Archive for July, 2007

Ovarian cancer is a cancer that initially affects the ovaries, a pair of female reproductive organs that produce eggs and are located on either sides of the uterus.

According to American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer that occurs in women.

It is estimated that approximately twenty-five thousand new cases of ovarian cancer is rising yearly, in the United States. It is commonly known as silent disease because you will not exhibit the symptoms of ovarian cancer unless it is in very advanced stage.

Thus, there will be delay in diagnosis. Hence the ovarian cancer is with very high mortality rate. The ovarian cancer is so deadly that it occurs in one out of every sixty women.

Remember that ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of tumor deaths in women. Experts also believe that seventy-six percent of women will survive for one year after diagnosing with this disease.

Ovarian cancer occurs mostly in women who pass menopause stage. As you become older, your possibility of getting ovarian cancer increases. However, knowing and having more information about the signs of ovarian cancer can make it easier for you to diagnose and treat successfully in early stages.

October is the breast cancer awareness month.

It is dedicated to increase the significance of early detection of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the breast.

Today, breast cancer is the most common cancer type among women and you have fifteen percent chances of developing breast cancer in your lifetime although you lead a healthy lifestyle.

Breast cancer is so common that for every two minutes a woman in the United States is diagnosed with a cancer in the breast.

In 2007, it is estimated that 211,000 new breast cancer cases will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,910 women are expected to die from breast cancer. Breast cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death among women.

Previously, the occurrence of breast cancer in women was one out of every twenty, but now it has increased to one out of every eight.

Although breast cancer rate is increasing every year, it can be treated successfully if detected in the early stages. For this, you need to have breast cancer awareness.

Having breast cancer awareness can save your life from developing breast cancer in the future and also increases the breast cancer survival rate.

Sickle cell anemia is the most common inherited, chronic blood disorder in the United States.

It is found that one out of every four hundred women is suffering from this disease.

Sickle cell anemia is a most common type of sickle cell disease.

The carrying of potassium and chloride ions in and out of red blood cells is a major cause for the increase in the volume and density of the cells. With sickle cell anemia, you may not have continual symptoms but notice painful attacks periodically.

A sickle cell anemia weakens your immune system and causes complications such as strokes. Also, the life span will be very short with sickle cell anemia. However, you have no cure for this anemia type but treatment options are available.

It is very essential to consult your doctor if you experience any symptoms of this disease. A continual treatment is essential though you experience no pain or symptoms currently.

Sickle cell anemia treatment helps reduce the occurrence of experiences and maintains a gap in the occurrence by delaying the time in between them.

The treatment of sickle cell anemia for children often includes intravenous antibiotics, which help prevent bacterial infections that usually appear in children.

Heart is a major organ of the human body that purifies the blood and pumps the blood throughout the body so as to keep us energetic and healthy.

So, maintaining the heart in good condition is most essential for you to live a longer life.

Any disease affecting the heart is commonly treated as heart disease.

Heart diseases are the results of several factors: high cholesterol levels, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and more exercising.

Most of the heart diseases are blocked arteries because of fatty deposits and cholesterol.

Heart disease is one of the major causes of death in the United States. It is found that for every half a minute a person dies from heart disease. This accounts to 3,500 Americans per day.

With a growing number of heart diseases and its mortality rate, the heart disease prevention has become essential for keeping your heart healthy and active. Therefore, for heart disease prevention, you can play your part by making some simple changes to your standard of living.

The first step in the heart disease prevention is attain the low cholesterol levels in the blood, as cholesterol is a main risk factor for heart disease.

Syphilis is an uncommon sexual transmitted infection caused by the bacteria spirochetes or treponema pallidum.

It also referred to as Lues. Generally, it infects women mostly among sexually active adults aged between 20-29.

Usually you can acquire syphilis infection from sexual contact with an infected person particularly through direct contact with syphilis sore.

Mostly, the sores occur on the external genitals, vagina, anus, or in the rectum. It also occurs on the lips as well as in the mouth.

This infection can also pass to your baby through the placenta during pregnancy. Syphilis that is transmitted to a fetus during pregnancy is called congenital syphilis. It is estimated that about half a million infants are born with congenital syphilis every year worldwide.

If you are with syphilis and became pregnant at any stage of this infection, then the infection can pass to your fetus in the womb any time during your pregnancy through the bloodstream across the placenta.

Your baby may acquire this infection even during delivery. Remember that not all infants born to infected women will be infected. Also, if syphilis is detected and left untreated, then it results in a high risk of a bad outcome of the pregnancy by becoming chronic, transmitting throughout the body.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) also referred to as hormone therapy (HT), is a form of treatment designed to replace one or more female hormones, commonly estrogen and progesterone.

HRT comes in the form of a pill, patch, spray, gel, or implant. Hormone Replacement Therapy is often used to treat menopause symptoms.

Mostly, you will reach the menopause stage between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five where your regular menstruation or menses stops and you no longer produce eggs and give birth to a child.

As you reach your menopause stage, the estrogen and progesterone (the hormones responsible for reproduction) levels in your body decreases and gradually puts an end to your chances of becoming pregnant.

However, the fluctuations of these hormone levels also cause menopause symptoms such as mood swings, hot flushes, excessive sweating, urinal problems, vaginal dryness, vaginal bleeding, sleep disorders, and other symptoms.

Although the menopause stage in females occurs naturally at an age of forty or fifty, having hysterectomy (removal of uterus through surgical method) done at a pre-menopause age can still bring about the menopause. This is known as a surgical menopause.

Condoms are the devices designed for contraception.

Although the basic purpose of condom is birth control, it can also used as a primary way to get protection from sexually transmitted diseases.

The female condom is a shield to protect the women from STDs like syphilis, gonorrhea, pelvic inflammatory disease (pid), or genital warts.

Remember, female condoms can give you effective results when used correctly. The success rate of female condom in birth control is about 79-95 percent. Even it is ten thousand times safer in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

On the other hand, the failure rate of female condoms is twelve percent; mostly this is due to improper use of condoms while having intercourse.

The female condom is just a tube made up of polyurethane (soft plastic) with its one end closed. Each end has a flexible polyurethane ring.

For using a female condom, you need to choose a comfortable position for insertion: crouch, raise one leg, or lay down. Ensure that the condom is lubricated enough. Also ensure that the closed end of the sheath is at the bottom and the open end is hanging down by holding the sheath.

Uterine tumors or growths can be either benign or malignant.

Benign tumors do not cause symptoms. One such benign uterine growth is uterine fibroid.

The fibroids are also known as fibromyomas, leiomyomas or myomas.

As the fibroids arise from the tissue in the myometrium (muscle layer in the wall of the uterus), it is also termed as myomas.

It is one of the most common tumors in women, which are made up of muscle cells and other tissues that develop within the wall of the uterus (or womb). It is medically termed as uterine leiomyomata, which is an unusual growth of smooth muscle tissue.

The fibroids in the walls of the uterine may exist as a single tumor or in clusters (or groups). Even it varies in size from very small (like an apple seed) or less than one inch to larger than a grapefruit or eight inches (20cm) across or more. The average size is around 2cm.

It mostly occurs in women of reproductive age. It is present in one out of every four women. The cause of uterine fibroids is unknown. However, it mostly develops in obese women, women who have no children, and probably with some genetic determinant and rarely in smokers.