Women Health

If hormone replacement therapy has gotten a drubbing of late, so too has a much-celebrated food that many women eat to help ease the symptoms of menopause and to protect against heart disease and osteoporosis: the soybean. Some scientists are increasingly wary about Americans going hog-wild for soy, soy protein and the estrogen-like chemicals (isoflavones) that soy protein contains.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Friday castigated the Republican Party for what he said were dated views onwomen's healthissues, saying the recent debate over contraceptives was "like being in a time machine. "  Speaking at a women's conference organized by his campaign, Obama called the issue "illuminating. " "Republicans in Congress were going so far as to say an employer should be able to have a say in the healthcare decisions of its female employees," Obama said. "I'm always puzzled by this -- this is a party that says it prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulation.

Until recently, post-menopausal women seeking treatment for osteoporosis had few options other than estrogen replacement and calcium supplements. Both are still widely used, but they've been augmented by several new and immensely profitable medications that retard bone loss and prevent fractures. Women who take any of these prescription drugs also must be sure to get at least 1,200 mg of calcium from food and supplements and at least 400 international units of vitamin D.

Senate Republicans, who narrowly lost a bid to roll back new federal insurance rules requiring contraceptive coverage, were decidedly circumspect after being portrayed by Democrats as trying to interfere with women's health options. "I don't have anything else to say," said Sen. John McCain(R-Ariz.), after the GOP's effort Thursday to curb the rule failed 51 to 48. Other Republicans were only a bit more talkative, and they quickly shifted their remarks to the other issues - jobs and the economy - suggesting that the contraception fight may have waning appeal for the GOP. "It was a good vote, but we do need to be focused on some of these debt issues - they're just huge," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

An unfortunate legacy of pregnancy seems to leave women more vulnerable than men to dangerous and disabling autoimmune disorders, including diabetes and multiple sclerosis, scientists report. In a symposium concerning the self-destructive illnesses--held here earlier this month during the annual meeting of the American Assn.

When Ann Louise Gittleman wrote "Super Nutrition for Menopause" in 1992, the popular press was just beginning to explore the "change of life." In her most recent book, Gittleman addresses a related subject. Perimenopause is "a naturally occurring transition before the change," she writes in "Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause" (HarperSanFrancisco). Although menopause is associated with a drop in estrogen, a decline in the hormone progesterone brings on perimenopause.

When she is pregnant, Pam Todd feels as if she is tethered to a cup or a box of tissues. Every few seconds her mouth floods with bitter saliva and she has to spit it out or discreetly wipe her mouth to avoid severe nausea or drooling. The condition kept Todd, a resident of Roslyn Heights, away from her community college graduation in May and has prompted her to stop driving. "Basically," she said, "I don't want to go out at all."

Research in women's health is poised to make large gains in the near future due to years of steadfast lobbying for more studies on such diseases as breast cancer, ovarian cancer and osteoporosis. But doctors still have very little concrete advice on how to prevent some of these major killers, experts acknowledged Monday at "Women and Doctors," the second annual briefing on women's health at the Century Plaza Hotel.

UCLA Medical Center will begin a three-year study of women in the South Bay next week to help build a database on women's health issues during midlife. The study is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, which is using seven clinical centers throughout the country to conduct a multiethnic study of women. The study will focus on 450 Japanese American, Japanese-born and white women ages 40 to 55. Greendale said that UCLA is concentrating on Gardena, where many Japanese Americans reside.

The state Assembly gave final passage Monday to a bill granting women in managed health care plans direct access to obstetricians and gynecologists. The legislation, which allows women in such plans to bypass their primary care physicians to receive care, goes to Gov. Pete Wilson. It has Wilson's approval "in concept," a spokeswoman for the governor said. The measure (AB 12) by Assemblywoman Susan A.

As the backlash grew against the decision by Susan G. Komen for the Curefoundation to cease awarding grants to Planned Parenthood, Komen officials ended two days of silence on Thursday and tried to manage the uproar. In a conference call with the media, Komen founder and Chief Executive Nancy G. Brinker said the decision was due to policy changes intended to improve how grantees are selected. It had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood's position as an abortion provider, she said.

Although many women have sworn off hormone therapy, a new analysis from the clinical trial that first unearthed the hormones' risks shows taking estrogen alone for menopausal symptoms, even for several years, may be safer than first thought. The new finding — the latest from the Women's Health Initiative, a federally funded trial that tracked thousands of women taking hormones or placebo pills for years — looked at women who have had hysterectomies and thus can take estrogen unaccompanied by another hormone, progestin.

Has feminism been replaced by the pink-ribbon breast cancer cult? When the House passed the Stupak amendment, which would take away abortion rights from women who get any government help purchasing insurance, the female response ranged from muted to inaudible. Soon after, when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that regular screening mammography not start until age 50, all hell broke loose. Sheryl Crowe, Whoopi Goldberg and Olivia Newton-John raised their voices in protest; a few dozen non-boldface women picketed the Department of Health and Human Services.

Barbara Seaman, a writer and health activist whose groundbreaking 1969 book that warned against the dangers of the birth control pill is widely credited with launching the modern women's health movement, has died. She was 72. Seaman died of lung cancer Wednesday at her New York City home, said her son, Noah Seaman. In her first book, "The Doctors' Case Against the Pill," Seaman exposed the serious and little-known side effects of the high-estrogen pill prescribed at the time.

The political wing of Planned Parenthood on Tuesday announced an unprecedented voter-mobilization effort targeting the young, often low-income women who rely on the group's clinics for gynecological exams, birth control and abortion. The nonprofit expects to raise at least $10 million over the next 10 months to recruit patients, as well as their friends and families, to lobby legislators and vote for candidates who support Planned Parenthood's agenda.

Most U.S. states have made little progress toward improving women's health and many have fallen behind as rates of obesity and diabetes continue to climb, a new 50-state report released Wednesday showed. "The nation as a whole and individual states are falling farther behind in the quest to meet the national goals for women's health," said Judy Waxman of the National Women's Law Center, which released the report along with the Oregon Health & Science University.

Operating for less than two months out of a borrowed office, with a part-time director, a temporary staff and one purloined secretary, the new Office for Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health is nonetheless "off and running," altering the way medical research is conducted for at least half of the population. The creation of the office, announced Sept.

Genetic factors play a major role in the development of alcoholism in women, contrary to the findings of many previous studies, a Virginia researcher said Tuesday. The new findings also indicate that alcoholism is becoming more common in women, probably as a result of relaxation of cultural inhibitions.

Dr. Howard Judd, a UCLA researcher who oversaw a groundbreaking national study of the medical problems of older women, and who correctly questioned the early termination of a landmark clinical trial investigating the effects of hormone-replacement therapy for women, has died. He was 71. Judd, former vice chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA, died of congestive heart failure July 19 at his Santa Monica home, said his wife, Susan Judd.

Hologic Inc., a maker of diagnostic and medical imaging systems, has agreed to acquire medical device maker Cytyc Corp. and create a $10-billion company that focuses exclusively on advanced technology in women's health, the two companies announced Sunday. The combination is expected to drive cross-selling across units of the new company, generating more than $75 million in extra revenue within the first three years.