Women’s Health
In India, Condoms Are Rarely Used During Premarital Sex
In India, most youth who are having premarital sex are not using condoms, according to “Condom Use Before Marriage and Its Correlates: Evidence from India,” a new study by K.G. Santhya, Rajib Acharya and Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, of the Population Council, New Delhi. The study, published in the December issue of International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, found that only 7% of young women and 27% of young men who reported having had premarital sexual relationships said they had ever used condoms. The analysis, which used survey data from 2,408 married and unmarried men and women aged 15–24 who had had premarital sex, found that just 3% of women and 13% of men surveyed reported having always used condoms in premarital relationships.
Discomfort about approaching a pharmacist or other provider for contraception was identified as an important obstacle to condom use for both sexes. According to the study, sexually experienced unmarried youth who felt uncomfortable obtaining contraceptives were much less likely to have used a condom than youth who felt no discomfort.
States Enact Record Number Of Abortion Restrictions in 2011
By almost any measure, issues related to reproductive health and rights at the state level received unprecedented attention in 2011. In the 50 states combined, legislators introduced more than 1,100 reproductive health and rights-related provisions, a sharp increase from the 950 introduced in 2010. By year’s end, 135 of these provisions had been enacted in 36 states, an increase from the 89 enacted in 2010 and the 77 enacted in 2009. (Note: This analysis refers to reproductive health and rights-related “provisions,” rather than bills or laws, since bills introduced and eventually enacted in the states contain multiple relevant provisions.)
Fully 68% of these new provisions—92 in 24 states—restrict access to abortion services, a striking increase from last year, when 26% of new provisions restricted abortion. The 92 new abortion restrictions enacted in 2011 shattered the previous record of 34 adopted in 2005.
BMJ: Doubt cast on Million Women Study, implicating HRT in breast cancer risk
[Does hormone replacement therapy cause breast cancer? An application of causal principles to three studies Part 4. The Million Women Study Online First 2012 doi: 10.1136/jfprhc-2011-100229]
Findings from the Million Women Study, which were used to establish that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) causes breast cancer, do not in fact, prove a causal link, concludes a review of the evidence published online in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.
The Million Women Study (MWS), which has produced four reports (2003, 2004, 2006 and 2011), and is the largest study of its kind on the topic, was one of three major pieces of research that prompted a rethink of the long term safety of HRT.
Antioxidant-rich diet may reduce stroke risk in women
Sweden - 2 December 2011 - Women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet containing fruits, vegetables and grains had fewer strokes regardless of whether they had a previous history of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The findings are reported in Stroke, scientific journal of the American Heart Association.
Susanne Rautiainen Photo: IMM
"Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation," says Susanne Rautiainen, a doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and first author of the current study. "This means people should eat more foods such as fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity."
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Overrides FDA Decision To Make Emergency Contraception More Broadly Accessible
On December 7, 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to make Plan B One-Step emergency contraception available over the counter for all women. For the HHS secretary to overrule a recommendation from the FDA on any drug-related application is unprecedented. Approval by the FDA would have made the emergency contraceptive available, alongside condoms and pregnancy tests, on the shelves of pharmacies, grocery stores and other retailers, giving all women at risk of unintended pregnancy timely access to this safe and effective backup contraceptive method without having to ask a pharmacist or get a prescription from a doctor. The decision by Sebelius means that Plan B One-Step will continue to be available to women 17 and older from “behind the counter” and available to those under 17 by prescription only.
New study supports claim that breast screening may be causing more
harm than good
Research: Possible net harms of breast cancer screening: updated modelling of Forrest report
A new study published on bmj.com today supports the claim that the introduction of breast cancer screening in the UK may have caused more harm than good.
Harms included false positives (abnormal results that turn out to be normal) and overtreatment (treatment of harmless cancers that would never have caused symptoms or death during a patient’s lifetime). This may be because the cancer grows so slowly that the patient dies of other causes before it produces symptoms, or the cancer remains dormant or regresses.
Many American Women Use Birth Control
Pills For Non-Contraceptive Reasons
One-Third of Teen Users Rely on the Pill Exclusively for these Purposes
The most common reason U.S. women use oral contraceptive pills is to prevent pregnancy, but 14% of pill users—1.5 million women—rely on them exclusively for noncontraceptive purposes. The study documenting this finding, “Beyond Birth Control: The Overlooked Benefits of Oral Contraceptive Pills,” by Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, also found that more than half (58%) of all pill users rely on the method, at least in part, for purposes other than pregnancy prevention—meaning that only 42% use the pill exclusively for contraceptive reasons.
American Cancer Society Report Finds Burden of Breast Cancer Deaths Shifts to Poor
ATLANTA – October 3, 2011 – A new report from the American Cancer Society finds that a slower and later decline in breast cancer death rates among women in poor areas has resulted in a shift in the highest breast cancer death rates from women residing in more affluent areas to those in poor areas. The authors point to screening rates as one potential factor. In 2008, only 51.4% of poor women ages 40 and older had undergone a screening mammogram in the past two years compared to 72.8% of non-poor women.
Health Groups Issue Proposed Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines
Recommendations Aim to Reduce Risk without Reducing Benefits of Screening
ATLANTA – October 19, 2011 –The American Cancer Society (ACS), the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP), and the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) have proposed new guidelines for the prevention and early detection of cervical cancer. The proposed guidelines, which are now posted for public comment, generally advise that women reduce the number of tests they get over their lifetime to better ensure that they receive the benefits of testing while minimizing the risks. The proposed guidelines also include a preference for co-testing using the Pap test and HPV test for women age 30 and over.
Women exposed to DES in the womb face increased cancer risk
NIH study followed daughters of women given diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy and found increased fertility problems and cancer risks
A large study of the daughters of women who had been given DES, the first synthetic form of estrogen, during pregnancy has found that exposure to the drug while in the womb (in utero) is associated with many reproductive problems and an increased risk of certain cancers and pre-cancerous conditions. The results of this analysis, conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and collaborators across the country, were published Oct. 6, 2011, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
