Women's Health Issues

This article opens with a story about 55-year-old Elise Bloustein, who at age 38 became pregnant with her first child. She found out that she had gestational diabetes and ever since then, even though she has not yet developed diabetes, has been following a strict diet and has annual physicals to check for any signs of diabetes.

The article goes on to talk about the rise in incidence of gestational diabetes in American women since 1990.

This is an interesting article because it examines the possible causes of the rise in incidence of gestational diabetes (one being the rise in prepregnancy weight among American women), the effects gestational diabetes has on the unborn baby, risk factors for gestational diabetes, etc

Posted by crib0003 at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the November 2008 issue of Women's Health Magazine, they had a long feature article that was like a service-piece listing their "top picks" for the best doctors for women in the following areas:
-Cardiology and Internal Medicine
-Obstetrics & Gynecology
-Dermatology
-Endocrinology
-Neurology
-Oncology
-Gastroenterology
-Orthopedics/sports medicine
-Psychiatry
-Reproductive Medicine and Infertility

Want to know how the people at Women's Health made their choices? You can see this here

Posted by crib0003 at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Apparently, the answer is false.

This week, in "The Claim" column, New York Times' columnist Anahad O'Connor took a look at the claim that after having a miscarriage, a woman is more fertile than before the miscarriage.

"The Bottom Line" stated that there is no evidence that fertility is greater for a woman after a miscarriage

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/health/14real.html?_r=2&ref=health&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Posted by crib0003 at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is an interesting article looking at the shift in the demographics of women who are having abortions. The Guttmacher Institute released a study Tuesday that looked at trends since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade was passed. The study found that abortion rates overall have dropped steadily since 1981 and that the demographics of women having abortions today are older and more likely to be mothers and minorities.

The study also found that while the teen abortion rate (18-19 year-olds) dropped nearly 30 percent, the abortion rate for women ages 20-24 is higher than it was in 1974, however is also declining steadily following a spike in the rates in 1989.

Posted by crib0003 at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New research shows that women are less likely than men to be diagnosed with heart disease when stress is listed as a symptom.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/just-stress-more-often-diagnosed-in-women/

The studies, using multiple case studies of men and women, showed that there was no difference in the advice doctors gave to men and women when the case study in question only involved standard heart symptoms. However, when stress was listed as a symptom, doctors were less likely to suggest physical causes and more likely to suggest psychological causes as the source of their symptoms. There were no changes in assessment when men listed stress as a symptom.

Posted by crib0003 at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group that works to defend and protect women's reproductive rights worldwide, is suing the state of Oklahoma over a law that is set to go into effect Nov. 1, which requires women to have an ultrasound and view their unborn fetus before being allowed to have an abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights says that the law "intrudes on privacy, endangers health and assaults dignity."

Oklahoma would be the fourth state to adopt such laws if it goes into effect. The other three states with similar laws are Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

The story is found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/11abort.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Posted by crib0003 at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A new CDC study out based on a 2007 telephone survey found that 1 out of 4 U.S. teenage girls received at least one of the three-shot series.

You can read the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-MED-Teen-Vaccinations.html?ref=health

The article also mentions other teenage vaccinations that the CDC covered including the meningitis vaccination and a new one that guards against tetanus, diphtheria and the whooping cough.

Posted by crib0003 at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This may be considered "old news" considering it took place on September 22, 2008, but there is a lot of information on the conference on the U of M's Deborah E. Powell Center for Women's Health website.

The conference focused on women's reproductive health and many students, health care professionals and researchers were in attendance.

Visit the website to read abstracts from the conference.
http://www.womenshealth.umn.edu/2008whrc/

On a side note: on the site in the News and Upcoming Events section, it lists upcoming events pertaining to women's health at the U and the surrounding area.

Posted by crib0003 at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/health/research/07baby.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Flu season is fast approaching, so this article seemed very relevant. The article by Nicholas Bakalar which was published today focuses on a new clinical study that showed, for the first time, that flu vaccines administered to pregnant women also provide immunity to their newborns. While the article and the study's results are extremely interesting, what I found the most interesting is that the article ends by letting the readers know that the study was partially supported by money from two pharmaceutical companies.

Posted by crib0003 at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)