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436 Results for search "Women's Problems: Misc.".

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Heart disease is gaining on cancer as the leading cause of death among American women under 65.

"Young women in the United States are becoming less healthy, which is now reversing prior improvements seen in heart disease deaths for the gender," said Dr. Erin Michos, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. She's the co-author of a new study that inv...

There's no cure for endometriosis, but women have several treatment options for the painful condition, an expert says.

With endometriosis, tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside of it, where it can reach the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bowel, bladder, diaphragm and, more rarely, other parts of the body. It can reduce fertility.

Symptoms can include chronic p...

Women who develop diabetes during pregnancy have a higher risk of complications for themselves and their babies if they're night owls instead of early birds, a new study finds.

Gestational diabetes increases the mother's risk of premature delivery and preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure). It also raises the baby's risk of growing too large in the womb or having breathing p...

Most women can have a natural childbirth even if labor doesn't begin soon after their water breaks, according to a new study.

This situation occurs in about 11% of pregnant women who carry to term. Labor is typically induced in such cases.

But University of Michigan researchers found there is no significant increased risk to mother or infant in waiting awhile for labor to begin on i...

In medieval Europe, when childbirth was highly perilous for both mother and child, women and those caring for them used various talismans to try to influence a safe delivery.

Not many of those relics have survived, but scientists have been studying one -- a parchment "birthing girdle" -- using non-invasive sampling and protein analysis.

"Although these birth girdles are thought to h...

The trauma and loss of stroke can often leave survivors with long-term depression, and women appear to be at special risk, new research shows.

"We did not expect that the cumulative risk of depression would remain so persistently elevated," said study author Dr. Laura Stein, an assistant professor of neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, in New York City.

She said ...

A vaginal ring that slowly releases an antiviral medication could protect women against HIV for up to three months, a preliminary trial suggests.

It assessed two formulations of a vaginal ring that releases the antiretroviral dapivirine in the vagina over the course of 90 days. One version contained 100 milligrams (mg) of dapivirine and the other contained 200 mg.

The trial was cond...

Many women with pelvic organ prolapse may get lasting relief from a treatment that's been around for a few thousand years, a new study suggests.

With pelvic organ prolapse (POP), weakened muscles and supporting tissue in the pelvis allow one or more organs -- including the uterus, bladder or rectum -- to protrude into the vagina.

Often, women with the condition do not have symptoms ...

If you are approaching menopause and you have some extra belly fat, new research suggests you might want to shed some inches now.

Women who carry weight around their midsection during menopause may be more likely to develop heart disease even if their overall weight remains the same, researchers report.

For every 20% increase in belly fat, the thickness of the carotid artery lining ...

Women with type 1 diabetes may have a shorter length of time to conceive and bear children compared to those without the disease, new research suggests.

The hormone insulin plays an important part in regulating female reproductive function, and people with type 1 diabetes don't make enough insulin on their own. But little was known about how type 1 diabetes affects the start of menopause,...

Don't skip your breast cancer screening mammogram.

This is the overarching message of an extended study of more than a half-million Swedish women. Those who missed even one recommended screening mammogram were more likely to die from breast cancer, the study found.

The new findings -- which appear March 2 in the journal Radiology -- are concerning given the widespread delay...

A new combo pill can substantially reduce bleeding caused by uterine fibroids -- possibly offering some women yet another alternative to surgery, a new trial finds.

The once-daily medication, which combines a drug called relugolix with estrogen and progestin, is not yet approved in the United States. But it is under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to drugmaker M...

The toll of America's obesity epidemic is showing up in younger women, as a new study shows that deaths from heart disease in this unlikely group have increased in the past decade.

The likely culprits along with obesity? Type 2 diabetes, along with diseases of pregnancy, such as preeclampsia and preterm delivery, researchers said.

"Cardiovascular disease mortality is going up in you...

Breast cancer death rates are inching up in American women under age 40 again, after more than two decades of decline, researchers say.

The study authors said they hoped their new report would lead to a deeper look at reasons for the change.

"Our hope is that these findings focus more attention and research on breast cancer in younger women and what is behind this rapid increase in ...

Women with type 2 diabetes may be more likely to develop breast cancer, but taking the diabetes drug metformin appears to reduce their risk for the most common type, new research finds.

Compared to women without diabetes, risk for estrogen-positive breast cancer was 38% lower among women with type 2 diabetes who had used metformin for 10 years or more.

Metformin did not protect agai...

High blood pressure is often dismissed as part of menopausal symptoms in older women, experts say. And that could raise a woman's risk for heart trouble, European experts warn.

That warning, along with recommendations on how doctors can help middle-aged women avoid future heart problems, is included in a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) consensus document published Jan. 27 in the...

Talk therapy for new mothers with postpartum depression may also benefit their babies' brains, Canadian researchers say.

"We found that after their moms were treated that their infant's brain activity normalized to the levels seen in our healthy infants," said study co-author Ryan Van Lieshout, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at McMaster University in Hami...

Going into cardiac arrest at night can be particularly deadly, and now new research suggests that it might strike women more than men.

Sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating. The survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is only 10%, the researchers said.

"Dying suddenly during nighttime hours is a perplexing and devastat...

Just over 200,000 Americans have the autoimmune disorder lupus, and minority women are at highest risk, according to a new study.

It's the first estimate of how widespread the disease is in the United States. The number comes close to reclassifying lupus as a rare disease, defined as an illness affecting 200,000 Americans or fewer, the researchers said.

"Our study potentially redefi...

Menopause is known to bring a variety of unpleasant symptoms ranging from hot flashes to insomnia. Yet, for those who have a condition known as premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), it is much worse, researchers report.

The new study examined the impact of POI, in which ovarian function stops and leads to menopause before the age of 40.

The researchers investigated menopause sympto...

Frailty may explain why women awaiting a liver transplant are more likely than men to become too sick for a transplant or die before transplantation, a new study suggests.

Exercise and a healthier diet may help narrow that gender gap, researchers say.

For the study, researchers followed more than 1,400 patients with cirrhosis awaiting a liver transplant from nine U.S. transpla...

High blood pressure and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy may follow women through the years, causing lower scores on tests of memory and thinking skills, a Dutch study suggests.

The study of nearly 600 pregnant women included 481 with normal blood pressure and 115 who developed high blood pressure during their pregnancies.

Of those 115 women, 70% had gestational hypertension, which is...

Women with advanced breast cancer who undergo surgery to remove the tumor after chemotherapy or another type of systemic treatment may live longer than those who don't have surgery, a new study suggests.

The findings challenge a long-held belief that surgery confers little benefit for women with stage 4 breast cancer unless the cancer is causing pain, bleeding or other symptoms. Stage 4 i...

The COVID-19 pandemic may be taking a bigger toll on women's mental health than on men's, new research suggests.

For the study, researchers examined the results of an online survey of 112 men and 459 women in Canada. The survey took place between March 23 and June 7, 2020.

During that time, schools and many businesses were closed, and people were told to stay home as much as possibl...

Although heart problems are rare complications of pregnancy, Black women face a heightened risk -- even if they have comfortable incomes and health insurance, a new study finds.

It's well established that the United States has a higher maternal mortality rate than other wealthy nations, and Black women are at greater risk than white women.

Less has been known about whether Black wom...

How a woman feels about her roles at home and at work during midlife can affect several factors that influence her heart health, new research shows.

The study, published Dec. 11 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found women who felt more stressed at their jobs or in their roles as caregivers, mothers and spouses had greater odds of having high blood pressure, bein...

An older woman's heart races and flutters. Is it a sign of cardiovascular problems or is it maybe a symptom of menopause?

New research shows that the palpitations are a distressing problem for roughly 25% of women during menopause, but those feelings of a pounding heart or skipped heartbeat have been the subject of very little research, said study author Janet Carpenter. She's an associat...

More women with early-stage breast cancer may be able to safely skip chemotherapy after having surgery, according to initial results from a major clinical trial.

The trial, conducted in nine countries, found that adding chemotherapy to hormone-blocking drugs brought no added benefit to a particular group of patients. Those were postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer tha...

When a young woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, many questions go through her mind.

What treatments does she need? Will she survive? And will she still be able to have a baby?

In a review of recent research, an international team of investigators say the answer to that critical third question is yes. Though breast cancer survivors are less likely to become pregnant than the ave...

Obesity may be a major reason Black American women with early breast cancer are 40% more likely to die than white patients, according to a new study.

Obesity is a known risk factor for several types of cancer, and decades of rising rates of obesity in the United States have contributed to climbing breast cancer rates greater in Black women than white women.

And even though breast ca...

Young women who regularly visit tanning salons may have an increased risk of developing endometriosis, a new study suggests.

Researchers said the findings, from a large study of U.S. women, don't prove that tanning beds help cause the painful pelvic condition.

But, they noted, the study might give women more incentive to avoid indoor tanning.

Endometriosis is a condition in wh...

Obese women are more likely to suffer a hip fracture before age 70 than those who aren't obese, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed data gathered from more than 12,700 women in Finland who were born between 1932 and 1941 and followed them for 25 years.

The University of Eastern Finland investigators examined the link between the women's body mass index (BMI -- an estimate of bod...

Menopause symptoms can interfere with women's jobs, Japanese researchers report.

For the study, the investigators looked at nearly 600 working women, aged 45 to 65, in Japan. Of those, 61% were postmenopausal.

Women with a higher number of menopause symptoms had poorer work performance, according to the authors of the study published online recently in Menopause, journal of...

Here's a good reason for women to take a heart attack more seriously than they might: A new study shows that women are more likely to develop heart failure or die within five years of their first severe heart attack than men are.

Though the gender gap was narrower for a less severe type of heart attack, that wasn't true with a more severe type, according to Canadian researchers who d...

As many as one-third of adult women who have a particular fracture to their forearms may be victims of intimate partner violence, according to a new study.

The findings underscore the need to screen women who receive fractures to their ulna for possible intimate partner violence, researchers said. That includes those who say they were injured in a fall.

The ulna is the bone on the p...

Heart disease risk increases in women as they near menopause, so it's crucial to monitor their health and take preventive measures as needed, a new American Heart Association (AHA) scientific statement says.

"Over the past 20 years, our knowledge of how the menopause transition might contribute to cardiovascular disease has been dramatically evolving," Samar El Khoudary, chair of the writ...

Women with asthma may suffer fewer severe symptom attacks if they are on birth control pills, a large new study suggests.

The study of more than 83,000 women with asthma found that those who used birth control pills for at least three years tended to have fewer severe flare-ups.

The difference between pill users and non-users was small, and the findings do not prove a cause-and-effe...

Too much sitting or lying down significantly increases older women's risk of hospitalization for heart failure, even if they get recommended amounts of physical activity, a new study warns.

"These findings are consistent with other studies confirming that people with more daily sedentary time are more likely to develop chronic health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart...

The number of women who contemplate suicide or self-harm during or after pregnancy may be on the rise, a large, new study suggests.

Among nearly 600,000 U.S. childbearing women, researchers found that close to 2,700 were diagnosed with suicidality in the year before or after giving birth. And the diagnosis -- defined as suicidal thoughts or intentional self-harm -- grew more common over t...

Pollutants in the air -- fine particulates that are 30 times smaller than the width of a strand of hair -- may be damaging older women's brains.

In a new study, researchers linked breathing in high levels of this polluted air to shrinkage in areas of the brain that are vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.

"Fine-particle pollution is kind of like a cocktail. There are a lot of differen...

Fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization don't appear to increase a woman's risk of ovarian cancer, a new study finds.

Previous studies suggested that women who used this assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as IVF to get pregnant may be at risk for ovarian cancer and non-malignant borderline tumors, due to increased levels of sex hormones needed to stimulate egg produ...

Women are at high risk of becoming much less active right after they retire, researchers find.

Inactivity was tracked among nearly 700 participants in an ongoing study of retiring municipal workers in Finland that began in 2013. Most (85%) of the participants were women, with an average retirement age of 63.

Among women, inactivity levels didn't change much before retirement, but in...

Women who work outside the home may end up with a sharper memory later in life, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 6,200 U.S. women aged 55 and older, those who'd worked for pay in young adulthood and middle-age were less prone to memory decline, versus those who'd stayed out of the labor force.

The link was seen whether women were married or single, or had ch...

Another large study finds that menopausal hormone therapy is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, though it varies with the formulation, timing and duration of use.

British researchers found that among more than 500,000 women aged 50 to 79, those who'd used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were at relatively greater risk of breast cancer. The connection was strongest among women...

The loss of a sibling is all too common among young women in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new study.

The researchers found that roughly one-third of young women in those countries have experienced the death of a brother or sister by age 25. In several African nations, the rate is as high as 50%.

"There's extensive social science research on family dyn...

Low levels of thyroid hormone during pregnancy may contribute to the development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the child, new research suggests.

The study found that children born to mothers with low thyroid hormone levels during the first trimester of pregnancy had a 28% increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD later.

Thyroid hormones play an impor...

One of the reasons women may be less vulnerable to COVID-19 is because they're more likely to adhere to social distancing policies, a new survey suggests.

A survey conducted in eight countries in March and April found substantial gender differences both in numbers of people who considered COVID-19 to be a serious health crisis and who agreed with public policies to help fight the pand...

Most American women between 15 and 49 years of age use birth control, according to a new U.S. government report.

Between 2017 and 2019, 65% of those women used some form of contraception, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This report provides this unique snapshot of all women of reproductive age at a point in time," said lead researche...

Women who suffer severe morning sickness may have higher risk of depression during and after pregnancy, according to a new British study.

It enrolled 214 women in London during the first trimester of pregnancy. Half had severe morning sickness; half did not. None had been treated for mental health conditions during the previous year.

The women's mental health was assessed in...

Younger women who suffer a heart attack are more likely than men to die in the decade after surgery, a new study finds.

It included more than 400 women and nearly 1,700 men, average age 45, who had a first heart attack between 2000 and 2016.

During an average follow-up of more than 11 years, there were no statistically significant differences between men and women for deaths...