Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistenly managed, according to Nice
Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.
PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.
Continue reading...Campaigners welcome announcement cutting levies on menstrual health items, but say their work to end period poverty is ‘far from over’
Pakistan plans to abolish “period tax”, in a victory for young campaigners who had taken the government to court over the charges.
Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that sanitary towels and related items were “daily necessities that are indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities”, and said he intended to remove the sales tax.
Continue reading...Emily Lal – paid $6,000 to provide freebirth support package to Stacey Warnecke – tells coroner her role was primarily to be a ‘supportive friend’
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A birthkeeper hired by a woman who died after giving birth at home has told a coroner that she was “not there to make a birth safer”.
Emily Lal gave evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into the death of 30-year-old Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29 September in Frankston hospital after giving birth at home with her husband and Lal present.
Continue reading...Patients in Washington and Hawaii will be able to obtain medication before pregnancy in expansion of early access
Planned Parenthood clinics in Washington and Hawaii will now offer “just in case” abortion medication, bringing wider attention to the option of receiving the pills in advance of pregnancy amid growing challenges to access.
Leaders at the organization hope their name recognition will help community members understand their options for accessing care despite federal, state and personal challenges to getting abortion care.
Continue reading...Elahere is first new drug for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer to be approved by NHS for 20 years
Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer can now be offered a new life-prolonging treatment, after NHS England approved its introduction. It is the first new drug for resistant ovarian cancer to be approved for more than 20 years.
Ovarian is the 18th most common type of cancer globally, affecting more than 300,000 women a year. More than three-quarters of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making it harder to treat.
Continue reading...Obstetricians and gynaecologists say anti sex-selective abortions bill ‘predicated on misinformation’ and ‘underlying aim is to restrict access to abortion’
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The man who wants to ban “sex-selective abortions” is the first person who will tell you it won’t work.
New South Wales Libertarian party MLC John Ruddick has introduced legislation that would see health practitioners sent to prison or fined thousands if they carry out a termination because of the sex of a foetus.
Continue reading...States with abortion bans are turning away from medications to a wait-and-see approach, with care falling below standards
Abortion restrictions in the US have made it more difficult to access care for miscarriages, a new study stays.
The new research found that since the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade, pregnancy care has fractured along state lines; it’s getting increasingly harder to access healthcare for miscarriages in US states with abortion restrictions.
Continue reading...Results suggest radiotracer maraciclatide can ‘light up’ condition on scan and reduce need for investigative surgery
A non-invasive scan for endometriosis has shown promising results in a trial, boosting hopes for far quicker diagnosis.
The trial, which included 19 women with the condition, suggests that an experimental radiotracer, called maraciclatide, can “light up” endometriosis on a scan. The current need for a surgical investigation is seen as a major obstacle to timely diagnosis, with women in England typically waiting nearly a decade.
Continue reading...Mo-Rez reduced or eliminated tumours in over 60% of patients and is expected to be a blockbuster drug
GSK has revealed positive results for a treatment for gynaecological cancers as its chief executive, Luke Miels, seeks to speed up drug development at the group.
The company said that in an early-stage trial Mocertatug Rezetecan, known as Mo-Rez, shrank or eliminated tumours in 62% of patients with ovarian cancer where chemotherapy had failed, and in 67% of those with endometrial cancer.
Continue reading...José Antonio Kast, who voted against legalising divorce in 2004, has pushed for return to total abortion ban
Women’s rights activists in Chile are bracing as the most conservative president since the Pinochet dictatorship prepares to take office on Wednesday.
José Antonio Kast, a 60-year-old ultra Catholic whose father was a member of the Nazi party, has consistently blocked progressive bids for women’s rights and equality across his three-decade career in politics.
Continue reading...Royal College of Psychiatrists says impact on mental health often overlooked and calls for improvements in care
Nearly three-quarters of UK women do not know menopause can trigger a new mental illness, polling shows.
This lack of understanding is so acute that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has launched its first targeted “position statement” to raise awareness about menopause and mental health.
Continue reading...Women from countries with near-total bans on terminations will be given help to access services elsewhere
EU states will be able to tap into a social fund to help citizens access safe abortions, in an announcement hailed as a “victory for women”.
The roots of Thursday’s announcement go back to a long campaign for the European Commission to create a funding mechanism that would allow women from countries with near-total bans on abortion, such as Malta and Poland, to go where it is legal.
Continue reading...Presenter says she is ‘in a much more positive place’ after having lumpectomy and catching cancer early
Davina McCall has revealed she has undergone surgery for breast cancer and urged others to “get checked”.
In a video posted to Instagram, the presenter said she was “very angry” when she found out about the cancer, but felt in a “much more positive place” after a lumpectomy.
Continue reading...Patients who had more cells had better outcomes, particularly for aggressive types such as triple-negative breast cancer
In the 18th century, physicians noticed nuns had some of the highest rates of breast cancer. It was one of the earliest clues that led scientists to suspect that child-bearing and breastfeeding could protect against the disease.
Modern data has confirmed the centuries-old observation but the biological reasons behind it have remained unclear. Explanations have often focused on pregnancy-related hormonal changes, but research published Tuesday in Nature has found breastfeeding provides long-lasting immune protection.
Continue reading...Caesareans drive rise in assisted deliveries as experts warn of complex pregnancies linked to age, obesity and other conditions
More than half of women having a baby in Britain now do so with the help of medical intervention, an audit of NHS maternity care has revealed.
Of the 592,594 births that took place in 2023, 50.6% involved either a caesarean section or the use of instruments such as forceps or a ventouse suction cup.
Continue reading...Expert says self-testing kits are clinically useless and can be a distraction from evidence-based treatment
Expensive, over-the-counter hormone tests for menopause are clinically useless and risk undermining women’s healthcare, senior doctors have warned.
The testing kits, offered by private clinics and available to buy for self-testing, claim to offer tailored insights through measuring hormone levels. But they have been described by experts as misleading and medically unnecessary.
Continue reading...Groundbreaking footage shows ‘surprisingly invasive’ process and may help to improve infertility treatments
A human embryo being implanted into a uterus has been pictured in real time and in 3D footage for the first time by a team of scientists.
It shows images of an embryo implanting into a synthetic uterus, demonstrating how the process occurs naturally.
Continue reading...Stigma around mifepristone is stopping studies, experts in reproductive health claim in Lancet opinion piece
A drug used in medical abortions could help prevent women at high risk of breast cancer from developing the disease, according to an international group of doctors and scientists.
However, “stigma” around mifepristone is stopping pharmaceutical companies from investigating its potential as a new treatment doctors could offer to reduce the risk of breast cancer, they say.
Continue reading...Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says
A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.
More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.
Continue reading...Major causes of death contributing to inequality are lung cancer, respiratory illness and heart disease, ANU researchers say
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Australia has made progress in reducing socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy but men living in disadvantaged areas are still dying almost seven years earlier, a new report from the Australian National University has found.
The study’s lead author and ANU demographer, Sergey Timonin, said the gaps in life expectancy between the most advantaged and disadvantaged areas stopped widening just before the Covid pandemic began and did not significantly worsen during the lockdown years.
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