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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 7:00am CST
Removal of the ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy) while performing a hysterectomy is common practice to prevent the subsequent development of ovarian cancer. This prophylactic procedure is performed in 55 percent of all US women having a hysterectomy, or approximately 300,000 times each year...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 7:00am CST
A recent Kansas State University study found that the availability of supermarkets -- rather than the lack of them -- increased the risk of obesity for low-income women living in small cities. This suggests that policies to increase healthful eating behaviors might need to be tailored based on geographic location...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 5:00am CST
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) on Monday signed a bill (HB 462) that would allow prosecutors to bring criminal homicide charges against women who arrange illegal abortions, the Salt Lake Tribune reports (Gehrke, Salt Lake Tribune, 3/8). An earlier version of the bill (HB 12), sponsored by state Rep...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 5:00am CST
The New York Times on Tuesday examined efforts to increase rates of vaginal births after caesarean sections at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, a small hospital run by the Navajo Nation and financed partially by the Indian Health Services...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 5:00am CST
Marking International Women's Day at the White House Monday, President Barack Obama vowed to fight for gender equality at home and abroad, Agence France-Presse reports. The president marked the event with First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, AFP reports...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 5:00am CST
2010 To Be 'Decisive Year' For Global Health, Global Fund Director Says In a BusinessDay opinion piece, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine reflects on the organization's progress and impact on global health outcomes since its creation in 2002, as detailed in the organizations' 2010 annual report...
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Posted: March 10th, 2010, 4:00am CST
The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Stupak's Abortion Argument: Still More About Class Than Choice": Washington Post's "Ezra Klein": The "practical effect" of Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 7:00am CST
A new study suggests a trend toward developing hyperactivity among typically developing elementary-school-aged siblings of autistic preschoolers and supports the notion that mothers of young, autistic children experience more depression and stress than mothers with typically developing children...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 7:00am CST
Under a $7.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Rush University Medical Center is developing a novel program, called WISHFIT, to help pre-menopausal women reduce visceral fat through a sustained increase in physical activity and reduction in stress...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 6:00am CST
Washington, D.C., soon will become the first city in the U.S. to distribute female condoms at no charge, the Washington Post reports...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 6:00am CST
In a New York Times letter to the editor published on Monday, Guttmacher Institute President and Chief Executive Sharon Camp calls for the U.S. to "get serious about providing better health care and more educational and economic opportunities for black women...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 6:00am CST
"Nearly 100 million women across Asia have 'disappeared' because of a huge and growing gender gap that has fatally deprived them of access to health care and food and has led to widespread abortions of female fetuses, according to a U.N. report released Monday," the Associated Press reports. The U.N...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 5:00am CST
On International Women's Day, Politico published two opinion pieces discussing the benefits of U.S. aid to support women overseas. ~ Dana Perino, Politico: "Empowering one woman is an investment in the future of families and countries," Perino -- a former press secretary to President George W. Bush -- writes in an opinion piece discussing her work with Women ONE2ONE in Africa...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 4:00am CST
A new study from the US found that normal weight women in their 40s and older who drank a light to moderate amount of alcohol gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming obese and overweight compared to their non-drinking counterparts...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 4:00am CST
In a Washington Post opinion piece on Sunday, freelance writer Jamie Rich examined the Cameroonian practice of breast ironing, in which women use heated plantain leaves or hot stones to "flatten adolescent girls' developing breasts, intending to protect the girls from the dangers of sex, consensual or otherwise...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 4:00am CST
By 2015, mother-to-child HIV transmission will be virtually eliminated and deaths from malaria and tuberculosis will continue to decline if health investments for the diseases are maintained or scaled up, according to an annual results report published Monday by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Agence France-Presse/Africasia.com reports (3/8)...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 2:00am CST
Community support groups can reduce neonatal mortality, and lower rates of maternal depression-provided that the population coverage is wide enough and the programmes are appropriately designed. These are the conclusions of two Articles, published Online First in The Lancet. Participatory women's groups have shown promise in trials in Nepal, reducing neonatal mortality by about one-third...
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 2:00am CST
Hormone replacement therapy, commonly known as HRT is a treatment used to replace hormones that the body is no longer producing because of the menopause. The hormones that need replacing are estrogen and progesterone. The therapy is based on the notion that the treatment may prevent discomfort caused by diminished circulating estrogen and progesterone hormones...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 11:00am CST
Today, on International Women's Day, the world reflects on how to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and girls. Everyone must fight against discrimination and inequalities that compromise the health of women and girls around the world...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 6:00am CST
Women's community groups have had a dramatic effect on reducing neonatal mortality rates in some of the poorest areas on India, according to a study published in the journal the Lancet. The groups provide a cost-effective intervention with added benefits such as reducing significantly maternal depression and improving decision-making amongst the women...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 5:00am CST
"Last week in Guatemala I visited a UNICEF centre that houses girls as young as thirteen who have been rescued from brothels. The stories of suffering are simply unimaginable -- horrific situations of rape, prostitution, torture and lost innocence...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 3:00am CST
A bill (SF 2645) in the Minnesota Legislature would require each school district to create an "abstinence-first" sex education curriculum with "age-appropriate" lessons on human sexuality and information about condoms and other contraceptives, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 3:00am CST
WHO Bulletin Examines Communicable Diseases In Southeast Asia The WHO's March Bulletin is a special themed issue focusing on communicable diseases in Southeast Asia. The publication addresses tuberculosis, cholera, neglected tropical diseases and family planning in the region (March 2010)...
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Posted: March 8th, 2010, 2:00am CST
Two articles published Online First in The Lancet report that community support groups can reduce neonatal mortality. In addition, they can lower rates of maternal depression, provided that the population coverage is wide enough and the programs are suitably designed. In trials in Nepal, participatory women's groups have shown promise. Neonatal mortality was reduced by about one-third...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 8:00am CST
"U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked International Women's Day Wednesday calling for gender equality and the empowerment of women, saying that until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice; peace, security and sustainable development stand in jeopardy," VOA News reports. Though the international community will officially mark the occasion next Monday, the U.N...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 8:00am CST
Philippines' Health Secretary Seeks To Boost Condom Distribution After Increase In HIV Diagnoses The Philippines' Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral on Thursday announced she would seek additional public funds to support the distribution of condoms among high-risk groups, after the country recorded 143 new cases of HIV in January - its highest number of diagnoses i...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 7:00am CST
The following summarizes recent action in Colorado and Wyoming related to a "personhood" initiative and bills addressing crimes against pregnant women...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 7:00am CST
"Last week, 21 Idaho senators injected themselves into private, painful decisions about conception, abortion and euthanasia" by advancing a bill (SB 1353) that would shield health care professionals from liability if they "decline to provide services that violate their conscience," an Idaho Statesman editorial states...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 7:00am CST
Birth control use in three rural areas of Afghanistan increased over an eight-month period after health workers explained the benefits of contraception in individual counseling sessions, according to a report published Monday in the World Health Organization's journal Bulletin, the AP/Yahoo! News reports...
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 7:00am CST
The Uzbek human rights group Najot and the Expert Working Group, an independent Uzbek think tank, alleged this week that Uzbekistan's Health Ministry has instructed government doctors to perform hysterectomies on women to help control the nation's population, the AP/Google reports...