Women's Health News

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Obesity in mothers affects growth of children

Pregnant women who are overweight or obese can encounter a host of health complications. The added weight also appears to affect how their children grow and develop, at least initially.

7 Aug 2012

Creatine may fight major depression in women

Women battling stubborn major depression may have a surprising new ally in their fight—the muscle-building dietary supplement creatine.

7 Aug 2012

Roundup: Other states watching Mass. effort to cut costs; Iowa official denies GOP lawmakers' demand on abortion

As Massachusetts launches an aggressive effort to contain health care spending, the rest of the country will be watching. On July 31, lawmakers passed first-in-the-nation legislation pegging healthcare expenditures at or below the state's overall rate of economic growth, a strategy officials estimate could save Massachusetts as much as $200 billion over the next 15 years.

7 Aug 2012

Human-derived breast cancer xenografts allow revolution in individualized cancer care

Cell cultures are homogeneous. Human tumors are not. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment reports the development of human-derived estrogen-positive (ER+) breast cancer models that retain their heterogeneity, allowing researchers to more accurately test drugs for this disease.

6 Aug 2012

U.N. urges Philippines to pass reproductive health bill amid protests from Catholic Church

"The United Nations has urged the Philippines to pass a bill that will allow the government to provide free contraceptives," BBC News reports (8/5).

6 Aug 2012

Planned cesarean delivery for breech births associated with significantly lower neonatal mortality

Vaginal delivery for early preterm fetuses presenting head first, or vertex presentation, had a high rate of success with no difference in neonatal mortality compared to cesarean delivery, a new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology reports. For breech births, however, the failure rate of vaginal delivery was high and planned cesarean delivery was associated with significantly lower neonatal mortality.

6 Aug 2012

Blog examines impact of adolescent pregnancy in South Asia

As part of its monthly series Stories Behind the Statistics, "guest edited by FHI 360 on behalf of USAID'S IYWG, which provides technical leadership to improve the reproductive and sexual health of young people," the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog features a story by Gaj Bahadur Gurung, program coordinator for the National Federation of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Nepal, who discusses the impact of adolescent pregnancy on girls and young women in South Asia.

6 Aug 2012

Montefiore launches first fellowship program in Women's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Montefiore Medical Center has launched the nation's first fellowship program in Women's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (WPM&R), and established a new clinical program in this specialty.

6 Aug 2012

Risky prenatal use of steroid to prevent intersex, tomboys and lesbians

A new paper just published in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry uses extensive Freedom of Information Act findings to detail an extremely troubling off-label medical intervention employed in the U.S. on pregnant women to intentionally engineer the development of their fetuses for sex normalization purposes.

3 Aug 2012

Summer camp pairs 'smores and anti-abortion activism

State news on abortion focuses on a summer camp that trains anti-abortion activists and a Kansas City Planned Parenthood whose charges of performing illegal late-term abortions were dismissed in order to narrow a case against it.

3 Aug 2012

DNA inherited from mother can speed up male ageing

Women outlive men by about five to six years but why? By age 85 there are roughly six women to every four men and by age 100 the ratio is more than two to one.

3 Aug 2012

Obama pushes record on women's issues

President Barack Obama's talking points on the campaign trail highlight his positions on women's health issues including his support for Planned Parenthood.

3 Aug 2012

Komen ads overstate benefits of mammograms, professors charge

Two Dartmouth health policy experts criticize the national breast cancer charity for using misleading statistics to promote breast cancer screening.

3 Aug 2012

Giving antibiotics just before cesarean section prevents infections

Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn's umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

3 Aug 2012

Birth control coverage mandate impacts doctors, women, religious groups

Physicians say they -- rather than insurers -- will feel the burden of the rule. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress stay relatively quiet on the requirement, but tensions continue among Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

3 Aug 2012

Alcohol decreases turnover of bone in post-menopausal women

Women after menopause tend to develop weaker bones from what is known as osteoporosis, which may lead to fractures (especially hip fractures) from falling. The weakness of the bones results from an imbalance between the normal resorption (a type of dissolving of old bone) and the laying down of new bone, an ongoing process for both men and women referred to as "bone turnover."

3 Aug 2012

Study finds evidence that smoking cessation is more difficult for women than men

A recent study challenged an enduring belief that women were less successful than men in quitting smoking. The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found convincing evidence that across all of the age groups, "there is relatively little difference in cessation between the sexes."

3 Aug 2012

Clinton tours health center in Senegal's capital on first stop of 10-day Africa trip

On the first stop of a 10-day tour of Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped at the Phillipe Maguilen Senghor Health Center in Dakar, Senegal, where Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the country's Minister of Health, "explained to Secretary Clinton how these operational centers dramatically improve maternal and child health," according to a post in USAID's "IMPACTblog."

3 Aug 2012

Composition of microbes in the gut changes dramatically during pregnancy

The composition of microbes in the gut changes dramatically during pregnancy, according to a study published by Cell Press in the August 3rd issue of the journal Cell. Although these changes are associated with metabolic disease under most circumstances, they could be beneficial in pregnant women.

3 Aug 2012

Iced tea can lead to formation of kidney stones

This is the peak season for drinking iced tea, but a Loyola University Medical Center urologist is warning the popular drink can contribute to painful kidney stones.

3 Aug 2012