Archive for September, 2008

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and second leading cause of cancer-related death in women, in the United States.

However, little is known about breast cancer in women in their early 40s and younger.

Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, who founded and directs the Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, says that evidence shows that young age is a risk factor for disease recurrence and death.

It is controversial whether the poorer prognosis is a reflection of delays in diagnosis, differences in tumor biology, or the effectiveness of treatment, but accumulating evidence indicates that biologic differences may play an important role.

“In addition to being at higher risk of dying from breast cancer than older women, young women with breast cancer are at increased risk of psychosocial distress at diagnosis and in follow-up when compared with older women,” explains Partridge.

“Young women with breast cancer face a variety of unique medical and psychosocial concerns as a result of their diagnosis and subsequent treatment. In particular, fertility and family planning, menopausal symptoms, and sexual functioning are of great concern to this patient population.”

Read more at Medical News Today

As you all know, being a woman, you can experience various issues such as menstruation, pregnancy, menopause and many more.

But, are you aware of those particular health risks that can possibly ruin your healthy living?

It is very important for you to be aware with all kinds of health risks, if you really want to stay healthy and fit.

Educating yourself about the most common health risks is the first and foremost step that you have to consider, in order to reduce the chances of occurrence.

Diabetes!

Diabetes is the most common and also serious health condition that mainly affects the way your body uses blood sugar to perform its regular activities.

Once if you develop this particular health condition, it becomes very important for you to control it in all possible ways to avoid various heath risks associated with it.

Kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage are few potentially life-threatening health risks associated with advanced diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes and it generally develops after 40 years of age. You can easily prevent type2 diabetes by considering certain essential measures such as regular exercises, healthy diet and also healthy weight.

Substances called heterocyclic amines (HAs) found in cooked meat and fish don’t appear to boost a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, Swedish researchers report.

However, low intake of these substances combined with high consumption of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are found in most types of vegetable oil, may indeed increase the likelihood that post menopausal women will develop breast cancer, Dr. Emily Sonestedt, of Lund University, Malmo, and her colleagues found.

“The interaction in the present study between omega-6 PUFAs and HAs is not easily explained, and points toward the importance of examining the impact of food patterns rather than the influence of single dietary factors,” Sonestedt and her team stated.

HAs form in meat or fish cooked at high temperatures, and have been tied to breast cancer in rats. Rats fed a fatty diet having a high omega-6 content developed even more tumors in response to dietary HAs than rats given a low fat diet.

Sonestedt’s team examined whether HA consumption was related to breast cancer, and whether omega-6 PUFA intake played a role in this relationship, in women enrolled in the Malmo Diet and Cancer study.

Read more at Reuters

Do you get your periods more often than every 21 days? Possibly your period can last longer than 7 days.

This kind of irregular bleeding is mainly referred as dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

It is not serious, but it can be annoying and disturb your life. In most cases, dysfunctional uterine bleeding is linked with hormonal changes in your body.

Dysfunctional uterine bleeding can be easily managed with medicine or with hormonal therapy to reduce bleeding.

It can be used either to stop or regulate your irregular menstrual cycle. Surgical treatment is mainly reserved for bleeding that can’t be reduced with hormonal therapy or medicines.

How can you know that it is dysfunctional uterine bleeding?

When you have dysfunctional uterine bleeding, you can experience one or more of these particular conditions:

1. If you are getting your periods more often than every 21 days or farther apart than 35days, probably you might be suffering with dysfunctional uterine bleeding.
2. Actually, the duration of normal menstrual cycle is between 4 to 6 days. But, if you are experiencing uterine bleeding more than 7 days every month, then it surely indicates that you have dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

UK scientists studying women with a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriage found that the risk of a further miscarriage for obese women was significantly higher than that of normal weight women.

They recommended counselling should be given to pregnant women who are obese to help them understand the benefit that weight loss may have on pregnancy outcome, but other experts urge caution because there are also risks associated with losing weight during pregnancy.

The links between miscarriage and maternal obesity have been well studied and established, but this is the first study to look at recurrent miscarriages for which there is no explanation, said the authors.

For the study, clinical nurse specialist at the hospital, Winnie Lo, and colleagues, examined 398 women who had been attending the hospital with their partners for unexplained miscarriages between 1996 and 2006.

They then followed them on their next pregnancy and also put them into four groups depending on their Body Mass Index (BMI).

When they analysed the data they adjusted the results for potential confounders like age, a well know risk factor for miscarriage.

Read more at Medical News Today

Are you feeling pain during sex? Have you reached your menopause? Vaginal dryness is the most common concern for women during and also after menopause.

Even, it is considered as the most common cause for experiencing pain during sex.

A thin layer of moisture always coats your vaginal walls. Whenever certain hormonal changes take place in your body, particularly during your menstrual cycle, it will mainly affect the consistency of the moisture that coats your vaginal walls.

However, inadequate lubrication to your vaginal regions can occur at any age in your life.

So, it is important for you to prepare for it by gaining enough knowledge regarding vaginal dryness.

Identify the problem to resolve it easily!

First of all, to resolve any health condition easily, you have to identify it properly. Once if you succeed in identifying the problem, you can easily get better solution for it. So, here are few clues for you to identify vaginal dryness.

• Frequent urination or urgency
• Itching or burning sensation.
• Dryness at vaginal areas and also pain during sexual intercourse. At times you can also experience bleeding during sex.

Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders, report researchers.

Their analysis is the first to document in a nationally representative sample the extent of pelvic floor disorders, a cluster of health problems that causes physical discomfort and limits activity.

Pelvic floor disorders result when the muscles and connective tissue within the pelvic cavity weaken or are injured.

These muscles and ligaments form a sling across the opening of a woman’s pelvis, holding the bladder, uterus, bowel, and rectum in place.

The three main pelvic floor disorders are urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and pelvic organ prolapse.

Pelvic organ prolapse results when pelvic organs such as the uterus, bladder and bowel, collapse onto the vagina.

The resulting pressure may cause a bulge or protrusion through the vaginal canal. This protrusion may be uncomfortable, may make physical activity difficult, and may interfere with sexual functioning.

The study also revealed that the frequency of pelvic floor disorders increases with age, affecting more than 40 percent of women from 60 to 79 years of age, and about 50 percent of women 80 and older.

Read more at News-Medical

Everyone occasionally undergoes some sort of depression. But, the feeling is not same when it comes to genders.

Survey studies shows that it is more common in women than men. Depression in women is twice as often as in men.

Moreover, depression in women can develop at any stage of life. The reason for this difference is unclear, but fluctuation in a woman’s hormone levels is regarded as the major cause of depression.

Although depression is very common, it is a serious disorder and needs immediate treatment to recuperate.

Depressive disorder can occur in several forms and the most common are major depressive disorder (major depression) and dysthymic disorder (dysthymia).

Treatment to the depressive disorder can become successful and effective only when one recognizes what the symptoms of depression are.

However, not all women experience the same symptoms. Moreover, the severity and frequency of depressive disorder symptoms vary from woman to woman and her disorder form.

Determine and control your depressive disorder!

Although doctors are continuing to know about the effect of depression in women, here are a few symptoms that commonly develop in women:

• Persistent feeling of sadness, hopelessness and pessimism