women's health - Page 5

Why Hormones Matter

4406 views

I’ve been writing for Hormones Matter for several months now and I’ve been thinking a lot about just how much hormones really do matter. After all, we’re all only alive because of hormones when you get right down to it. Yet, most of us give very little thought to our hormones or why they matter until we’re forced to do so for some reason.

As young adolescents, we’re taught mostly in health class that hormones prompt our bodies to develop into those of men and women. We recognize that underarm and pubic hair growth is an indication that all is going well. Boys voices deepen and girls develop breasts. New sexual feelings slowly emerge and the world takes on new meaning and all things become more colorful. We become alive as it were and suddenly have another purpose – that of connecting sexually and of reproducing at some point. There’s a good amount of information about how hormones influence sex and reproduction. Sadly, the information seems to mostly end there. It wasn’t until my hormone-producing organs were removed through an unconsented hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo oophorectomy that I began to realize how much my hormones had mattered.

In simplest terms, hormones are chemical messengers which travel through our blood and enter cells, tissues and organs where they turn on switches to the genetic machinery that regulate everything from reproduction to emotions, overall health and well being. Certain hormones have an effect on particular cells known as ‘target cells’. A target cell reacts to a particular hormone because it bears receptors for that hormone. This is why there’s never a time in a woman’s life when she doesn’t need hormones. Hormones can be thought of as the life giving force that ‘animates’ us physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. When a woman undergoes hysterectomy, hormone-producing organs are permanently removed and hormones are lost forever. It’s important to know that hormones aren’t only involved in the production of a new life (as in baby in the womb new life), they sustain all life.

Realizing How Much Hormones Matter

At the time of my father’s death from a massive heart attack in 2009, I was still reeling from hysterectomy and ovary removal in 2007. I’ll never forget the first time I saw my father’s body after he passed away. It hit me really hard to see him full of life one day and then see him completely and utterly lifeless the next. It hit my son Christopher even harder I think. I’ll never forget his comment as he looked at his grandfather’s ‘lifeless’ body just before the dreaded funeral. He said matter-of-fact like “Papaw’s spirit is gone. There’s no more animation.” Christopher’s observation was a very profound one indeed. In a very real sense, I suppose that is what death means – no more animation. I’d never thought of it exactly like that before.

Suddenly, I couldn’t help but think about how much I had changed since hysterectomy. It was as if the very life had been sucked right out of me too. I wasn’t dead, but I wasn’t really alive either – at least not in any way that mattered. Along with the loss of my female organs, I had lost my animation in many ways too. My eyes no longer sparkled. My skin no longer glowed. All things became dry, dull and lackluster. Everything became an effort and ‘feelings’ were no longer present. Remember how it felt when you became sexually aware? Well think of the opposite of that. While I once viewed the world in living color, things appeared mostly grey to me after hysterectomy and the loss of hormones. In short, I lost my animation.

Beyond reproduction and the other physiological functions ovarian hormones control, in many ways, these hormones animate us. They provide the subtle nuances that make life interesting – a life giving force that colors our physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual selves. To be animated is to have life, interest, spirit, motion and activity. What happens when a woman undergoes hysterectomy and castration? Pretty much the same thing that happens to a man who is castrated, she loses her animation, her color – everything that makes life interesting and worth living disappears. And this is on top of the health issues that arise from the loss of hormones.

There can be no question that hormones matter. It is too bad that we don’t know this until after they are gone. Please give this much thought before ever agreeing to removal of your hormone-producing and life-sustaining organs. Always weigh the benefits and risks.

Hysterectomy Research

Hormones Matter is conducting research on hysterectomy outcomes. If you have had a hysterectomy, please take a few minutes to complete The Hysterectomy Survey.

A Crown for the Worst Headache or Migraine – Medical Marketing Gone Wrong

2625 views

As if battling the stigma that surrounds migraine and headache disorders isn’t difficult enough, we can thank Excedrin for continuing it. Excedrin is currently running a sweepstakes called “Who Deserves Excedrin The Most – Help Decide Who Wears the Crown.” In this sweepstakes the idea is to vote on a collection of people or “headache sufferers” who are matched in a daily, “head-to-head” video format, enacting a story and/or situation. The idea is to vote for who deserves to wear “the crown.” E-gift cards are given out every day and your vote is then entered into the pool for the grand prize, a seven day trip for two to Jamaica.

Each of these 16 videos depicts a short story of a particular situation, event or everyday occurrence that in Excedrin’s mind, will give you a “headache.” Some of the videos include rambunctious children in the back seat of a car, the frustration of being on hold for a lengthy amount of time, horrendous flying experiences, raising children, difficult bosses, and completing your taxes at the last minute, to name just a few.

Really. Excedrin wants the public to “crown” someone the Headache King or Queen – celebrate it with a crown, what, like the Burger King? Comedian Molly Shannon is the spokesperson for the sweepstakes and recently said she is a “headache sufferer.” Ms. Shannon can be quite funny and may simply be trying to bring levity to a serious topic. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy a good laugh (even at my own expense) and believe humor plays an important role in our lives. But because the stigma is so high in headache and migraine, I think the slightest amount of banter may increase that stigma, it certainly doesn’t do anything to decrease it.

With over 300 different types of migraine and headache disorders and no test, tool or machine to diagnose them, shouldn’t we be concentrating on more important things than a “crown?” Does anyone ever want to be named the MS King or Breast Cancer Queen in a sweepstakes? Of course not, because the public would never allow that to happen. Here’s the thing – because “it’s just a headache” doesn’t mean we get a “crown” to wear. We all know headache and migraine are so much more than simply a “headache.”  What do you think about Excedrin’s marketing idea?

Crowdsourced Women’s Health Research

20825 views

A dirty little secret in the world of women’s health – there are relatively few data guiding medical decision-making. Indeed, across all medical specialties the auspices of evidence-based are crumbling quickly in the face of open access and open science. Recent reports suggest less than 50% of all medical treatments have any data to support their efficacy. Of that evidence, much could be suspect given the rampant payments from pharmaceutical and device companies to physicians and other decision-makers, plus the well-documented publishing bias and even fraud plaguing the scientific publishing industry.

In women’s health, matters are even worse. Not only are evidenced-based, clinical practice guidelines nearly non-existent in Ob/Gyn (only 30% of practice guidelines based on data) and women still not included in early stage clinical trials in sufficient numbers, but regulatory agencies do not mandate gender analytics for new medications. The result,  post market adverse events – think death and disabling injury – are more common in women than men.

Why do women die and suffer from adverse events at a much higher rate than men?  Because most medications reach the market without having ever done the appropriate testing or analytics to distinguish why women might respond to said medications differently than men. Even in the lab, male rodents are used about 90% of the time.

What about medications developed specifically for women? These too are poorly understood, mostly because the outcome variables are not focused on the totality of women’s health. For example, it is important that oral contraceptives prevent pregnancy, but it is equally important that they don’t cause blood clots, stroke, heart attack or cancer. And if blood clots, stroke, heart attack or cancer are deemed acceptable risks for birth control (and I don’t think they are), then shouldn’t we know which pills are the most dangerous and which women are most at risk?

One cannot manage, what one does not measure and we don’t measure critical components of women’s health. We also don’t track adverse events or side-effects very well. Question: have you ever reported a side-effect to a doctor? Do you know if he/she reported it to the FDA, the CDC or any other adverse events registry?  Probably not, and that is the problem.

If you knew you had a 20 times higher risk of stroke or heart attack for one medication versus another, would you choose differently? I bet you would, but as medical consumers, we don’t have that information. In many cases, those data don’t exist.

That’s where crowdsourced research comes in. At Lucine, the parent company of Hormones Matter, we think the lack of data in women’s healthcare is unacceptable. We know that the larger companies who sell these products have no motivation to gather or make public these type of data – too many billions of dollars are at stake – and so, it is up to us, the women who need safe health products, to be the change agents.

The simple act of completing surveys on critical topics in women’s health can and will save lives. Your data will tell a story. Add that to the data from hundreds, and hopefully thousands of other women, from all over the world and from all walks of life and we will be able to determine which medications, devices or therapies work, which ones don’t. We can give women the information needed to make informed medical decisions.

We are currently running four women’s health surveys, but plan on running many more. So check back regularly. If you qualify for any or all, take a few minutes and add your data. If you don’t qualify for these, share these surveys with your friends and family through social media. The more data we can gather, the more clear our medication choices will become.

Health Surveys for Real Women

Oral Contraceptives Survey

Oral contraceptives (birth control pills) are used by 98% of the female population at some point in their lives. They are prescribed for a myriad of reasons unrelated to pregnancy prevention. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t. Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew which brands of birth control pills worked for which conditions? Better yet, wouldn’t it great if we could avoid the pills that didn’t work, made a particular condition worse or had a higher than average side-effect profile? Take this survey if you have ever used oral contraceptives. Help determine which birth control pills are safest and have the fewest side-effects. You may save another woman’s life and health.

The Hysterectomy Survey

By the age of 60 one in three women will have had a hysterectomy. Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures for a range of women’s health conditions. For some conditions, hysterectomy works wonders. While, for other conditions it is only nominally successful. The purpose of the hysterectomy survey is to learn more about why hysterectomy works for some women’s health conditions and not others. We’d also like to learn more about the long term health affects of hysterectomy – does a woman who has had a hysterectomy have a higher or lower risk of other health conditions? Take this survey and help improve women’s health.

The Gardasil Cervarix Survey

Women and their physicians need more data about the side-effects of the HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. There is a lack of data about who is at risk for adverse events and whether certain pre-existing conditions increase one’s risk for an adverse event. There is also a lack of data about the long term health effects of these vaccines. The purpose of this survey is to fill that data void; to learn more about the risks for, and nature of, adverse events associated with each of the HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. Take this survey and help improve women’s health options.

The Lupron Side Effects Survey

Leuprolide, more commonly known as Lupron, is the GnRH agonist prescribed for endometriosis, uterine fibroids or cysts, undiagnosed pelvic pain, precocious puberty, during infertility treatments, and to treat some cancers. It induces a menopause like state stopping menstruation and ovulation. It’s widespread use for pain-related female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis or fibroids is not well supported with very few studies indicating its efficacy in either reducing pain or diagnosing endometriosis or other pelvic pain conditions. Conversely, reports of safety issues are mounting, especially within the patient communities. The Lupron Side Effects Survey was designed to determine the range, rate and severity of side-effects and adverse events associated with Lupron use in women.

All surveys are anonymous and participation is voluntary. More information about individual surveys can be found: Oral Contraceptives Survey, The Hysterectomy Survey, The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

Visit our Take a Health Survey page for new surveys and updates or better yet, sign up to receive our weekly newsletter for all the latest research and hot topics pertaining to women’s health.

 

 

 

Gardasil Research versus Marketing: The Reality of One Less

3267 views

Back in 2006 when the Gardasil commercial first aired, the marketing mavens at Merck had us all humming along about how we wanted to be ‘one less.’ Now – 7 years and a myriad of articles, claims and additional research later, the question remains; what does it mean to be ‘one less’ and is it worth the price?

What is Gardasil? Gardasil is a vaccine approved by the FDA and recommended by the CDC as a preventative measure against four strains of HPV that are known to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases and 90% of genital warts. The vaccine must be administered over the course of a year via several injections. It is recommended for those who are not yet sexually active (i.e. younger girls, aged 9-12).

What is HPV and how is it related to Cervical Cancer? There are over 100 strains of HPV (Human papilloma virus) with approximately 30 of them being sexually transmitted. Research has found that, in rare cases, approximately 10 of those 30 strains can lead to cervical cancer. Most women are diagnosed with HPV via an abnormal Pap test. There is no cure for HPV and in most cases the infection goes away and the virus remains dormant within the body.

It is estimated that at least 20 million people in the US already have HPV; with about 50 percent of sexually active men and women at risk for acquiring a genital HPV infection during their lifetime. According to the CDC every year in the United States, about 10,000 women develop cervical cancer, and 3,700 die from it. Although cervical cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world, it ranks between 15th – 17th for cancer death in developed nations such as the US and Australia.

What do we know about the effectiveness of Gardasil? Unfortunately, the answer is not much. Despite information put forth by the US CDC, Health Canada, Australian TGA, and the UK MHRA, the efficacy of Gardasil in preventing cervical cancer has not been demonstrated. According to an article published in the Annals of Medicine, the longest follow-up data from phase II trials for Gardasil are on average 8 years. However, invasive cervical cancer takes up to 20 – 40 years after initial infection to develop into cervical cancer.  Currently the death rate in the US from cervical cancer, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data (1.7/100,000), is 2.5 times lower than the rate of serious adverse reactions from Gardasil as reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) (4.3 per 100,000 doses)

Since the vaccine is so new, and follow-up trials less than a decade old, the long-term health risks of Gardasil are still widely unknown. Adverse side effects have included death, convulsions, syncope, paraesthesia, paralysis, Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis, facial palsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, anaphylaxis, autoimmune disorders, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolisms, and pancreatitis.

Is it worth the cost? The vaccine only works against 4 HPV strains and annual pap screens are still needed to detect cervical cancer.  The full injection sequence costs an approximate 400 USD, which is more than the cost of a pap screen. This nullifies any cost savings from the vaccine. In countries where cervical cancer deaths are the highest (Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana), the cost of Gardasil makes it an nonviable option. Current research suggests that by targeting other risk factors such as smoking, the use of oral contraceptives and chronic inflammation in conjunction with the already recommended and proven effective annual Pap test, global minimization of cervical cancer is likely – at equivalent or higher rates than those hypothesized for Gardasil.

For now, until more is known on the effectiveness and risks of Gardasil it may be better to be one more who goes for their annual exam and partakes in safe sexual practices than being an undetermined ‘one less.’

Hormones MatterTM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with Gardasil and its counterpart Cervarix. If you or your daughter has had either HPV vaccine, please take this important survey. The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

Help a Fellow Women’s Health Advocate: Hysterectomy Kickstarter Project

2118 views

Little things make an enormous difference. It is true what they say, it is often the smallest things that can make the biggest difference, especially when it comes to our lives. This is true for hysterectomy stories.

Estimates suggest that 1 in 5 women will have a hysterectomy at some point; in the UK around 60,000 are performed every year and in the US the number is closer to 600,000. It is said that a hysterectomy cuts to the heart of what being a woman is all about; and I know this is true because the small stories I hear tell me this.

Simple stories from women who have undergone the trauma of hysterectomy can make a huge difference to others having one later. Such stories help them to feel less unsure about their decisions, less stupid about the questions they ask and less alone than they do even with family and friends.

But not all women have access to these stories and so The Hysterectomy Association is planning to pull as many together as possible into a new book called ‘In My Own Words: Women’s Experiences of Hysterectomy’. But we can’t do it without your help. We need to get this project funded.

Please will you pledge to the project today; a small amount of even £1 takes us closer to our goal of £2,500. These amounts soon mount up when lots of people pledge and I’d rather reach 500 people who have each pledged just £1, than 40 people pledging £5. Of course, if you can pledge more it will always be very welcome.

Please pledge today at Kickstarter to help us get this book out to the women that need it. We need to get pledges to the whole amount by the 9th March otherwise we get nothing.

This is a project that is close to my heart, over the years I’ve spoken with, emailed and comforted tens of thousands of women and each one has a story to tell, and each story deserves to be heard. Click here if you’d like to see some of the stories women have shared on The Hysterectomy Association website, just to see how powerful they can be.

To make your pledge, click here: In My Own Words: Women’s Experiences of Hysterectomy.

About the author: Linda Parkinson-Hardman is an author, social media strategist and a social entrepreneur. She works with clients to help them make better use of the Internet to build their personal and business brands. Her social enterprise, The Hysterectomy Association currently works with approximately 200,000 women every month. You can find her online on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and if you have a question you only have to ask.

A note from Hormones Matter: Hormones Matter is pleased to lend our support for this important cause. We are not affiliated with The Hysterectomy Association but support its efforts to raise public awareness about this all-too-common, yet poorly understood, procedure. Together, grass roots organizations like Hormones Matter and The Hysterectomy Association can improve women’s healthcare – one woman at a time.

For our part, we are conducting critical women’s health research on hysterectomy outcomes and oral contraceptive side-effects. If you have had a hysterectomy or have ever used oral contraceptives, please take a few minutes to complete the Hysterectomy Survey or the Oral Contraceptives Survey or both. They are free, anonymous and will bring much needed data to women’s healthcare.

A New March Madness – Endometriosis Awareness Month

2617 views

This March I am celebrating a different kind of madness.  It has nothing to do with college basketball; nor is it related to four leaf clovers, egg shaped candy or seder plates.  No, this March is for reproductive health education and raising awareness about endometriosis. There is nothing nice about endometriosis, even the word is cumbersome to say.  This March, we need to talk about endometriosis and reproductive health and we are going to talk about it; because the state of reproductive care surrounding endometriosis is not OK and it’s not going to get better until more people know about endometriosis and the facts surrounding it.

It is estimated that 1 out of every 10 women has endometriosis.  Endometriosis is a secondary autoimmune disease that occurs when the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) grows outside of the uterus.  Common places for this tissue growth is outside of the uterus, on the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bladder, within the pelvic cavity, on the pelvic floor, and on the bowels.  In extremely rare cases endometriosis can be found growing up towards and on the liver, lungs, brain and on the central nervous system.  These growths respond to the menstrual cycle the same way that the lining of the uterus does.  Each month, the lining builds up, breaks down and then sheds (aka ‘your period’).

When a woman gets her period the broken down lining exits the body as menstrual blood through the vagina.  When a woman has endometriosis, the tissue and blood from the endometrial growths found outside of the uterus have no way of leaving the body.  This results in internal bleeding and inflammation; both of which can cause chronic pain, infertility, scar tissue formation, adhesions and bladder and bowel complications.  Women with endometriosis also suffer from higher rates of allergies, yeast infections, asthma, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, other autoimmune diseases (such as hypothyroidism and lupus and others) and increased rates of ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and brain cancer.

There is no cure for endometriosis and treatments leave a lot to be desired.  Common treatments include oral contraceptives, GnRH agonists, progesterone therapies, surgery and hysterectomy.  Since endometriosis usually appears during the reproductive years, hysterectomy is not a welcomed option and yet is commonly prescribed.  Surgery does not cure endometriosis, in many cases the growths reappear within five years. Hysterectomy does not cure endometriosis, with 40% of women see a reoccurrence of their symptoms.  There is no cure for endometriosis.

This March we need to raise awareness.  It’s not a comfortable topic but that is no reason for millions of women to suffer in silence with no known cure.  The discomfort society feels in talking openly about menstruation or uteri or vaginas is no reason to deny any woman the right to proper reproductive care.  1 in 10 women have endometriosis. These women are your friends, neighbors, sisters, co-workers, lovers, girlfriends, cousins, aunts, nieces, mothers, and fellow humans.  It takes an average of 7 years to get a proper diagnosis and even longer to find an effective treatment plan (if any).  This is about proper reproductive care, about millions of women who are embarrassed to talk about painful periods, about millions of women who suffer in silence.  It needs to stop.

This is not a call to arms but a call to uterus(es). This month lets promote reproductive care and raise awareness for endometriosis. Ask me about my uterus, ask those you care about, about their uterus.  Yes, it sounds strange, but how else are we to start the discussion and break the stigma against talking about reproductive illness; especially if we can’t even say uterus or vagina without snickering or feeling as embarrassed as a third grader would.  Please help us raise awareness this March; share this article, share your story, start a conversation, ask a loved one about their uterus and break the silence!

 

 

Bees, Birth Control and Bayer

2030 views

Cool things happen in the world of social networking and hyper-connectivity – previously disparate movements become connected and cross-pollinated. My post: Look Beyond Access – Demand Safe Birth Control was picked up by an environmentalist, active in the #BoycottBayer movement. It seems Bayer has an extended history of unleashing dangerous chemicals on the world and other egregious business practices dating back to before World War I. If there ever was a chemical company to boycott, Bayer just might be the one – maybe even a little worse than Monsanto and that is a high standard of callousness.

Most recently, Bayer is the purveyor of the most dangerous birth control options on the market – the Yasmin line or oral contraceptives, the frequently dislodging and vaginal tearing Mirena (no one has measured the hormone side-effects yet) and the just released and repackaged version of Mirena – Skyla. Repeated billion dollar class action lawsuits are just the cost of doing business, I guess.   According to financial reporting, their profits are down because:

Bayer faces lawsuits in the United States from women claiming the contraceptive caused blood clots that led to serious health consequences. Otherwise the [financial] picture was brighter. – silly women.

Imagine my surprise when I learn that Bayer may also be responsible for the collapse of honey bee colonies worldwide – social networks are cool.

Lest you think honey bees are of no import to health, think again. Without honey bees we have no agriculture – no food. Killing the honey bees is serious business, something only the most unscrupulous and short-sighted corporation would do, but that is exactly what Bayer and its ally Syngenta (formed by the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca (AstraZeneca) Agrochemicals) are doing. They are killing honeybees. Although, they disagree vehemently and their own, company sponsored research supports their benevolence, health organizations and governments worldwide are beginning to ban the use of these pesticides and genetically modified seeds.

Not so in the US. We seem to wait generations before making the appropriate moves (remember DES) or at least until the same chemical company can introduce a ‘treatment’ for what they caused initially. Gotta love me some unbridled capitalism without tether to ethics or morals – except some skewed sense of moral hazard.

It’s time. Life and health must come before profits. These chemical companies must be stopped. And since there is no regulatory agency with the teeth to protect our health, we must use the means we have – stop buying their products. Just stop.

Environmentalists save the honeybees, but save human women too. We all should be boycotting Bayer and any other company that dares to poison us for a buck. Spread the word.

 

Drink Tart Cherry Juice

7210 views

You’ll thank me for this one later;  perhaps in a day or two after you get over the initial shock of the cost versus volume of the tart cherry juice you just hesitantly purchased based on the advice of some health writer.

Rest assured, tart cherry juice is awesome.  Here’s why:

  1. It tastes amazing – especially if you like tart juices or if you like cherries.  I equate it to drinking a thin version of pie filling (you can cut it with water if liquid pie isn’t your idea of a good time).
  2. It is great for those suffering from chronic inflammation.  I drink it to manage pelvic inflammation as a result of endometriosis. I know others who drink it to help manage arthritic inflammation and reduce gout related inflammation.
  3. Tart cherries have natural pain relieving properties similar to ibuprofen and naproxen.
  4. A pilot study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that tart cherry juice can help beat insomnia.  This is due to the high levels of naturally occurring melatonin found in tart cherry juice.
  5. Tart cherries are chock full of antioxidants and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good antioxidant?
  6. Additional research from the University of Michigan, also published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, found that tart cherries can help to control weight and prevent some of the symptoms that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

So there you have it, six reasons why you should be drinking cherry juice if you aren’t already.

 

Lucine Medical Disclaimer: All material on this web site is provided for your information only and may not be construed as, nor should it be a substitute for, professional medical advice. To read more about our health policy see Terms of Use.

1 3 4 5 6 7 11