Women Health

Birth control pills appear to halve the chances of ovarian cancer among women with a faulty gene that puts them at high risk for the disease. The pill has long been known to reduce the risk of this kind of cancer among women in general. But until now, it was not clear whether the pill helped those whose risk resulted from bad genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2. Dr. Steven A.

Women contemplating hormone replacement therapy may need to reconsider if they already have heart disease, according to new research that rattles the received wisdom on protecting women from the nation's No. 1 killer. In a study of 2,763 post-menopausal women with diagnosed heart disease, 4.3% of those undergoing combined estrogen and progestin therapy had a heart attack within a year, compared to 2.8% of women who did not take the drugs.

The first new drug in more than a decade for rheumatoid arthritis won the backing of government advisors Friday, with a warning that it must be taken very carefully by women who have not gone through menopause. Arava, made by Hoechst Marion Roussel, does not cure crippling rheumatoid arthritis. But it appears to work as well as the gold-standard treatment--the cancer drug methotrexate--at treating swollen, painful joints. And it appears to slow the progression of the debilitating disease.

What with all the warnings from the medical community, you might have this feeling in your bones--that you're at risk for osteoporosis. It's a health condition that makes your bones weak and more likely to break. And while all women (and some men) are at risk for osteoporosis, some are more likely to suffer from it than others.

While chlamydia is the most frequently reported sexually transmitted disease in the nation, most people who are infected don't know it, making screening all the more important. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all sexually active women under 20--who are at greatest risk for the infection--get tested for chlamydia during annual examinations. But new research suggests that, in many cases, once a year is not enough.

Young, poor women are being infected with the AIDS virus at a higher rate than their male counterparts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported. The finding arises from a seven-year study that looked at HIV tests for 350,000 youths in the federal Job Corps program. Researchers found that the rate of infection among women ages 16 to 21 was 50% higher than that of men in the same group.

If you are lucky, this is the way cancer treatment ends, not with a bang but a whimper. Let's see, of the treatments listed for me in November: chemo--it's done; surgery--done; radiation--done. It remained only to go see my oncologist, Dr. James Waisman, of whom I am preposterously fond, to ask the musical question, "Is that all there is?" And so, it seems, yes. "In my mind"--he nonchalantly shrugged--"you're cured." Oh. Just like that. Is that really all there is?

Daily doses of calcium can reduce the physical and psychological symptoms of premenstrual syndrome by at least half, according to new research that points toward a low-cost, simple remedy for a condition that affects millions of women.

Roughly one in seven women admitted to emergency rooms reported having been physically abused within the last year, according to one of the largest surveys ever completed on the subject. Estimates on how many women are subject to abuse have varied widely in recent years--in part because of problems in defining exactly what constitutes abuse and in part because of problems with gathering data on the subject.

Chemo is over. Chemo is over. Chemo is over. I think this bears repeating. Chemo's over. Chemo's over. Chemo's over. I've been busy since we last visited, so let's catch up. After five of eight rounds of chemotherapy, my doctor decided my heart and I had had all we could take of Adriamyacin, the really toxic drug, and switched to a different combination for the last three rounds. This new cocktail would have the same side effects, but less intense, and they would dissipate more quickly.