The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) is set to launch a first-ever menopause mobile app, MenoPro, designed for use by both clinicians and patients to help manage menopausal symptoms and assess risk factors. An article about the app is published in the October 15th 2014 issue of Menopause. A release from NAMS explains that MenoPro… Continue reading Free Menopause Mobile App
Category: Women’s Health and Wellness
Women’s health + wellness refers to the treatment and diagnosis of conditions that can affect a woman’s physical and emotional well-being.
Making The Decision about Breast Implants
Should I get breast implants? Are there alternatives? Will they need to be replaced? No matter what your reason – medical or cosmetic – for getting breast implants, the subject can be confusing and even emotionally taxing. Here, experts from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tell you what you need to know both… Continue reading Making The Decision about Breast Implants
Females Ignored in Medical Research
Research done at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago has found that surgical researchers rarely use female animals or female cells in the research for their published studies, despite a huge body of evidence showing that gender differences can play a crucial role in medical research. The study was published August 28th 2014 in the journal Surgery. A “60 Minutes” segment aired in February about the problem of overlooking sex differences in biomedical research featuring Northwestern Medicine scientists Melina Kibbe M.D. and Teresa Woodruff.
GSM, New Term for Postmenopausal Problems
Talking about genital, sexual, and urinary problems can be uncomfortable for postmenopausal women and their doctors. Having a term that doesn’t carry stigma, isn’t embarrassing to say, and is medically accurate could go a long way in helping women get the help they need and allowing them to make smarter healthcare decisions. That term is “genitourinary syndrome of menopause” or GSM. The term was developed and endorsed by The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH).
Local Body Clock & Overactive Bladder
Researchers at the University of Surrey in the UK have discovered that the local biological clock and its control are weakened in aging bladders. The study, which explains how the receptors responsible for contractions in the bladder regulate the body’s clock genes, was published August 21st 2014 in The FASEB Journal. The team found that this clock activity in turn regulates the cycle of all cells in the body.
Many Menopausal Women Go to Anti-Aging Docs
Feeling that conventional doctors did not take their suffering seriously, women instead sought out hormonal treatments for menopausal symptoms from anti-aging clinicians, according to a sudy done at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Toward Tx for Interstitial Cystitis
A search for biomarkers is aimed at improving treatment of the painful bladder condition called interstitial cystitis (IC). Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem North Carolina are taking advantage of technology that can analyze tissue samples and measure the activity of thousands of genes at once.
What’s Your Bladder Telling You About Your Health?
How your bladder functions every day can tell you a lot about your overall health. How often you urinate during the day and during the night, the color of your urine and whether you can “hold it” all provide clues to health conditions that don’t involve your urinary system.
“Eighty percent of the causes of bladder problems are related to conditions outside of the bladder,” says urologist Raymond Rackley, MD. These can include problems with the nervous or cardiovascular systems, Rackley says.
So what should you look out for?
What to Expect and How to Prepare for Menopause
By Marni Andrews
There are a record number of North American women now entering a new period of their lives, menopause, which marks the official end of their reproductive period. Women are born with a finite number of eggs in their ovaries—by the time they reach their 50s, the number of fertile eggs has dropped significantly. When the remaining eggs are released, or hormones in the body can no longer stimulate their release, the body enters menopause. This generally happens between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age being around 51.
Female Boomers with Asthma Face Challenges
An article published in the August 2014 issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), outlines the challenges faced by older women in treating asthma, and offers practical solutions to improve their care.
Hysterectomy With Morcellation Poses Cancer Risk
Among women undergoing a minimally invasive hysterectomy using electric power morcellation, uterine cancers were present in 27 per 10,000 women at the time of the procedure, according to a study published July 22nd 2014 by JAMA. There has been concern that this procedure, in which the uterus is fragmented into smaller pieces, may result in the spread of undetected malignancies.
Toolkit to Diagnose Menopause
The “Practitioner Toolkit for Managing the Menopause”, designed to guide physicians in the management of menopausal conditions for women from the age of 40 has been designed by researchers at Monash University in Australia. The kit, which includes a diagnostic tool as well as a compendium of approved hormone therapies, was published on July 6th 2014 in the journal Climacteric.
Menopause Brain: What You Need to Know Beat the Odds
By Soriyya Bawa
As if hot flashes and irritability weren’t enough to handle, women going through menopause also worry about the risk of memory loss. Some of the common cognitive concerns relating to memory loss that are reported by women going through menopause include trouble with routine mental tasks and remembering what was once easily retrievable information. A lot of research has delved into evaluating the link between menopause and memory loss, and we’re now beginning to understand even more.
Watch: How to Treat An Overactive Bladder
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For Some Older Women, Calcium Supplements Up Risk of Kidney Stones
Calcium and vitamin D are commonly recommended for older women, but the usual supplements may send calcium excretion and blood levels too high for some women, according to a study published online June 18th 2014 in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society. Excess blood and urine calcium levels may lead to kidney stones or other problems. The study will be published in the November 2014 print edition of Menopause.
Are You Setting Off Your Hot Flashes?
By Gary Elkins
If you start taking note of your hot flashes, you may recognize some events, emotions, or activities that actually seem to contribute to, or “trigger,” the onset of a hot flash.
Scientifically speaking, while the physiology of hot flashes is associated with a decrease in estrogen level or an increase in gonadotropin concentrations, the actual physiological mechanism of hot flashes is not known.
Preventive Surgery Can Have Serious After-Effects
Women with the cancer-causing BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations have a number of serious issues that need to be monitored following preventive surgery, researchers say.
A study from the University of Pennsylvania examined the after-effects of a preventive hysterectomy – known as risk-reducing salpingo-oopherectomy (RRSO).
Non-Hormonal Hot Flash Remedy Works
A study done at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and published in the May 27th 2014 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine compared low-dose oral estrogen and low-dose non-hormonal venlafaxine hydrochloride extended release (XR) to a placebo. Both treatments proved to be effective in reducing the number of hot flashes and night sweats reported by menopausal women.