The Women’s Media Center

By Dr. Sharon Ufberg

August 1, 2011

Authored by Lisa Cosgrove of the Harvard Center for Ethics, a recent statistical analysis of studies assessing the relationship between breast and ovarian cancer and antidepressant drug use finds possible link.

Are you one of the thousands of women currently taking antidepressants? A recent review indicates that these medications are not risk free, particularly for women.

The analysis of published studies suggests a link between breast and ovarian cancer and antidepressant drug usage. The review, which found an 11 percent increased risk overall in both breast and ovarian cancer for patients taking such medication, points to a need for further investigation, particularly since the results varied widely depending on who funded the research.

“I would want to consider nondrug treatment if I was mildly depressed, given our data,” said Lisa Cosgrove of the Harvard Center for Ethics, who led the review of 61 studies. The increased risk was indicated with even short term or low dosage use of the medicine, and the link appeared strongest in cases of the widely used SSRI class of antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

Women are given a diagnosis of depression two times more often than men, and with over 11 percent of the United States population on antidepressant drugs, these new findings should have everyone concerned. In today’s “quick fix” world of medicine, antidepressants are prescribed for many conditions besides signs of depression. The wide range of other symptoms include headaches, neck and back pain, eating disorders, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and—even more unsettling given the link suggested by the review—often for hot flashes for women who have had breast cancer and cannot take estrogen.

What is also disturbing is that the research results vary widely depending on whether a study was funded by the pharmaceutical industry or considered “clean” research—research done with no ties to BigPharma. Not one study funded by the pharmaceutical industry reported a link between breast and ovarian cancer and the use of antidepressants. However, the “clean” research reported a 43 percent link between antidepressants and increased risk of the two types of cancer. One must wonder, how is it possible that not one of the industry funded studies yielded any linkage?

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More information on this study:

Antidepressants and breast and ovarian cancer risk: a review of the literature and researchers’ financial associations with industry.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21494667

Read the complete article and related information at EXCLUSIVE: Antidepressants and Breast, Ovarian Cancer Link Suggested

LAIST.com

Hollywood
July 21, 2011

Hey guys, check it out — bring home many gallons of milk and you’ll no longer be a victim of your girlfriend/wife/mother’s general premenstrual bitchiness.

Such was the gist of the latest campaign from the California Milk Processor Board before it was shut down prematurely, a victim of its own poorly executed bad humor.

Following pressure from several groups including a change.org petition launched by Ms. Magazine, the campaign website EverythingIDoIsWrong.org morphed into GotDiscussion.com Thursday morning. The campaign was supposed to run through the end of August.

The Milk Board, administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and best known for the “got milk?” campaign, posted the following quasi-apology (aka “sorry to the few humorless idiots we offended”):

Over the past couple of weeks, regrettably, some people found our campaign about milk and PMS to be outrageous and misguided – and we apologize to those we offended. Others thought it funny and educational. It has opened up a topic that affects women, of course, but also relationships. We have reproduced a representative sampling of the reaction here….

Read More…

Read the complete article and related information at Got PMS?: California Milk Board Shuts Down Sexist Ad Campaign

Women’s Law Project

July 19, 2011

A recent meta-analysis (integration of a large number of studies on the same subject) by Northwestern University reveals that most people still use gendered stereotypes when thinking about leadership. The consequence of this is that “Women are viewed as less qualified or natural in most leadership roles…and secondly, when women adopt culturally masculine behaviors often required by these roles, they may be viewed as inappropriate or presumptuous.” These biases against women are most likely contributing to the ever-present leadership gap in the U.S.—women still only hold 17% of seats in Congress and in 2008 only 15.7% of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies were women.

Previous research found that women are perceived as inherently having more “communal” qualities such as being compassionate. Men, on the other hand, were perceived by participants in the studies as inherently having more “agentic” qualities such as being assertive. Research found that it is agentic qualities that are perceived as being an important element of leadership. The Times of India sums up, “Because men fit the cultural stereotype of leadership better than women, they have better access to leadership roles and face fewer challenges in becoming successful in them.” Both female and male participants in the studies that made up the meta-analysis saw men as being inherently better leaders than women.

It is incredibly disheartening that, as Laura Hibbard commented, in an era where “women hold some of the most powerful positions in the United States (see: Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State, Nancy Pelosi, [Former] Speaker of the House, etc.) we still haven’t really changed the way we think about leadership roles and women.” However, the study did show some encouraging trends. The meta-analysis collected data since 1973 so could see if attitudes towards women in leadership are changing over time. Most people still view leadership roles as inherently male but Alice Eagly, professor of psychology and a co-author of the study told Hibbard, “women should be encouraged that leadership is culturally not as extremely masculine as it was in the past…That’s progress because it makes leadership roles more accessible to women and easier to negotiate when in such a role.”

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Read the complete article and related information at Study Reveals Women Still Not Recognized as Capable Leaders

Mail Online
United Kingdom

By Jo Waters
Last updated at 11:32 PM on 18th July 2011

Kirsty Baranowski stood in the middle of the road hammering on a taxi driver’s windscreen. She was incandescent with rage because he’d suddenly pulled out in front of her.

The outburst was completely out of character, but for 20 years she had been battling with violent mood swings in the run-up to her period.

‘Normally, I was mild mannered,’ says Kirsty, 41, who lives in Southfields, South-West London, with her children, Alexander, ten, and Sophia, nine.

Read the complete article and related information at The women told they’re mentally ill when they are really crippled by period pain

The Village Voice

Annals of Absurdity

Having apparently tired of moustaches, the California Milk Processor Board is taking betting on the female menstrual cycle to boost dairy sales.

In a new ‘Got Milk?’ campaign called ‘Everything I Do Is Wrong,’ the milk board positions its signature product as the cure-all for PMS by marketing it, oddly, to men. Specifically, men who happen to have wives and/or girlfriends made utterly, frighteningly irrational by their monthly hormonal holocaust.

The print ads, which bear headlines like “We can both blame myself” and “I’m sorry I listened to what you said and not what you meant,” direct these poor, quivering souls to a website where they can create apology videos, track global PMS levels, read “case studies,” and get such advice as “Be on high alert for verbal traps and questions about weight.” The rapier wit on display may or may not take you back to your seventh grade sex ed class.

The milk board and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the agency responsible for the campaign, actually tried the PMS thing in 2005 with a TV commercial depicting men ransacking grocery stores and milk trucks of their inventory as Barry White played in the background. Both the 2005 commercial and the current campaign refer to a study that has shown “milk can help reduce the symptoms of PMS.” Actually, that study concluded that vitamin D and calcium could reduce PMS symptoms, and as any lactose intolerant lady knows, those can also be found in pills and fortified orange juice, among other things.

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Read the complete article and related information at Milk: Perfect for the Crazy, Hormonal Bitch in Your Life

That’s Fit

Posted on Jul 13th 2011 10:00AM

Studies show that one in every three women suffers from menstrual cramps, according to Karin Björkegren’s new book: “Yoga for Women.” And, while exercise might be the last thing you feel like doing when you’re on your period, studies have also proven that physical activity can lessen pain and cramping; it’s worth getting yourself to yoga class.

According to Björkegren, relieving menstrual pain is all about loosening the pelvis, which means a) resting during the first few days of menstruation and b) minimizing stress, both of which can be helped a long way by regular yoga practice. She recommends backing off of a full yoga practice during your period to give yourself a rest and incorporating the following combination of relaxing, pelvis opening moves four to five times per week before or during your period:

Supta Baddha Konasana — Butterfly Pose
Björkegren says: “This is a great preventive pose for menstruation issues. It opens up the groin and allows the lumbar to rest, the areas that usually hurt during menstruation pains.”

How to do it:
1) Lie on the floor or a yoga mat and place a bolster or pillow under your back for support.
2) Bring the soles of your feet together so your knees point out to the sides (as shown above).
3) Stay in pose for three to 10 minutes and breathe deeply.

Frog Pose
Similar to the Butterfly pose, the Frog pose improves the blood circulation and opens up the hips and groins.

How to do it:
1) Sit with legs underneath pelvis, knees pointing out to the sides and toes pointing inward (as in Butterfly pose).
2) Lean forward onto a bolster or pillow to support your torso.
3) Lie like this and breathe for three to ten minutes.

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Read the complete article and related information at Yoga Poses to Beat Period Cramps

Mercola.com

Excerpted from:

My New Warning: Avoid THESE Medical Treatments Whenever Possible

Posted By Dr. Mercola | May 09 2011

Women stand the greatest risk of receiving an unnecessary medical procedure. If you are a female living in the US, when it comes to healthcare, you might as well have a target on your back.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that one-third of American women have had a hysterectomy by age 60; and half of them have had one by age 65. Yet 85 percent of these surgeries are unnecessary, according to Ernst Bartsich, a clinical associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.

This adds up to more than $17 billion a year on direct doctor and hospital charges for hysterectomies.

If you’ve had a complete hysterectomy, meaning you’ve also had your ovaries and cervix removed, you don’t need a Pap test, which examines cells scraped from your cervix. Yet, a study in 2004 showed that 10 million women a year who don’t have a cervix are still getting Pap tests consisting of a scraping of cells from their vaginal walls – when no professional organization recommends this screening for women without a cervix!

For younger women who are in their child-bearing years, the health profession has found a different way to make money off you, to the tune of an extra $3 billion a year.

Spontaneous deliveries – waiting for a baby to come on its own – can be time-consuming for modern doctors, and can test your patience if you’re the mom-to-be. That’s why today 32 percent of American births today are through Caesarean sections (C-sections).

According to Intermountain Healthcare, C-sections are costly in more ways than one:

• They are the most common surgical procedure performed in America, increasing more than 50 percent since the 1990s.
• They cost an average of $16,671, compared to $9,428 for a vaginal delivery.
• Many are being done after a pre-term, elective induction that hasn’t proceeded quickly enough.

Additionally, a New England Journal of Medicine study showed women have up to four times the risk of complications with a C-section than a vaginal birth, ranging between $2,000 and $200,000 in additional costs.

And the complications can be serious, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, putting the babies at increased risk of brain, liver, and lung development problems. Caesarean-delivered babies are also more likely to need CPR, and to have significantly higher rates of respiratory distress, sepsis and hypoglycemia.

So why are C-sections so prevalent?

It’s largely a desire for control on the part of families, physicians and hospitals, the WSJ reported.

And according to USA Today, there’s another reason: “economic incentives” for doctors and hospitals to use these procedures, including bonuses for labor inductions which add costs and increase the risks for C-sections (surprise!).

So there you have it: for the sake of economic incentives, convenience, and control over what day and even time of day the birth occurs, babies’ lives are being put in danger – at an additional annual cost of $3 billion to the U.S. health care system.

From birth through teenage years, our current health care system has a goal of maximizing each new little profit center we usher into their business model. Because that’s what the system is designed to do, put profits first at the expense of everything else, including the health of our babies.

What chance do YOU have against this system?

Educating yourself and your family to their business model and their seemingly endless tricks to maximize profits. Because an educated and healthy consumer is the worst enemy of our current “sick care” model that passes for health care in the US.

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Female Patients Translate into Huge Possibilities for the Bottom Line

Birthologie

Discovering Your Peaceful Birth

One Problem, 101 Symptoms

What if I told you that your baby’s colic, cradle cap, ear infections, diaper rashes, allergies and sleep sensitivities were all one problem?

What if I told you that your mastitis, eczema, hives, pms, cramps, and gas were all one problem?

What if I told you that your baby acquired her problems from you?  And that this problem contributed to things like arthritis, ADD, autism, lupus, infertility, endometriosis, and gluten sensitivity?

What if I told you you could solve these problems easily?

Would you do it?  Who wouldn’t?

Taming the Yeastie Beasties

Yeast Overgrowth.

It’s the most underdiagnosed problem in the world, and is at the root of an endless list of ailments.

What is Yeast?

Internal yeast, or Candida Albicans, is part of the ‘zoo’ in our bodies and we need a certain level of it in order to be healthy.  Yeast is responsible for eating our bodies away when we die.  But when we have an overgrowth in our bodies, it can literally eat us alive.

How is it managed?

While the liver is responsible for the management of yeast, yeast can overgrow in every part of our body.  The overgrowth (known as Candidiasis) usually starts in the digestive system and gradually spreads to other parts of the body. It is also a type of parasite that is strong, invasive and usually attaches itself to the intestinal wall and becomes a permanent resident of the internal organs.

Candidiasis has the ability to produce  75 toxic substances that can poison the human body.

Read More….

Taming the Yeastie Beasties Part 2: The Symptoms and Stages

Women think that just because they don’t have a vaginal yeast infection, they must not have a yeast problem.  Most everyone believes that men can’t have a yeast problem.  And that the only symptom in a baby is thrush.

Yeast overgrowth manifests itself in so many different ways that it can be hard to keep up, but getting to the root of your symptoms is such a relief.  When I realized that all my babies problems were yeast related, and so many of my problems were also yeast that I got in the womb from my mother, it made solving all these symptoms so easy – all I needed to do was balance yeast.

Read Full Article….

Taming the Yeastie Beasties Part 3: Remedies

What Causes Yeast Overgrowth & How Do You Treat It?

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Candida Overgrowth is Making You and Your Baby Sick and Tired (and Colickly). Taming the Yeastie Beasties Part 1

Miami New Times

courtesy of The Daily Cramp

What it looks like when your lady is in the “sexy” zone.

“Guys think women just have a period once a month and bleed,” Hilley says. “But the chemicals in their bodies are constantly changing, that’s why their emotions change.”

So he decided to create an email update that would let men know what mood their missus had in store for them that day.

It’s simple. Enter your email address, your wife or girlfriend’s name, and the last time she had her period and viola! You now have a Master’s degree in menstruation.

“It’s 1 part science, 1 part Dear Abby, and all parts funny,” the website says.

Well, they got the Dear Abby part right, at least.

Here’s an example of The Daily Cramp, which went live this morning:

Today’s status: still bleeding. In fact, a tidal wave of dark red and watery brown river water is flowing out of me right now. What? Too much information? Isn’t this why you signed up for The Daily Cramp: to know my flow? Well get used to it. This is the way of my biological world, weenie.

Considering the torrential downpour I’m experiencing, I probably won’t shave. Not my legs. Not my underarms. Not my hoo-ha. Nothing. I’m going to go au naturale and bring it back to the stone age. And you’ve got nothing to say about it, so you can just clamp your loud mouth shut. It’s not like you deserve any awards for self-grooming.

The Daily Cramp: Your path to a no strings attached BJ begins and ends with sympathy. Be nice, be sympathetic, and be down with the fur on my leg. If you don’t, you’ll blow your chances (pun intended).

Read the complete article and related information at The Daily Cramp: Can Miami Investment Bankers Make Million$ Teaching Men About Menstruation?

Brudirect.com
Brunei

Written by Medicmagic Monday, 28 March 2011 06:46

Many women who are about to experience menstruation often become irritable which causes discomfort for people around her.

The mystery of why women easily gets upset and anxious before their period has always been a big question. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, also conducted a study to find answers to such emotional turmoil.

In the study which was published in ‘Biological Psychiatry’ journal, researchers revealed that the instability of mood before menstruation is related to the response of cells of the brain called GABA receptors.

Andrea Rapkin, one of the researchers, said that the study was carried out by scanning the brains of women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). PMDD symptoms is like premenstrual syndrome (PMS), only it is more severe.

The scanning with PET scan will show the glucose metabolism which is required to identify the activity in the brain.

The cause of emotional changes before menstruation turned out not to be caused by hormones. Scan results actually showed an increase in activity in the cerebellum in women with PMDD. The higher the increase in activity, the worse the emotion condition changes.

One function of the GABA cell is to limit activities related to stress and anxiety. In women with PMDD, progesterone will change the shape of GABA receptors in the cerebellum. This changes in shape before the menstrual period makes GABA cells difficult to control stress and anxiety.

Suzanne Abraham, a gynecologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia, said that although it is carried out on women with PMDD, this study adequately represent the condition of women in general. For your information, women with PMDD are only about percent, according to New Scientist. — Courtesy of Medicmagic

Read More….

Interesting to hear this information coming out of Brunei and not the U.S. Endocrine system functioning and balance does begin in the brain – GABA is one of the neurotransmitters involved in addictive behaviors….and for some women PMS and anger is addictive.

Read the complete article and related information at Why Women Easily Gets Angry Before Menstruation