NEWS
June 22, 2011 | By Marissa Cevallos, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog
Move over, birth control pill. Doctors are throwing their support behind intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants as the most effective forms of reversible birth control, in a new set of guidelines for obstetricians and gynecologists. Though the two forms of contraception aren’t as widely used as birth control pills, doctors said that partly has to do with past fears about their safety—and that new types of IUDs are quite safe. The new suggestions guiding their use are published online in the July Obstetrics and Gynecology . Here’s a quick look at how the birth control methods work: IUDs are plastic, T-shaped devices inserted in the uterus that release either copper or a hormone into the uterus.
HEALTH
March 23, 2009 | Marc Siegel, Siegel is an internist and an associate professor of medicine at New York University's School of Medicine.
"House" Fox, Feb. 23, 8 p.m. Episode: "The Softer Side." -- The premise Jackson, born with male and female DNA, has been brought up as a boy after his parents opted for surgical repair of his "ambiguous genitalia" shortly after birth. Now 13, he's recently begun receiving testosterone shots. After he collapses with abdominal pain while playing basketball, his parents urge Dr.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 30, 2008 | Jean-Paul Renaud
The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay a $437,000 settlement after doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center removed a woman's uterus without her consent. Engrid Lewis was admitted to the public hospital in September 2006, suffering from fibroid tissue in her uterus, according to the settlement papers. Doctors gave her a range of options, including removal of her uterus. Lewis chose to have the affected tissue excised without removing her uterus. "While the county will argue that the proper medical treatment was to remove the patient's uterus, plaintiff will argue that the removal of her uterus was against her wishes," according to a case summary.
SCIENCE
January 20, 2007 | From the Associated Press
A New York hospital is seeking to conduct the nation's first uterus transplant, a procedure intended to allow women without a womb or with an impaired womb to bear children. The wombs would come from dead donors, as most organs do, and would be removed after recipients gave birth so they would not need lifetime anti-rejection drugs. The hospital's ethics board has conditionally approved the plans. However, the hospital's president said a transplant was not expected "anytime in the near future."
HEALTH
November 13, 2006 | From Times wire reports
Heavy smokers are less likely to become pregnant through IVF treatment, even with donated eggs, fertility experts have found. Smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day, they said, makes the womb less receptive to the embryo and reduces the odds that it will implant and result in a pregnancy. Smoking has been known to affect a woman's fertility, but Dr.
HEALTH
August 15, 2005 | Judy Foreman, Special to The Times
Even as doctors and women's advocates increasingly question the need for many of the nation's hysterectomies, researchers have found that the procedure may be more dangerous than was thought. Not only does the routine removal of the ovaries during a hysterectomy have no clear health benefit, they say, it actually raises the risk of death from heart disease and hip fracture.