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Swine Flu Poses Work Dilemma for Working Moms
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (4)The swine flu outbreak has all of us in a near panic, stirred up by relentless media coverage of what could happen if things get worse. Fearing a spread of the contagious and potentially deadly illness, more than 100 school systems in 14 states have shut their doors, leaving 160,000 kids home and their parents trying to figure out how to adjust their work schedules. In many cases, women are the ones doing the juggling. Working moms in Fort Worth—where schools will be closed until at least May 11—may have to take a week or two of unpaid leave.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us we should "stay home from work" when we are sick—in this case a mild cough could qualify—but that's easier said than done. Employers aren't required to provide paid sick leave, and many folks can't afford to forgo pay. "The CDC is making good suggestions, but they don't give any thought to the half of workers who don't have paid sick days," says Karen Minatelli, director of the work and family programs at the National Partnership for Women and Families. "With the economy the way it is, many are afraid they'll lose their jobs if they take time off. We'd like to hear the CDC or President Obama call on employers to be a partner in this effort," perhaps by providing paid sick leave or guaranteed job security when leave is taken.
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Dr. Ruth Offers Advice on Improving Your Sex Life
Tweet Share on Facebook April 29, 2009 Comment (17)What should be done to improve sexual literacy? That was the topic at yesterday's luncheon sponsored by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes was in attendance, and I was hoping she was going to discuss specific initiatives to reduce teen pregnancies. While she did say that was a priority, Barnes spoke more specifically about the need for mothers to really educate their daughters about sex—beyond the basic mechanics.
[Here's what she said about her own mother's teachings, and here's reporting by U.S. News on how teach teens about sex.]
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Donating an Organ Through Your Belly Button
Tweet Share on Facebook April 24, 2009 Comment (2)When Kristen McLoughlin lost her sister in a car accident three years ago, she was comforted by the fact that people benefited from her sister's organs. Then a thought struck her: Why shouldn't she donate one of her own kidneys while she was still living? Well, nine days ago McLoughlin underwent a novel procedure in which her kidney was removed through her belly button. The small incision in her navel will leave no noticeable scar.
"I decided, though, to wait until I was really sure that I wanted to do this for its own sake and not out of grief for my sister," says the 22-year-old from Madison Heights, Va., who was operated on at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
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FDA Says 'Yes' to Plan B Morning-After Pill for 17-Year-Olds
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2009 Comment (16)Well, it's official. The Food and Drug Administration yesterday said it will allow 17-year-olds to purchase the Plan B "morning after" pill over the counter. Until now, the contraceptive product—which prevents pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex—was available only for those 18 and over who presented a valid ID to a pharmacist behind the counter. Younger teens needed a prescription to get access to it.
In a brief statement released on its website yesterday, the FDA said it would not appeal a judge's decision issued last month directing the agency to make emergency contraception available to 17-year-olds. But it also said the product won't become available to women of that age until the manufacturer of Plan B submits and receives approval for a labeling change—which could take some time.
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Spiritual Fitness: How to Make Exercise More Meaningful
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2009 Comment (9)My colleague, Katherine Hobson, recently put together a comprehensive fitness plan for grown-ups, an everything-you-need-to-know guide for getting fit after 40 designed by Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon who wrote a book on the subject. The 10-week workout routine will gradually teach you all the basics, from building your heart muscle through aerobic activity to improving your strength, balance, and flexibility. Hobson's great guide and 11 tips for the over-40 exerciser got me thinking.
What should I, as a 38-year-old, be doing differently now when it comes to my own exercise routine? I've felt the need to make exercise an essential part of my life ever since I was a teen doing high school track (I always came in last in the 1,500 meters) and exercise videos alongside my mom. I took step aerobics classes in my early 20s and ran through New York City parks, sometimes worrying that I'd be mugged as the sun began to set.
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Teens and Sex Education at the Doctor's Office
Tweet Share on Facebook April 15, 2009 Comment (24)I was heartened by a recent story in the Houston Chronicle discussing how some Texas moms concerned about their teens and sex have found a suitable alternative to sex education when their daughters' schools teach only abstinence: the gynecologist. While most of us feel comfortable having the basic birds-and-bees discussion with our girls, these parents rely on a gynecologist to answer the kinds of questions about sex that their daughters may not feel comfortable asking or that they themselves may not know the answers to: Will I gain weight on the pill? Can I get a sexually transmitted disease even if I don't have intercourse? Why is one breast larger than the other?
It may sound strange to take a 13-year-old to the gynecologist, but many moms are doing so these days. Some bring their daughters in for the Gardasil vaccine against the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus. Others figure it's a good transition time from pediatrician to family doctor. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a first visit to the gynecologist for those ages 13 to 15 and, in this helpful online pamphlet written for girls, says this visit "may just be a talk between you and your doctor" and won't necessarily involve a pelvic exam.
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Stem Cells Proffer New Hope for Infertility
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2009 Comment (10)Most of us learned in our high school health classes that we women are born with a lifetime supply of eggs in our ovaries that drastically diminishes throughout our childhood and reproductive years. But yesterday's news suggesting that female ovaries may indeed be able to churn out new eggs could provide hope for those women who find they don't have enough healthy eggs left when they're ready to have a baby. Chinese researchers extracted stem cells from the ovaries of mice and demonstrated that the cells gave rise to new eggs and that healthy babies could be produced from those eggs. Note: These female germline stem cells were taken from adult mice and weren't embryonic stem cells.
As exciting as the study is, its results are a far cry from demonstrating that such a technique can work in women. If it does, though, it could solve a lot of fertility problems. Many women undergoing cancer treatments are rendered infertile from egg-destroying radiation and chemotherapy. While freezing eggs prior to therapy currently gives many women the chance to have a child in the future, many doctors fail to discuss it until after treatment begins and it's too late.
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4 Ways to Shed Belly Fat and Protect Against Heart Failure
Tweet Share on Facebook April 8, 2009 Comment (49)If you're like most women, you probably know whether you're shaped like an apple (big waist, small hips, thin legs) or a pear (small waist, big hips and thighs). And you probably have heard that it's better healthwise to be a pear. Having too much fat on your belly increases your risk of age-related diseases like heart disease and diabetes. In fact, a study published yesterday in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure indicates that having a large waist size ups your risk of heart failure, a condition that's often fatal. A second study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that exercise doesn't harm those with heart failure and could actually provide some benefits.
The analysis of the belly fat research, based on data from two Swedish population studies, showed that being overweight or obese increased the risk of heart failure in men but didn't in women—unless they had a large waist size. A woman with a normal body mass index of 25 whose waist size increased by 4 inches over the years wound up with a 15 percent greater risk of heart failure than those whose waist sizes remained the same. (A 5-foot, 4-inch woman who weighs 146 pounds has a BMI of 25.) Medical experts recommend that women maintain a waist size of less than 35 inches to reduce their risk of chronic diseases.
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Will HPV Test Replace Pap Smear in Cervical Cancer Screening?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 7, 2009 Comment (28)In response to my blog post yesterday on Farrah Fawcett and anal cancer, I received an interesting E-mail from a reader who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer 10 years ago as a result of an infection with human papillomavirus. She had heard of the study published in last week's New England Journal of Medicine showing that a newer DNA test for HPV saves more lives from cervical cancer than traditional Pap smears. Here's an excerpt from her letter:
"I was hoping to get your take on the new HPV DNA test that is being touted as the replacement to the Pap smear. Reason I ask is that currently, HPV testing is ONLY recommend for women over 30 and the fact that they would do away with the Pap in favor of HPV DNA testing has many of us in the survivor community wondering what this all means. Will women under 30 get the HPV test? Will Paps be gone and HPV DNA testing only exist for women over 30? What does it all mean?"
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What Farrah Fawcett Can Teach Us About Anal Cancer
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (76)As much as I think celebrities should be afforded their privacy—like the rest of us—when they're battling life-threatening diseases, I sometimes blog about their conditions because I see them as teaching moments. Farrah Fawcett is in the news today with reports that she's been hospitalized for complications of anal cancer. She was first diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. Speculation was running wild that she was "close to dying," but the latest reports say she's suffering from a blood clot that resulted from an "alternative" cancer treatment she had in Germany to fight the cancer's recurrence.
Anal cancer is one of those cancers no one likes to talk about because it's, well, anal cancer. But we really should discuss it as much as, say, cervical cancer. Both are predominately caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. In fact, a 2004 study of 6,000 anal cancer patients (the majority of whom were women) found that 73 percent of the patients tested positive for the strain HPV-16, one of the strains that the Gardasil vaccine protects against.
