Just like death and taxes, one sure thing in [a woman’s] life is menopause. Typically occurring in their late 40s and early 50s, women can experience a whole host of physical symptoms, chief among them weight gain and hot flashes

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Symptoms of Menopause Can Be Relieved by Weight Loss

As your biological clock ticks down, it will no longer be a guessing game as to when the clock hits zero. Now you can find out exactly, within four months, when menopause will begin and fertility will end

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Predicting the Future: Test Developed to Pinpoint Age of Menopause

As your biological clock ticks down, it will no longer be a guessing game as to when the clock hits zero. Now you can find out exactly, within four months, when menopause will begin and fertility will end

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Predicting the Future: Test Developed to Pinpoint Age of Menopause

While the average age for women entering menopause is currently 51, it is not uncommon for women to begin in their early forties. And while many may believe it a blessing to experience an early menopause, it can also be a detriment, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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Increased Risk of Heart Disease Linked to Early Menopause

I think we have all long known what John Gray put down in words in his bestseller, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus : There are differences between the sexes, not just physically, but psychologically. And a new study being published in the May issue of Personality Individual Differences reinforces that belief. read more

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Do Women Have a Hard-Wired Aversion to Obesity?

The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) has published a position statement on the impact of the life style factors  obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption on natural and medically assisted reproduction.

In a literature study the ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law summarised the negative effects of obesity, smoking and drinking on the natural reproductive potential of patients, on IVF results, pregnancy complications and outcomes and finally on the health of the future child. The paper is published online today (19 January 2010) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction (1). The group made five recommendations.

1. In view of the risks for the future child, fertility doctors should refuse treatment to women used to more than moderate drinking and who are not willing or able to minimize their alcohol consumption.
2. Treating women with severe or morbid obesity required special justification. The available data suggested that weight loss would incur in a positive reproductive effect, although more data was needed to establish whether assisted reproduction should be made conditional upon prior life-style changes for obese and smoking females.
3. Assisted reproduction should only be conditional upon life style changes, if there was strong evidence that without behavioural modifications there was a risk of serious harm to the child or that the treatment became disproportional in terms of cost-effectiveness or obstetric risks.
4. When making assisted reproduction conditional upon life style modifications, fertility doctors should help patients to achieve the necessary results.
5. More data on obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption as well as other life style factors were necessary to assess reproductive effects. Fertility doctors should continue research in this area.

ESHRE acknowledged that this was a complex issue due to personal, patient, professional and societal responsibilities and also in terms of what these responsibilities meant with regard to safety of mother and child and fair and equitable access to treatment. The respect for patient autonomy needed to be balanced with the moral weight of the interests of society and the future child.

Obesity

According to the group obesity negatively affected reproductive potential through interference with hormonal and metabolic mechanisms leading to lower ovulation frequency and reduced chances of conception. The risk of gestational  diabetes increased from twofold in overweight women to eightfold for morbidly obese women. The infants of obese mothers were at risk of perinatal death, congenital abnormalities such as neural tube defects (80% increase) and cardiovascular anomalies (30% increase).

Smoking

The risk of  infertility was thought to be twice as high in smokers compared to non-smokers. Female smokers needed more time to become pregnant, were less likely to do so spontaneously and had a higher risk of miscarriage. Having an accelerating effect on oocyte depletion, smoking was suggested to lead to an increase in 10 years with regards to IVF outcome. Lower birth weight, a higher risk of oral facial clefts and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome were associated with maternal smoking. Male smokers were at risk of producing sperm of reduced quality and concentration.

Alcohol Consumption

Reduced conception, lower pregnancy rates and higher miscarriage rates were suggested as adverse effects of alcohol consumption. The known effects of alcohol consumption were summarised under Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) such as physical anomalies and behavioural and cognitive deficits. Other risks associated with prenatal alcohol consumption were foetal death, preterm labour and compromised foetal growth.

(1) ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law 17: Life style related factors and access to medically-assisted reproduction. Human Reproduction Journal doi: 10.1093/humrep/dep458

Source: Hanna Hanssen
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 

The National Cervical Cancer Coalition (NCCC) was formed in 1997, and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to service women with, or at risk for, cervical cancer and HPV disease.

Some facts about cervical cancer can be seen below. Cervical cancer screening saves lives, yet:

• 11% of U.S. women report that they do not have regular cervical cancer screenings.
• In the U.S., about 14,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer disease each year, and more than 3,900 women die in the USA each year from this disease.
• Women in developing countries account for about 85% ofboth the yearly cases of cervical cancer and the yearly deaths from cervical cancer.
• In the majority of developing countries, cervical cancer remains the number one cause of cancer-related deaths among women.
• A woman who does not have cervical cancer screening on a regular basis significantly increases her chances of developing cervical cancer.
• High-Risk HPV Types are directly related to cervical cancer, yet many women are unaware of what HPV is or the relationship it has to cervical cancer disease.
• Cervical cancer follow-up programs are very important.The Pap smear is a screening test. A single pap is not a diagnostic test. It is the ongoing repetition of routine cervical cancer screenings that help to increase the accuracy of the Pap smear results. The data captured in a Pap exam can be turned into information that can provide knowledge to improve patient outcomes and enhance our ability to better manage patients through population-based risk management assessment.

Pomegranate juice could be the next estrogen-responsive breast cancer treatment. A new lab study has demonstrated promising results when evaluating the use of pomegranate juice, a juice rich in antioxidants, as a way of fighting off and preventing breast cancer. More than 75 percent of all breast cancer cases are fed by estrogen and there are over 400,000 women dieing annually, around the world, from breast cancer.Researchers with Ohio State University focused on the benefits of pomegranates in the breast cancer fight. The team discovered the large red fruit filled with juicy seeds naturally produces a chemical known as ellagic acid, which seems to help slow and even prevent the growth of cancer cells in breast tissue. According to researchers, the pomegranate has recently been noted for its antioxidants and potential cancer fighting attributes, as well as its heart healthy benefits. However, the study recently published in Cancer Prevention Research is the first to take a look at the affects of the pomegranate on breast cancer and aromatase, an enzyme that plays a key role in making estrogen and promoting the growth of breast cancer. In a lab, the team studied the effects of ten ellagitannin-derived compounds produced by pomegranates, which are thought to potentially prevent estrogen-related breast cancer. They considered the effects of the ten compounds on the growth of breast cancer cells and aromatase activity. Of the ten ellagitannin-derived compounds studied, the researchers discovered urolithin B was the standout in the fight against breast cancer.

Researchers have created a scale called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity scale (ORAC) which measures the antioxidant level in fruits and vegetables. Dr. David Hnida, a CBS3 medical editor said, “The higher the number on the scale, the more antioxidants and disease-fighting chemicals in the food.” Researchers have measured antioxidant levels in over 200 different fruits and vegetables. Those at the top of the list include blueberries, plums, blackberries, raspberries, dark grapes, apples and strawberries.

While experts aren’t recommending substituting pomegranates for prescribed medicine yet, we may see the fruit being used in breast cancer treatment and prevention efforts eventually. Many experts in the cancer field see the test results as very promising. However, according to Powel Brown, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the clinical cancer prevention department at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who was not involved in the pomegranate and breast cancer study, “More research on the individual components and the combination of chemicals is needed to understand the potential risks and benefits of using pomegranate juice or isolated compounds for a health benefit or for cancer prevention.” In the meantime, women may want to add a daily pomegranate to their daily diet as an extra effort to ward off the leading form of cancer found in women.

Depression—it’s more than an occasional down-in-the-dumps feeling. It’s a low mood, despair or hopelessness that lasts for weeks, months, or even longer. In fact, most health professionals today consider depression a chronic illness that requires long-term treatment, much like diabetes or high blood pressure. The most common treatments are psychotherapy and antidepressants ,which work to correct the chemical imbalance in the brain thought to cause depression. There are several different classifications of antidepressants, depending on which brain chemical the drug affects. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase the production of serotonin in the brain; monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) block monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters. All antidepressants have some side effects, the most common being headache, nausea, constipation, dry mouth, agitation and sexual problems. But most occur in the early weeks of therapy and lessen over time.

However, some side effects can be serious. In October 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed manufacturers to add a boxed warning, the most serious type of warning used on prescription drugs, to the labeling of all antidepressant medications to alert the public about the increased risk of suicidal thinking or suicide attempts by children and adolescents taking antidepressants. In May 2007, after a more detailed analysis of antidepressant clinical trials, the FDA directed that the warning be extended to include young adults up through age 24.

Earlier this year, a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concluded that women with no history of cardiac problems but who used antidepressants are at heightened risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD), though the exact reason for the link remains unclear. And most recently, a report published in the December 14 Archives of Internal Medicine shows that postmenopausal women who take antidepressants have an increased risk of stroke and death compared to women of the same age who don’t take the drugs.

For the study, researchers looked at data from 136,293 women who participated in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) of the National Institutes of Health, a 15-year study of more than 160,000 U.S. women to examine risk factors for and potential preventative measures against cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis. At enrollment, none of the participants were taking antidepressants but at their first follow-up visit, either one or three years after study entry, about 5,500 reported currently taking an antidepressant. Six years later, the researchers compared that group’s subsequent history of cardiovascular disease with that of the remaining participants who had not started taking antidepressants.

While there was no difference in the rates of heart attacks, those taking antidepressants were 45 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than the participants not taking the medications. No difference in stroke risk was found between the two major classes of antidepressants, SSRIs or tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). However, there did appear to be a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke caused by a bleed in the brain in SSRI users. When overall death rates were examined, those on antidepressants were found to have a 32 percent higher risk of death from all causes than non-users. However, because depression itself is known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular problems, it remains unclear whether taking anti-depressants is solely responsible for the increased risk of stroke.

“Although these results raise concerns about adverse effects of antidepressants, it is important to note that depression itself has been implicated as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, early death, and other adverse outcomes,” said lead author Dr. Jordan W. Smoller, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. “In addition, inadequately treated depression is associated with substantial disability, impairments in quality of life, and health care costs.”

Joanne Murphy, Research Liaison Officer for The Stroke Association, said that while the study did seem to show a link between antidepressants and stroke, the overall risk is relatively small. “We are already aware of links between depression and the risk of stroke and we are currently funding further studies to look into this,” she said. “Everyone can help reduce their risk of stroke by making lifestyle changes, such as reducing their blood pressure, giving up smoking, reducing alcohol intake, improving their diet and getting plenty of exercise.” Murphy stressed that “anyone who is at all concerned should consult their GP.”