Do Many Roles Make Healthy Women? [United States] For women, combining work and family may be a healthier choice than staying home, recent research in Britain suggests. The researchers studied 1,171 women born in 1946, interviewing them in each decade from their 20s on to collect information about their health, work, marriage and children. They then had the women report their state of health at 54. The study found that women who had taken on multiple roles as mothers, wives, and employees over those years were significantly healthier than those who had not. "Our question," said Anne McMunn, the lead author of the findings, "was whether women were working and having families because of their good health or whether their health was relatively good because of multiple role occupation." The answer, the study found, is that taking on extra roles was itself associated with good health, and that initial good health was not a predictor of taking on extra roles.

Viagra May Improve Sex Life of Diabetic Women. [United States] Young women with diabetes with sexual dysfunction may find that Viagra (sildenafil) improves arousal, orgasm and sexual enjoyment and decreases pain during intercourse, results of a small study suggest. Diabetic women may experience sexual dysfunction due to vaginal dryness, discomfort, and other factors, Dr. Salvatore Caruso and associates, from the University of Catania in Italy, note in their paper, published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility. Some of Viagra's physiologic effects, which are beneficial in men, may also be helpful for women, they hypothesized. To test their theory, they recruited 32 women with type 1 diabetes who in the past had experienced normal sexual desire, but currently experienced sexual dysfunction -- for 3.5 years on average. The subjects were randomly assigned to Viagra or inactive "placebo" and then the opposite treatment for 8 weeks at a time. The women were instructed to take the medication 1 hour before sexual intercourse. Viagra use was associated with significantly improved arousal, orgasm, and enjoyment. Only desire and frequency did not change significantly.

Women's Sex Drive Collapse. [England] Nearly half of all women have a lower sex drive than they would like - and almost two-thirds would turn to a form of Viagra if it was readily available, new research suggests. Lowered libidos were mostly attributed to exhaustion at the end of the day. However the study of 3000 women aged 25 to 50 for Red magazine also found 40 per cent had suffered from depression -way higher than official figures which claim one woman in five will suffer from it at some point. The survey also found 60 per cent of women think they are fat. Their top body wishes are to have more energy, to be a size 10 forever and, in third place, to look 10 years younger. When asked what they were most concerned about, anxiety and depression came out top, followed by breast cancer, dementia and fertility problems. Heart disease, the UK's biggest killer, was way down the list of concerns in fifth place.

Stress Can Make Women Infertile. [United States] Stress can stop women from becoming pregnant, ground-breaking research has revealed. Scientists from the United States found that a build-up of stress can play a major role in preventing a woman from ovulating. A pilot study revealed that psychotherapy had a startling effect in some of these stressed women - restoring fertility in up to 80 per cent of cases. Professor Sarah Berga, from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said: "Contrary to what had previously been believed, we found that multiple small stressors that seemingly would have minimal impact on reproductive competence can play a major role in causing anovulation (failure to ovulate). "Up until now it was thought that failure to ovulate was usually caused by the energy deficits induced by excessive exercise and/or undernutrition, but we asked why women undertake such behaviours. "Often dieting and exercise are a way of coping with psychosocial stress, and our previous work had shown that such stress is often increased in women who do not ovulate."

Condom Use Reduces Women's HPV Risk. [United States] Consistent condom use by their male partners appears to reduce the risk of human papillomavirus, or HPV, infection in newly sexually active women, a study reports today. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the USA. Certain HPV types cause nearly all cervical cancer cases, and others cause genital warts. The new study, in The New England Journal of Medicine, followed 82 female college undergraduates who reported their first intercourse with a male partner during the study or within two weeks of its start. The women had pelvic exams and HPV and Pap tests every four months. They also completed a Web-based diary about their sexual behavior every two weeks. Women whose partners always used a condom were 70% less likely to acquire an HPV infection than women whose partners used condoms less than 5% of the time, the University of Washington researchers found. Back in 2000, an expert government panel concluded that condom use reduces the spread of HIV and, among men, gonorrhea, but noted that adequate data regarding other sexually transmitted infections, such as HPV, were lacking. Proponents of abstaining from sexual intercourse before marriage cited the lack of evidence about condoms and HPV to bolster their argument. But in November, the Food and Drug Administration issued labeling guidelines that say condom use may lower the risk of HPV-related diseases. However, HPV can be spread by contact with infected skin outside the area covered by the condom, the FDA notes.  

Women 'Need to Know More About Safe Places to Give Birth'. [England] Pregnant women should be given more information about the risks and benefits of where to give birth, the Government's health watchdog said today. In draft guidance, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) set out advice on reducing unnecessary medical intervention and how health staff should treat women. It said midwife-led birth centres and those involved in birth at home appeared to be less safe than births in consultant-led units such as hospital labour wards. Yet women were less likely to need intervention like forceps or an epidural and were more likely to enjoy a "natural" birth in midwife-led centres. The guidance said women should also be given a choice over where to give birth.

X-Rays Linked With Breast Cancer Risk. [France] An analysis of 1,600 European women with genetic mutations that predispose them to breast cancer suggests mammogram X-rays might increase that risk. The study also suggests X-ray exposure before the age of 20 might cause a particularly heightened risk. The research is the first to analyze the impact of low-level X-ray exposure among women at genetically high risk for the disease. "If confirmed in prospective studies, young women who are members of families known to have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations may wish to consider alternatives to X-ray, such as MRI," said David Goldgar, lead author of the study who was the chief of the genetic epidemiology group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, when the research was conducted. Women with the mutations who reported having a chest X-ray were found 54 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than women who never underwent the procedure. In addition, women exposed to X-rays before age 20 had a 2.5 times increased risk of developing the disease before age 40, compared with women who had never been exposed. The study appears in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women Undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment Could Benefit From Yoga. [United States] The practice of yoga can have a beneficial impact on the physical well being and general health of women undergoing breast cancer treatment. Researcher at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have shown that breast cancer patients who practice yoga during treatment have better quality of life, compared to patients who do not. It is the first collaborative research effort representing the partnership between The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and India's largest yoga research institution, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (research foundation) in Bangalore, India. Sixty-one women who were undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer were randomized to participate in yoga classes twice weekly or as the control group, to be offered yoga post-treatment. The patients ranged from Stage 0 to Stage 3 disease; 48 percent had undergone breast-conserving surgery, and 75 percent had received chemotherapy prior to radiation treatment. The yoga program was designed specifically for this patient population - emphasizing breathing and relaxation, and excluding some positions, for example, that would be difficult, given the patients' possible weakened range of motion.

Aggressive Breast Cancer Found More Often in Black Women. [Africa] A pair of studies has discovered a connection between younger black women and a more aggressive form of breast cancer. The disease is affecting black women in both Africa and the United States. Young black women have a much greater risk of contacting a more aggressive form of breast cancer according to a recent study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Results echo the findings of a study done last year on African women. Both studies found that young black women are more likely to obtain a more aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer than white women. The comparison in breast cancer cases between women in Nigeria and Senegal and women in Canada was the basis of the study released last year by University of Chicago researchers. Women in the African countries were more likely to develop breast cancer at an earlier age and develop tumors from the more lethal basal-like cells.  

Ethnic Women More Likely to Shun Cancer Screening. [United States] Tam Truong Donnelly's mother, who is now 73, felt an odd lump in her left breast about 18 months ago. A mastectomy was performed after a mammogram detected a two-centimetre mass -- something a routine screening would have picked up much sooner when it was far smaller and less worrisome. But her mother, Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, like so many other Vietnamese women, didn't talk about things like breast cancer. "My mom didn't know anything about mammograms. She didn't have the clinical breast exams either," recalled Dr. Donnelly, who is a professor of nursing at the University of Calgary. Now, Dr. Donnelly is trying to get a handle on why Vietnamese women -- and by extension, women from other minority groups -- don't take part in basic cancer screening. "Even though breast cancer and cervical cancer screening services are available, it is not always accessible to these women because they are facing multiple barriers," she said. Dr. Donnelly's research points to embarrassment, traditional beliefs, language issues and cultural insensitivity as key obstacles.  

Women Still Missing Life-Saver Screening. [England] Two out of every five are not going for breast screening and almost a quarter of women are not taking up invitations for cervical cancer checks. The take-up for mammograms has improved slightly, since The Gazette reported last year on shocking figures showing 8,000 missed screening. Now 62.4 per cent of women aged between 50 and 70 are attending when called, compared to just 55 per cent this time in 2005. But that still means the target of 80 per cent is not being met. Christine Sharples, consultant nurse at Blackpool Primary Care Trust, said: "These women are putting themselves at risk because breast cancer can be picked up so early through screening. "The mammogram shows cancer before a lump appears and before the woman herself is aware of anything - meaning it can be treated early. "The breast cancer screening programme has been proven to be the best of cancer screening programmes. It has led to a reduction in the number of women dying from the disease. "We plan to work with GPs and their practices to try to encourage more women to take up the offer of screening. "Some women tell us they don't want to know, because they fear the worst and it's those women we need to target and talk to. Early treatment is so effective." There are concerns not enough women are attending cervical smear tests, which should be done every three to five years.

Fast-Tracking Vaccine Could Save Thousand Women a Year. [Scotland] The world's first cancer vaccine should be fast-tracked for use in the UK to help save the lives of thousands of women, campaigners said yesterday as a licence was awarded in the United States. The cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in girls and women between the ages of nine and 26. An application for a similar licence has been submitted to the European Medicines Agency, with a decision expected later this year. The government's joint committee on vaccination and immunisation will then have to decide on its advice for any vaccination programme for the UK, including what age groups will be targeted. The Department of Health said the JCVI was already looking at clinical trial data on Gardasil ahead of its licensing, but would issue no advice until after European approval. Cancer campaigners called for this process to be as rapid as possible so there was no delay in UK women benefiting from the vaccine.