Category Archives: Women’s Health

Australian women lagging on use of IUDs due to education ‘failure’, experts say

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Exclusive: A majority of females currently want to avoid pregnancy but survey reveals very few use most effective birth control method

Most Australian women don’t know that intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most effective form of contraception.

Experts say this nationwide “failure in public education” has contributed to low uptake and caused Australia to lag behind other western countries.

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Daily endometriosis pill approved for NHS could help 1,000 women a year

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Linzagolix hailed as a possible ‘gamechanger’ in tackling the painful condition for some patients in England

More than 1,000 women a year in England could benefit from a new pill for endometriosis.

The condition occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body, such as the pelvis, bladder and bowel. It can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, extreme tiredness and fertility problems.

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People with endometriosis more likely to experience early menopause, study finds

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Surgical menopause occurs on average 19 months earlier, while natural menopause happens five months earlier, new global research shows

Women with endometriosis face a higher risk of premature and early menopause and are seven times more likely to experience surgical menopause, a study has found.

Surgical menopause occurs when a woman has both ovaries removed before reaching natural menopause, and may be done to treat endometriosis if other treatments fail.

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One in four women in England have serious reproductive health issue, survey finds

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Exclusive: Racial disparities highlighted as researchers estimate 10 million women have conditions such as fibroids or endometriosis

More than a quarter of women in England are living with a serious reproductive health issue, according to the largest survey of its kind, and experts say “systemic, operational, structural and cultural issues” prevent women from accessing care.

The survey of 60,000 women across England in 2023, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and analysed by academics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, found that 28% of respondents were living with a reproductive morbidity, such as pelvic organ prolapse, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, or cervical, uterine, ovarian or breast cancer.

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Anti-abortion campaigner convicted of breaching buffer zone outside UK clinic

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Livia Tossici-Bolt given conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,000 costs in case that drew US state department concern

An activist whose case had been cited by the US state department over “freedom of expression” concerns in the UK has been convicted of breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic.

Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner, went on trial at Poole magistrates court last month accused of breaching a public spaces protection order on two days in March 2023 near to a clinic in Bournemouth. On Friday she was found guilty of two charges of breaching the order.

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Women to save thousands of dollars a year as new fertility and endometriosis drugs listed on PBS

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New contraceptives, IVF and endometriosis treatments added to federal subsidy scheme, with Coalition leaders backing the move

New medications related to contraception, endometriosis and IVF will be subsidised on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from 1 May, with some women expected to save thousands of dollars each year.

The announcement from the federal government on Sunday was welcomed by health campaigners, who said women’s health issues have been sidelined for far too long.

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Nearly half of women in Africa will be obese or overweight by 2030 – study

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Stigma, lack of treatment and disproportionate rise of the disease in women draws comparisons with HIV epidemic

An alarming rise in obesity in Africa has been compared with the HIV epidemic, with stigma and lack of treatment having a disproportionate impact on women.

Almost half of women in Africa will be obese or overweight by the end of the decade, according to a recent study by the World Obesity Federation.

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‘Paradigm shift’: Australian researchers discover key to treatment of bacterial vaginosis

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Study shows that male partners can help in limiting recurrence of the condition afflicting almost one in three women

Like almost one in three women, Hanae has developed bacterial vaginosis (BV) – a condition when the normal healthy bacteria in the vagina are replaced by an overgrowth of other mixed bacteria.

When she got it for first time in 2021, she took the standard treatment of antibiotics, only for the condition to come back weeks later. “It came back time and time again, no matter how many times I got antibiotic treatment,” said Hanae, who lives in Melbourne.

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Swab test could help UK women avoid invasive checks for womb cancer

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New method reported to cut number of false positives by 87% has been registered with regulator for approval

A new swab test could help hundreds of thousands of women a year in the UK who may have womb cancer avoid having an often painful invasive procedure to detect the disease.

About 800,000 women annually go to see a GP because they are suffering from abnormal bleeding from their uterus and then undergo uncomfortable and stressful investigations to identify the cause.

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Judge strikes down license requirement for abortion providers in Missouri

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Ruling enables providers to offer procedure, which voters enshrined in state constitution after fall of Roe in 2022

In a massive victory for abortion rights supporters, a Missouri judge on Friday blocked a licensing requirement for abortion clinics that providers said prevented them from offering the procedure.

Planned Parenthood announced shortly after the judge’s ruling that its clinics would once again perform abortions in Missouri.

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Trump’s anti-diversity executive orders threaten Americans’ health, experts say

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As certain terms are scrubbed from US health agency websites decades of vital data is vanishing, advocates warn

After Donald Trump signed executive orders ordering for mentions of race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and other terms to be scrubbed from US health agency websites, experts say the implications for health and scientific research are vast.

All pages at US health agencies were told to take down these mentions after Trump signed certain executive orders on his first day in office.

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Brad Battin says Liberals ousted Greens in Prahran by ‘listening to locals’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Coalition backs healthcare package

Gallagher welcomed the opposition backing Labor’s package for women’s health this morning. She said on ABC Insiders:

We know Peter Dutton wanders around saying he’s going to cut a whole range of things. He’s clear he sees a lot of our investments in Medicare as wasteful spending. But these are really good investments into women’s health. And it will make a difference for millions of people across the country including women who are going through men who really have felt left behind by the health system and hopefully these new measures will address all of those issues.

It’s come down quite obviously for women across the country, the use of contraception, going through different stages of your life, including menopause, that these are areas that either haven’t been addressed for decades, or haven’t been met appropriately through the Medicare system. So, you know, we have landed the hospital deal, keep investing in the public health system, we have got a lot of initiatives about strengthening Medicare and this builds on that.

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‘Women are suffering unnecessarily’: Australians to get subsidised endometriosis treatment

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Without a subsidy, patients could pay $750 a year to treat the condition which has no cure and can last decades

More than one million Australians living with endometriosis will have access to a treatment subsidised by the federal government for the first time in three decades.

The health minister, Mark Butler, announced on Sunday that a daily tablet will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

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Women who have lost a baby prefer the term ‘pregnancy loss’ over ‘miscarriage’

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Exclusive: New research finds ‘clinical, cruel’ language used by medics is unacceptable to many

Women who have lost a baby often dislike the language used by medical professionals and would prefer the term “pregnancy loss” over “miscarriage”, research has found.

More than six in 10 women (61%) who had lost a baby between 18 and 23 weeks of pregnancy said it was unacceptable for doctors, midwives and nurses to use the word “miscarriage”.

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Swedish firm censured for use of C-word in ads for vaginal health supplements

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Regulator deems posters offensive, though Elexir Pharma argues term is ‘not loaded in the same way as in the UK’

The Swedish advertising ombudsman has criticised a company for using the C-word in posters to promote vaginal health supplements, saying the use of the “gross profanity” is offensive to consumers.

The ads, displayed on public transport in Stockholm and Gothenburg, feature the phrase “you can cunt on us” in pink writing.

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UN rules forcible sterilizations of women in Peru ‘crime against humanity’

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Country ordered to compensate victims of programme that affected more than 300,000 women in 1990s

A UN committee has urged Peru to compensate women who were forcibly sterilised in the 1990s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”.

Forced sterilisation was part of a programme implemented by Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori during the final four years before he left office in 2000 after a decade in power.

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No surgical abortion providers in seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas, report finds

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‘Service deserts’ affect those in high-disadvantage regional districts most, Women’s Health Victoria study says

Seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas have no surgical abortion provider and one in five have no medical abortion provider, a new report shows.

The Realising Access report released on Thursday by the not-for-profit Women’s Health Victoria also found “service deserts” most profoundly affect women in high-disadvantage regional areas. Women in such areas are 300% more likely to seek abortion services later than nine weeks, meaning they require a surgical abortion for which there are even fewer providers.

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Ian Paterson pitched cleavage-sparing mastectomy ‘like sales job’, inquest told

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Procedures performed by convicted breast surgeon were not a recognised or authorised type of operation

The convicted breast surgeon Ian Paterson pitched one of his patients an unauthorised cleavage-sparing mastectomy “almost like a sales job”, an inquest has heard.

Chloe Nikitas, an environmental consultant from Tamworth, died in 2008 at the age of 43 from breast cancer that returned three years after having a mastectomy she believed had removed all of her breast tissue.

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Hundreds more babies in US died than expected in months after Roe was overturned

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Study shows roughly 247 more infant deaths per month than expected in 18 months after supreme court’s decision

In the 18 months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading more than a dozen states to implement near-total abortion bans, hundreds more babies died than expected, new research has found.

The research, which was conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University and published Monday in Jama Pediatrics, compared data on infant mortality from the months before Roe’s downfall with data from afterward. Overall infant mortality, the researchers found, rose by 7%.

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Unearthed: the interview that reveals answer to abortion question David Crisafulli has dodged more than 132 times

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Exclusive: Queensland LNP leader faced questions at leaders’ debate after saying in 2023 he would allow MPs a conscience vote on changes to legislation

Queensland’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli, told a live audience last year “I don’t believe in late-term abortions” and promised MPs a conscience vote on the issue – answering questions he has refused to respond to more than 132 times during the state election campaign.

The Liberal National party leader has been dogged by the issue for weeks, refusing to declare his hand on a bill which will be introduced by Katter’s Australian party next parliament, including whether he would vote for it or grant other MPs a conscience vote.

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