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.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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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Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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%.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...Process tested in patients over 10-year period involves short course of chemotherapy before chemoradiation
Doctors are hailing a “remarkable” new treatment regime for cervical cancer that reduces the risk of dying by 40%, in the biggest advance against the disease in 25 years.
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally, with about 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. In the UK, there are about 3,200 cases and 800 deaths each year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Robbie Katter says he will immediately sponsor a bill to amend the current legislation if the LNP is elected this month
The Queensland crossbencher Robbie Katter says he will consider forcing a vote to recriminalise abortion if the Liberal National party wins government at this month’s state election.
Katter says he will table legislation to wind back current laws with one option a “clean repeal” of Labor’s 2018 Termination of Pregnancy Act, a move that would return abortion to the 1899 criminal code.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Billionaire launches $250m fund to address problem as she warns of growth of ‘maternity care deserts’
Women’s health is being neglected worldwide with “maternity care deserts” more common, millions denied abortions and maternal death rates surging, Melinda French Gates has warned as she launches a $250m (£190m) fund to improve women’s physical and mental health globally.
Despite advances in medicine, women experience “unacceptable” inequities across all aspects of their health, spend more years living with ill health and still face barriers to accessing basic care. Women in rich and poor nations are affected and more than 700 are dying in childbirth each day, French Gates said.
Continue reading...No requirement to go to GP for new prescription for pill, as long as it has been taken for at least two years
More women in New South Wales will have easier access to the oral contraceptive pill as a trial designed to reduce pressure on the state’s healthcare system becomes permanent.
Under the changes, from Saturday women will be able to get a resupply of their pill from a certified pharmacist without needing to go back to the doctor for a new prescription – as long as they have been taking the medication for two years.
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Continue reading...Federal health minister also calls for prosecution of shopkeepers caught illegally selling vapes
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, says he is “astounded” that medical students can spend as little as one hour learning about menopause and has signalled that the government is likely to take action after a damning parliamentary inquiry.
On Sunday Butler told the ABC’s Insiders that several inquiries had told a “shameful story” about women’s treatment in Australia’s health system, saying there was more to do after Labor’s “modest investments” in women’s health.
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Continue reading...Ipsos survey asked people in 31 countries what they thought of their health and healthcare
Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed.
Experts said the shift in the public’s perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women.
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