Women's Health News

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Annual maternal mortality ratio decline rate below target

The world's maternal mortality ratio (the number of maternal deaths per 100 000 live births) is declining too slowly to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, which aims to reduce the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters by 2015.

15 Oct 2007

Breast cancer radiation does not affect women's immune system

A new study shows that neither of two commonly used radiation treatments for early-stage, node-negative breast cancer has any effect on a woman's immune system, even though women who receive five-day partial-breast radiation therapy (MammoSite brachytherapy) (PBRT) have improved energy and quality of life compared to women who undergo six weeks of whole-breast radiation therapy (WBRT).

15 Oct 2007

Top of the range lipsticks contain high levels of lead

According to the American consumer group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, tests on 33 brand-name lipsticks, some of them expensive luxury brands, have found that 61 percent of them contained detectable levels of lead.

15 Oct 2007

Through the labyrinth: the truth about how women become leaders

The glass ceiling -- the once ubiquitous metaphor referring to a subtle barrier built upon biases that block women from the highest positions of leadership -- doesn't apply today, according to a new book co-written by Alice Eagly, professor and chair of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

12 Oct 2007

Breast cancer awareness calls for cardiovascular awareness

Women who overcome breast cancer have every reason to celebrate. But a heart filled with joy may also be a heart damaged by life-saving cancer therapies, a growing body of research shows.

12 Oct 2007

To drink or not while pregnant? that is the question

Pregnant women are now being told that it is safe to drink a daily glass of wine adding more confusion to the advice metered out to women.

11 Oct 2007

Swedish lifestyle stops women working

Elements of work and family life especially traditional family circumstances and inequality in the workplace are associated with long term sick leave taken by Swedish women, reveals research published in the online open access journal BMC Public Health.

11 Oct 2007

Cancer conflict with adjuvant chemotherapy

Women under the age of forty with breast cancer who are given drugs in addition to lumpectomies or radiotherapy, known as adjuvant chemotherapy, may not be benefiting from these drugs.

10 Oct 2007

Women on low-fat diets reduce their risk of ovarian cancer

The American Cancer Society, estimates that as many as 22,400 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and of that number around 15,200 will die from the disease.

10 Oct 2007

Women with high or increasing blood pressure more likely to develop diabetes

One of the largest studies to investigate the relationship between blood pressure and type 2 diabetes has found that women who have high blood pressure levels are three times more likely to develop diabetes than women with low blood pressure levels.

10 Oct 2007

Caesarean or natural birth?

A new website that explores women's decision-making about birth after a previous caesarean section is to be launched.

10 Oct 2007

Low-fat diet may decrease risk of ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women

Previous reports from the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Randomized Controlled Trial examined the effect of a low-fat diet on the risk of breast and colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women, but it was not yet known whether the same diet would alter ovarian cancer risk.

10 Oct 2007

African-American women less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women

A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women.

9 Oct 2007

Link between woman's hips and daughter's risk of breast cancer

In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer.

9 Oct 2007

Treatment for breast cancer differs between African-American women and white women

The study found that, among patients with breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes, African-Americans were less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women. In this clinical group, white women were almost five times more likely to take Tamoxifen, a widely-used cancer therapy medication, and over three times more likely to have chemotherapy.

9 Oct 2007