Archive: Women's Health
Teen girls and risky sex
It's tempting to assume that teenage girls who have unprotected sex at an early age do so because they're hot to trot, in a hurry and ill-informed. But new research suggests things are much more complicated than that. Reporting in the November issue of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh researchers found...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | November 2, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Getting Guys to Wash Their Hands
We all know that one of the simplest, best ways to stay healthy is to wash our hands a lot, especially these days during the swine flu pandemic. Some new research out Thursday offers clues to what gets people to actually do it. And guess what? Shame appears to be...
By Rob Stein | October 15, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (20)
Virus Associated With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Scientists have found evidence that a virus may play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome. Vincent C. Lombardi of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nev., and scientists elsewhere studied 101 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, a baffling, debilitating and controversial condition that affects an estimated 17 million people worldwide....
By Rob Stein | October 8, 2009; 02:00 PM ET | Comments (5)
For Some Women, Recession Means Having Few Children
By Rob Stein The recession is apparently prompting more women to try to delay having babies, according to the first survey (pdf) aimed at documenting the effects of the economic downtown on childbearing. Nearly half of working-class women want to put off childbearing or to have fewer children, according to...
By washingtonpost.com Editors | September 23, 2009; 07:50 AM ET | Comments (6)
A Fatal Blow for HRT?
Postmenopausal women on combined estrogen/progestin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are at increased risk of getting and dying from lung cancer, according to research published in the British medical journal The Lancet. The discovery adds to the already long list of risks associated with HRT and bolsters the case against its...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | September 19, 2009; 07:01 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Health Hazards of Pessimism
Can your attitude affect your health? Yes, according to a new study. Optimism appears to be good for your health and pessimism seems to be bad, the study found. In the largest study of its kind, Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh and her colleagues studied 97,253 postmenopausal women...
By Rob Stein | August 13, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Paying Girls Not to Get Pregnant
With the recent rise in teen pregnancy, it's clear that efforts to get young people to either abstain from sex or use birth control are falling short. Any ideas as to how to fix the problem are welcome, so it's not surprising that a program that aims to get girls...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | June 29, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (24)
Why Are Teen Births Rising?
The recent increase in teen births appears to be primarily the result of a decrease in contraceptive use, especially condoms, according to new research out today. After declining for 14 years, the teen birth rate increased in 2006 and then again in 2007, causing alarm that one of the nation's...
By Rob Stein | June 18, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (35)
Will Men Get Gardasil?
The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve Gardasil for men. But the question is: Will men be willing to get a vaccine for mostly altruistic reasons? A new study raises questions about that. The vaccine protects against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection....
By Rob Stein | June 4, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
How Much Weight Should Pregnant Women Gain?
The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine released new guidelines today for how much weight women should gain during pregnancy. And the biggest change in the guidelines--the first revision since 1990--is that they for the first time include specific recommendations for obese women. The addition is a nod to...
By Rob Stein | May 28, 2009; 12:30 PM ET | Comments (8)
Weigh in on Plus-Size Yoga Classes
Kay Adcock, left, and Paula Leonardo, right, stretch along with yoga instructor Joy Anandi at the Rice Diet Program in Durham, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey A. Camarati) A story in last week's New York Times drew attention to yoga classes designed specifically -- and solely -- for overweight and obese...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 20, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (7)
Learning to Love the Female Condom
When it comes to creating condoms, the folks who make 'em for men have it easy. Male condoms are the essence of simplicity and require little in the way of engineering -- or imagination. By contrast, when the people at The Female Health Company in Chicago set out to make...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 18, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
Plus-Size Clothes, continued...
If it were up to readers of The Checkup, stores would offer plenty of flattering clothes in larger sizes so plus-size teens could step out in style. The poll in last week's blog had 93 percent of 1,175 voters weighing in in favor of making such clothing available for young...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 11, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (30)
Nourishing Gifts for Mom
Sunday is Mother's Day. (You knew that, right?) Many of us will likely bestow cards and flowers on our moms to show our gratitude and love. But if your mother is into health and nutrition, you might want to get creative and cater to those interests. It's not too late...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 8, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
Do Plus-Size Clothes for Teens Endorse Obesity?
The news that Target and Forever 21 are launching lines of plus-size clothes for teens has ruffled some emotions. Some argue that providing Size 30 or 2XL clothing for young women is akin to telling them it's fine to be fat. Others say young women of all sizes and shapes...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | May 4, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (19)
Running with Cancer
Taking a break from training for the More magazine half marathon, (from left to right) Judy Fitzpatrick, Anne Foster, Dr. Pamela Peeke, Jessica Glickman and Marlyn Glickman pose in Rock Creek Park. (Eric Hughes) What are you doing Sunday morning at 8? Three area women will be taking a...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | April 24, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
A Most Unusual Lunch: Placenta
I received an attention-grabbing e-mail the other day -- one that took me a while to, er, digest. It came from a lively online Web site called MomLogic, where people write all kinds of parenting tips and information. This particular bit of information was about one mother's experience eating the...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | April 13, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (13)
A Wake-Up Call for Insomniacs
How'd you sleep last night? If your answer is "Hardly at all," you're like an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. population. Insomnia -- the inability to fall, or stay, asleep at night -- is a serious problem, one that's been tied to cardiovascular disease and depression. It causes daytime...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | March 11, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (14)
Maintaining Good Health -- for Yourself, or for Loved Ones?
Watching the recent videotape of former President George H.W. Bush choking up as he talked about his wife Barbara's heart surgery made me tear up. (Skip ahead to minute 1:21 to see Mr. Bush's remarks.) The husband's raw emotion made me wonder what he would have done if things hadn't...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | March 10, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (8)
Can Your Marriage Make You Sick?
A bad marriage may be bad for your health--if you're a woman, according to new research out today. Nancy Henry of the University of Utah and her colleagues studied 276 couples who had been married an average of 20 years.The couples filled out questionnaires assessing positive aspects of their marriage,...
By Rob Stein | March 5, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (12)
Barbie, Mom and Body Image
In Barbie's 50 years as the doll America loves to hate, there's been lots of hand-wringing over the fashion icon's role in shaping girls' self-image. Do those big breasts, wasp waist and mile-long legs make us gals feel so inadequate that we fall into punishing dietary habits and other self-destructive...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | March 3, 2009; 07:20 AM ET | Comments (12)
Breastfeeding and MS
It's well established that women with multiple sclerosis tend to have fewer relapses -- bouts of the disease's unpredictable symptoms -- when they're pregnant. The trade-off is that they usually have much higher risk of relapse during the first 3 or 4 months after giving birth. New research to be...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | February 25, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
How Risky Are Hormones?
There's important new research out today about hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. A new analysis of the landmark Women's Health Initiative has shown just how much of a risk women face from taking estrogen and progestin to relieve hot flashes and other problems due to menopause, and how quickly...
By Rob Stein | February 5, 2009; 07:30 AM ET | Comments (1)
New Risk Factor for Infertility?
Could a woman become infertile because of her blouse? Or her couch? Or her carpet? That's what a provocative new study suggests. The study of 1,240 Danish women published today in the journal Human Reproduction found that those with elevated blood levels of chemicals widely used in common products such...
By Rob Stein | January 29, 2009; 11:30 AM ET | Comments (1)
Women With Heart Ills Face Delays en Route to Hospitals
In a study that's ultimately more tantalizing than conclusive, researchers have found that women with heart-attack symptoms who call emergency medical services (EMS) are more likely than men to experience delays in delivery to the hospital. Reporting in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (published by the American Heart...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | January 21, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Birth Control Pill and Cardio Health: Big Questions Linger
Four out of five American women have used oral contraceptives at some point in their lives since the birth control pill's introduction in the 1960s. But while this form of birth control has made life easier in many ways for women, big questions remain about its safety, especially among women...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | January 16, 2009; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Does Abortion Traumatize Women?
Does abortion leave some women severely emotionally traumatized? That question has been the focus of a long bitter debate, with some claiming that abortion can cause a syndrome similar to post-traumatic stress disorder dubbed "post-abortion syndrome." A new study out today is wading back into this hot-button question --and concludes...
By Rob Stein | December 4, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (13)
Improving a Woman's Love Life
There's new evidence that women may be able to safely improve their love lives--by taking the principal male sex hormone, testosterone. Studies indicate that a lot of women have problems with their love lives -- a Harvard study involving more than 31,000 women in this month's issue of the journal...
By Rob Stein | November 6, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (15)
Is Gardasil Safe?
Fretting about whether to get your daughter vaccinated against cervical cancer? Or perhaps about getting Gardasil yourself? The federal government has new data that officials say should help calm fears about the safety of the controversial shots. The analysis of data collected from about 190,000 women and girls who got...
By Rob Stein | October 23, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (9)
Do You Trust Gardasil?
A friend e-mailed me yesterday saying her college-student daughter had reported that 200 girls/women had died after receiving Gardasil, the three-shot vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer by protecting against the human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause it. "Any truth to that?" she wondered. Reports and rumors about Gardasil's adverse...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | August 19, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (30)
My Venus Week
All these years I've been having my Venus Week and didn't even know it. "The Venus Week," as described in a recent book by that name, is that one sparkling point in a woman's monthly menstrual cycle in which her hormones are all working in her favor, making her skin...
By Jennifer LaRue Huget | July 9, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
