Search Results for: label/women\'s health

• Women know something you don’t

  Make no mistake about it. by Emily Willingham Three of my four grandparents were only children. Born early in the 20th century, in the period betwixt the great wars, coming of age in the Great Depression. Only children, in spite of having parents married for decades. Three of them. In all likelihood, their own parents, my great-grandparents–and I knew all of my great-grandmothers–consciously chose not to have more children because,…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on March 26, 2013

• Is the bar high enough for screening breast ultrasounds for breast cancer?

  …ve dense breasts and lobbying to roll out all sorts of imaging studies quickly, no matter how well they have been studied, it would not be worth posting. Dense breasts are worrisome to women, especially young women (in their 40s particularly) because they have proved a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Doing ultrasound on every woman with dense breasts, though, who has no symptoms, and a normal mammogram potentially encompasses as many a…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on September 21, 2012

• Diversity in Science Carnival #14: Women’s History Month–Exploring the role of women in the STEM enterprise

  …and I close with a quote from it. It’s a letter by Chitra Thakur-Mahadik, who earned her PhD in biochemistry and hemoglobinopathy from the University of Mumbai and served as staff scientist a Mumbai children’s hospital for 25 years. She wrote to her younger, “partially sighted” self that, “The future is ahead and it is not bad!” She goes on to say, “Be fearless but be compassionate to yourself and others… be brave, keep your eyes and ears open…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on March 29, 2012

• How helpful are dense-breast right-to-know laws?

  …sk factor for breast cancer; §   mammography sees cancer less well in dense breasts than in normal breasts; and §   women may benefit from additional breast cancer screening. The California law goes into effect on April 1, 2013. It follows four states (Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, and New York) with similar statutes. All have enjoyed solid bipartisan support. Rarely do naysayers or skeptics speak up. Young women who are leading the charge oft…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on October 1, 2012

• Is there glamour in science? There are certainly no scientists in Glamour

  …ardashians not withstanding, when Amy Poehler makes a list like this, you’ve got to give the editors some credit.  So, I ask. Can the editors at Glamour give women in science some credit, too? Women like Elodie Ghedin, 2011 Macarthur Fellow and virologist whose work directly addresses critical public health issues? Or Ada Yonath, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for working on that tiniest of cellular structures, the ribos…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on November 17, 2011

• Hormonal birth control explainer: a matter of health

  …ing hormone (blue line), also from the brain, occurs simultaneously. These two hormones along with the estradiol peak result in the follicle expelling the egg from the ovary into the Fallopian tube, or oviduct (Figure 3, step 4). That’s ovulation. Fun fact : Right when the estrogen spikes, a woman’s body temperature will typically drop a bit (see “Basal body temperature” in the figure), so many women have used temperature monitoring to know that…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on March 5, 2012

• HIV+ doesn’t mean you can’t have children

  …wborn child In the United States, breastfeeding is discouraged because HIV can be transmitted in breast milk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk for HIV transmission goes up as much as 45%. However, the topic of breastfeeding remains controversial. In healthy women with no HIV history, the broad consensus is that breastfeeding is best, giving babies excellent nutrition and helping the infant bond with mom….

  Authored by DXS Contributor on March 11, 2013

• Think pink? I’d rather raise a stink

  en still face a greater risk of death than any other group. It’s still the most common cancer among women. It’s still one of the leading causes of cancer death among women. And it’s still the disease women fear most. Close to 40,000 women are expected to die of breast cancer this year, about 3,000 fewer than died in 1991—the year my mom got her diagnosis. She wore a little pink ribbon pin for a while. But after about five years, she grew weary of…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on October 8, 2012

• Does penis size matter?

  …t 5’4″ in to 6’2″), and shoulder-to-hip ratio by seven measurements each: three in the average range and then two standard deviations in either direction. Matching each variable with every other led to 343 figures. The researchers recruited 105 heterosexual Australian women, average age 26 and predominantly of European descent, to view each image at life-size on a screen and rate the figure’s attractiveness on a scal…

  Authored by Tara Haelle on April 8, 2013

• Image Caption Test Post

  …nserted before the material dried, the mold is removed. Though this paper included only two participants, a few years later the same researchers (plus a couple of others) published another study that examined vaginal molds of 39 women. In these women, all Caucasian, vaginal lengths ranged from almost 7 to almost 15 centimeters (2.75–6 in) with diameters between 2.4 and 6.5 cm (~1–2.5 in). A later studyclassified the diversity of vaginal shapes: c…

  Authored by Glenn Dixon on April 5, 2010