Women's Health News

Congolese Community Leaders Warned U.N. About Security; 240 Rape Victims Now Identified "Congolese community leaders say they begged local U.N. officials and army commanders to protect villagers days before rebels gang-raped scores of people, from a month-old baby boy to a 110-year-old great-great-grandmother," the Associated Press reports...

Elsevier announced the publication of four important position statements from the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas on common management problems in the post-reproductive health of women. The statements cover the management of the menopause in the context of obesity, epilepsy, endometriosis and premature ovarian failure...

Anxiety disorders afflict women twice as often as men, but estrogen might not be the reason. Testosterone, though, could be. That is one of the preliminary findings in the lab of Florida State University researcher Mohamed Kabbaj, associate professor in the College of Medicine. He recently was awarded a five-year, $1...

Court Accepts China's First HIV Discrimination Case, State Media Reports "A municipal court in central China has accepted the country's first lawsuit alleging work discrimination because of HIV status, state media reported Tuesday," the Associated Press reports (8/31)...

Specific prevention and education strategies are needed to address breast cancer in Mexican-origin women in this country, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which was published online in the journal Cancer...

When breast cancer surgeons regularly confer with plastic surgeons prior to surgery, their patients are more likely to have reconstruction, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Where a woman goes for breast cancer treatment can vary widely - ranging from small private practices to large hospital settings...

Ovatech, an emerging women's health-focused company, announced that the Company's Phase 2 clinical study of its non-hormonal, intravaginal contraceptive ring, Ovaprene, has been successfully completed...

Girls are hitting puberty earlier and earlier. One recent study found that more than 10 percent of American girls have some breast development by age 7. This news has upset many people, but it may make evolutionary sense in some cases for girls to develop faster, according to the authors of a new paper published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science...

A new study conducted by a Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researcher, together with a researcher from De-Paul University, reveals that women in the United States generally derive more happiness from religious participation than from shopping on Sundays...

A 51-year-old breast cancer patient from Switzerland has become the first person in the world to be treated using Gated RapidArc®, which makes it possible to monitor patient breathing and compensate for tumor motion while quickly delivering radiotherapy during a continuous rotation around the patient...

A common mineral may provide protection against bladder cancer. According to results of a study published in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, selenium intake is associated with decreased risk of bladder cancer...

Women with the inherited mutations of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes who had preventive (prophylactic) breast removal (mastectomy) or the removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries (salpingo-oophorectomy) were found to have a significantly lower risk of developing ovarian and breast cancers, says a study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), September 1st issue...

The incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Italy sharply increased, particularly among young women, between the years 2001 and 2005, according to a comprehensive study funded by the Human Health Foundation (HHF), a nonprofit Italian charity for biomedical research and health education in Spoleto, Italy. The results were published in Aging Clinical Experimental Research...

Ahead of next month's U.N. Summit in New York, a joint U.N.-NGO conference tracking the world's progress toward reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday, ABC News reports (8/30)...

Pediatricians who provide primary care to adolescent girls will often address gynecologic issues, including questions related to puberty, menstrual disorders, contraception, sexually-transmitted infections and other infections. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) promotes the inclusion of the gynecologic exam in the primary care setting...

New research from the University of Chicago found that many middle-aged and older Americans with diabetes are sexually active but more likely to experience sexual problems compared with counterparts without diabetes...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday condemned the mass rape of women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo and vowed U.S. help, Reuters reports (Allen, 8/26)...

In portraying a teenage character's decision to have an abortion, the NBC show "Friday Night Lights" "tackled the very forces that have so effectively stifled discussion of abortion as a viable option for women, both on TV and real life," Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup writes in an opinion piece in The Nation...

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Stem Cells, Politics and the Law," Michael Tomasky, The Guardian's "Michael Tomasky's Blog": The main issue in this week's embryonic stem cell ruling is "the direct connection between a ruling like this ... and the way the GOP plays politics in the U.S. Senate," according to columnist Tomasky...

Nurse-Family Partnership®, a leading non-profit organization addressing the needs of low income, first-time parents and their children, has received a $210,000 grant from the WellPoint Foundation. The WellPoint Foundation, a private, non-profit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc...

Cost but not convenience plays a significant role in attitudes about vaccination for common human papillomaviruses for women over the age of 26, according to the authors of a recent article in the journal Sexual Health. Currently, the two vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the primary cause of cervical cancer, are U.S...

A mother who breastfed her children has a considerably lower risk of developing Diabetes Type 2 when she is older, compared to a woman who had children but never breastfed, according to an article published in the American Journal of Medicine...

This legislative session, Arizona lawmakers and Gov. Jan Brewer (R) enacted several laws that affect reproductive rights, including a measure that prohibits municipalities from offering abortion coverage in their health insurance plans, the Arizona Republic reports. The laws took effect July 29...

Births rates have declined in several states, a trend experts link to the uncertain economic outlook and high unemployment rate, NPR's "All Things Considered" reports. Recent data indicate that Illinois' birth rate is at its lowest level since the Great Depression, with similar trends appearing in California and Arizona...