has reached 34 percent, in Vietnam, it is 36 percent, and in China, nearly half of all births are by c-section," the article states.

12 Aug 2011

NPR examines how religious beliefs influence family planning in Pakistan

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Wednesday examined how Islam influences health and family planning decisions in Pakistan, one of Asia's fastest-growing populations.

12 Aug 2011

NSAIDs like ibuprofen slow the spread of breast cancers

Published online on Aug. 7, 2011, the journal Nature Medicine reports that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs including ibuprofen reduce the severity of postpartum breast cancers in animal models.

12 Aug 2011

Pregnant women lack enough vitamin D despite use of prenatal supplements

Pregnant women taking prenatal supplements may not be getting enough vitamin D, shows a new Vancouver-based study led by the Child & Family Research Institute at BC Children's Hospital that was published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.

12 Aug 2011

Female sex hormone oestrogen could fight against cardiovascular disease

The sex hormone oestrogen could help protect women from cardiovascular disease by keeping the body's immune system in check, new research from Queen Mary, University of London has revealed.

12 Aug 2011

Study links low vitamin D with early menstruation in young girls

A study links low vitamin D in young girls with early menstruation, which is a risk factor for a host of health problems for teen girls as well as women later in life.

12 Aug 2011

New source for sexual problems in men – buddies!

Social researchers have found that there may be a new source for sexual problems among middle-aged and older men and it could be the relationships between their female partners and the men's closest friends.

12 Aug 2011

Elderly individuals with higher BMI have shorter life expectancy

While some past studies have shown that persons carrying a few extra pounds in their 70s live longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study that measured subjects' weight at multiple points over a longer period of time reveals the opposite.

12 Aug 2011

Blood test early in pregnancy to detect baby’s gender

While carrying the child, a mother's blood has cell-free fetal DNA floating around in it, and it's possible to use this to test for the baby's sex. In a meta-analysis that covered more, the test was found to be 95% efficient in guessing the sex of the fetus — and it works from as early as seven weeks. As the fetus and the placenta develop, the amount of DNA present in the mother increases, boosting the accuracy of the test, which hits its peak at 20 weeks.

12 Aug 2011

TCHP receives Texas HHSC's managed care renewed contracts

Texas Children's Health Plan (TCHP) has been tentatively awarded managed care renewed contracts by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

12 Aug 2011

Women with depression at higher risk of stroke

A new study published this week shows that depression puts middle-aged and older women at significant risk of suffering potentially debilitating strokes.

12 Aug 2011

Women worst hit by smoking

A study published in the British medical journal `The Lancet' on Thursday revealed that the risk of developing coronary heart disease is 25% higher for women smokers compared with men.

12 Aug 2011

Higher protein intake helps postmenopausal obese women lose more weight

Dieting postmenopausal women who want to avoid losing muscle as they lose fat should pay attention to a new University of Illinois study. Adding protein throughout the day not only holds hunger pangs at bay so that dieters lose more weight, it keeps body composition-the amount of fat relative to muscle-in better proportion.

11 Aug 2011

Popular media's hypersexualization of women may be worse than you think

A study by University at Buffalo sociologists has found that the portrayal of women in the popular media over the last several decades has become increasingly sexualized, even "pornified." The same is not true of the portrayal of men.

11 Aug 2011

Caffeine can treat postdural puncture headaches

People who suffer headaches after a spinal tap might have a relatively simple way to ease the painful throb: a caffeine tablet.

11 Aug 2011

Neurologist care may improve quality of life for people with Parkinson's

People with Parkinson's disease who go to a neurologist for their care are more likely to live longer, less likely to be placed in a nursing home and less likely to break a hip than people who go to a primary care physician, according to a study published in the August 10, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

11 Aug 2011

Arthritis sufferers are not involved in physical activity critical to their health: Study

Being physically active is one of best ways people with arthritis can improve their health, but a new study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shows that more than half of women and 40 percent of men with arthritis are virtually couch potatoes.

11 Aug 2011

Genetic culprit behind ovarian cancer discovered

A study has revealed that a single fault in a gene that normally helps the body to repair its DNA increases a woman's risk of ovarian cancer six-fold. One in every 11 women who carry the faulty gene is likely to develop ovarian cancer at some point in her life compared with a typical risk of about one in 70 for women in the general population, scientists said.

11 Aug 2011