Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS D.C. Health Dept. Pushes Female Condoms In HIV Outreach Initiative The Washington, D.C., health department has launched a campaign to promote use of the female condom as a way to help curb the spread of HIV in the city, the AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. A 2009 study found that about 3% of the city's population over age 12 is HIV-positive...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PDT  Sexual Health / STDs More Research Needed To Address Female Sexual Dysfunction, Report Says Women who experience sexual dysfunction or female orgasm disorder do not have enough treatments or medications to address the issue, according to a report published recently in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Live Science/MSNBC reports. According to Live Science/MSNBC, one out of every four women has trouble reaching orgasm during sex...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:00:00 PDT  Mental Health Study Reveals Nearly 1 In 5 Californians Report Need For Mental Health Services In a comprehensive new study of mental health status and the use of mental health services by Californians, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that nearly one in five adults in the state - about 4.9 million people - said they needed help for a mental or emotional health problem...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:00:00 PDT  Breast Cancer Breakthrough Breast Cancer Identifies Potential New Treatment Which Could Help 800 Scottish Women Each Year Scientists from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh have discovered a potential new way to treat a common form of breast cancer which affects 800 Scottish women and 9,000 UK women each year. The team are the first to identify a gene's key role in causing the spread of HER2 positive breast cancer to other parts of the body...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology Decision-Aid Program Increases Safety For Women Experiencing Abuse Intimate partner violence results in 2 million injuries among women in the U.S. each year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. University of Missouri researchers are reducing these numbers with a new Web-based program that helps women experiencing abuse develop individualized safety plans and better assess the severity of their situations...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology Home Visits, Classes And Emotional Support From Therapists Improve Parenting Of Abusive Mothers Mothers who live in poverty and who have abused their children can stop if they are taught parenting skills and given emotional support...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PDT  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness New NICE Guidance On Weight Management Before, During And After Pregnancy Women should be encouraged to achieve a healthy weight before they become pregnant and advised that there is no need to 'eat for two' when pregnant. These are just two of the recommendations included in new public health guidance published by NICE on dietary and physical activity interventions for weight management before, during and after pregnancy...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS Successful Microbicide Trial Prompts Questions About Future Research, Use Following results of a trial in which a microbicide gel lowered a woman's risk of HIV by 39%, health experts are considering how to make the treatment more effective and what its applications might be, the New York Times reports (McNeil, New York Times, 7/26)...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology Blogs Comment On Global HIV Policy, N.J. Family Planning Bill, Other Topics The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology 63% Of Women Report Sexual Problems With Orgasm Proving Biggest Issue In Teens And 20s Almost two-thirds of females attending a general urology practice reported that they suffered from sexual dysfunction, according to a paper in the August issue of BJUI. Dysfunction rose with age in all categories except orgasm, with more than half of women aged from 18 to 30 reporting orgasm problems, significantly higher than women aged 31 to 54...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology Moms And Kids Endangered By One-Size-Fits-All Approach To Child Custody Do child custody evaluators' beliefs about domestic violence sometimes put divorced women and children in danger? A new University of Illinois study reveals that evaluator's beliefs generally fall into two categories, and one group is far more likely to prioritize safety for women and children when making custody decisions. "Some evaluators see conflict as a natural part of relationships...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology More Than Half Of Irish Women Would Split Their Maternity Leave With Their Partner If They Could, According To New Research Three in five younger women (61%) would be happy to split their maternity leave with their partner if the option was available, according to a new nationwide survey of 1000 women commissioned by QUINN-healthcare. 49% of mothers over 35 years would also like this opportunity...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS Global Fund Director Calls On Emerging Countries To Invest More In Programs To Reduce HIV/AIDS, TB And Malaria At AIDS 2010 On the final day of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 Friday, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria called upon "China, India and other fast-growing economies" to chip in to help close the funding gap in efforts to battle HIV/AIDS, Agence France-Presse reports...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS AIDS 2010 Opinions: U.S. Funding For Global HIV/AIDS Programs; Empowering Women, Girls In Fight Against HIV/AIDS Global Health Leaders Respond To Recent New York Times' Opinion Pieces Two global health leaders respond to AIDS-related opinion pieces in the New York Times letters section. The first letter, Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, addresses an opinion piece by Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and honorary chairman of the Global AIDS Alliance...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:00:00 PDT  Sexual Health / STDs Interest Groups Lobby For, Against Inclusion Of Birth Control On List Of No-Cost Preventive Services Interest groups are seeking to influence the Obama administration's decision on whether to include birth control on the supplemental list of women's preventive services that health insurers will be required to cover without out-of-pocket costs for the consumer, CQ Weekly reports (Ethridge, CQ Weekly, 7/26)...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS NIH's Fauci Discusses Research On Microbicidal Gel, HIV Prevention Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, hailed the development of a microbicidal gel that has shown promise in combating HIV infection in clinical tests, but said that scientists "must continue to pursue a range of HIV prevention modalitites," CQ HealthBeat reports...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:00:00 PDT  Fertility Fertility Clinics Seek To Improve Access By Lowering Costs, Increasing Providers Some fertility clinics are offering in vitro fertilization at lower costs to make the treatments more accessible to patients who could not otherwise afford them, Newsweek reports. A study by the European Society of Human Reproductive and Embryology found that the average cost of infertility treatment in the U.S. is about $13,775, compared with $4,012 in Japan and $3,109 in Belgium...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Sexual Health / STDs Videos Discuss N.Y. Reproductive Health Bill, HIV Research The following summarizes selected women's health related videos. NARAL N.Y. Pressures State Sens.: NARAL Pro-Choice New York President Kelli Conlin appeared on NY 1 to discuss why the group refuses to endorse any incumbent state senators until the chamber acts on the Reproductive Health Act (A 11484, S 5808), which would codify the protections of Roe v. Wade in New York...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Fertility Why The Medical Research Council Didn't Fund Research That Led To The Birth Of The World's First Test Tube Baby Thirty-two years ago today, the world's first baby was born after in vitro fertilisation. However, the work that led to the birth of Louise Brown on 25 July 1978 had to be privately funded after the UK's Medical Research Council decided in 1971 against providing the Cambridge physiologist Robert Edwards and the Oldham gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe with long-term financial support...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:00:00 PDT  Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine Einstein Receives $4 Million To Test HPV Microbicide The National Cancer Institute has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University $4.1 million to test the microbicide Carraguard® against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. The research will evaluate the efficacy of Carraguard®, a clear gel made from the seaweed derivative carrageenan in preventing new HPV infections in women...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology Repros Therapeutics Receives Investigational Review Board Approval To Commence Low Dose For Proellex(R) Study At ICON Site Repros Therapeutics Inc. (NasdaqCM:RPRX) announced it has received IRB approval to commence the low dose Proellex® study. The contract for clinical services was previously awarded to ICON. The new low dose study is designed to explore both safety and signals of efficacy in an escalating dose fashion...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:00:00 PDT  Pregnancy / Obstetrics New Guidelines OK Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) In a bid to bring down the high rate of cesarean delivery in the US, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has eased the guidelines on vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC, pronounced "veebac") and declared it is a safe and appropriate choice for most women who have had a cesarean, and even for some who have had two...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:00:00 PDT  HIV / AIDS WHO Updates Recommendations To Reduce Mother-To-Child HIV Infection The World Health Organization issued updated guidelines for improving efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV by testing women earlier in their pregnancies and testing and treating infants sooner after their births, the Wall Street Journal reports. Eliminating mother-to-child HIV infections by 2015 is a major goal for WHO, UNAIDS and other public health organizations...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:00:00 PDT  Women's Health / Gynecology New Female Justice Would Inevitably Change Supreme Court, Washington Post Columnist Says If Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, her presence as the third current female justice "will change the high court in ways that no one foresees," Washington Post columnist David Broder writes...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:00:00 PDT  Abortion Videos Discuss N.Y. Reproductive Health Bill, HIV Research The following summarizes selected women's health related videos. NARAL N.Y. Pressures State Sens.: NARAL Pro-Choice New York President Kelli Conlin appeared on NY 1 to discuss why the group refuses to endorse any incumbent state senators until the chamber acts on the Reproductive Health Act (A 11484, S 5808), which would codify the protections of Roe v. Wade in New York...