Archive for the 'Women's Health' Category

Do you know almost 90% of the women suffer with interstitial cystitis? Interstitial cystitis is mainly associated with chronic urinary urgency and most frequent urination, which can be sometimes accompanied with pelvic pain.

The manifestations associated with this cystitis usually vary from person to person and sometimes changes in the same individual.

You will be affected with either of the two forms of interstitial cystitis, which include ulcerous cystitis and non ulcerous cystitis, depending on the presence or absence of tumors in your bladder lining.

This presence of ulcerations is usually observed by conducting cystoscopy test. Ulcerative interstitial cystitis can be rarely found in less than 10% of all cases. Star shaped ulcers found in the walls of bladder are commonly known as Hunner’s ulcers.

Eventually, interstitial ulcers are capable to cause physical damage to the walls of your bladder. As a result of chronic inflammation, there is a chance for scarring and strengthening of the bladder wall and leads to decrease in the capacity of bladder.

Is cancer related to interstitial cystitis?

The long term or persistent presence of this chronic inflammation have not been studied well and requires further observation and research. However, till now there is no evidence that persistent interstitial cystitis can increase the risk of bladder cancer.

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Endometriosis is the most common gynecological disease in 10 to 20 percent of American women of childbearing age and up to 2 million women in UK.

Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating pain in many women.

It is one of the main causes of female infertility. When cells that found normally in the uterus lining implant in other abdominal areas such as women’s fallopian tubes, ovaries, intestine and bladder, endometriosis can occur.

Endometriosis and uterine fibroids:

Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths in uterus that are common in women. These fibroids occur in uterus of women over the age of 35. If you have fibroids, you will not aware of them as they do not cause any problem in many of them.

But, in some women, these fibroids cause heavy menstrual periods, feeling of pressure in lower abdomen, sudden or long lasting pain and bleeding between periods. If you have uterine fibroids, excessive bleeding can result in anemia. Shortage of blood can make you sick and tired.

Risk factors that cause endometriosis and fibroids:

Abnormal growth of tissues can occur due to excessive estrogen and causes both endometriosis and fibroids in women. When production of estrogen decreases during menopause, uterine fibroids go away normally.

Night sweats are considered to be the symptoms of other diseases and are not harmful.

They are not a sleep disorder, but night sweats can disturb the sleep and makes you to feel exhausted.

People with this problem can sometimes awake in the middle of the night feeling too cold or too hot.

These are also sometimes called as sleep hyperhidrosis.

Night sweats during menopause and perimenopause!

The most common cause of night sweats in women is menopause.

It is believed that night sweats are a result of decrease in estrogen production during menopause.

Due to hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause, most of the women will experience a form of night sweats.

Menopause night sweats are hot flashes, which tends to happen around 3-4 a.m. Men also tend to suffer from night sweats due to change in hormones.

Women who have undergone chemotherapy are susceptible to have night sweats because of decrease in estrogen with chemotherapy.

Other conditions that can lead to night sweats include:

Idiopathic hyperhidrosis: It is a type of illness in which the body produces too much sweating. However, the cause of sweating is unknown.

If you suspect to have vaginal infection, it is necessary for you to have an appointment with your primary care physician to confirm.

Depending on the condition, the diagnoses may include normal vaginal discharge, Candidiasis, Trichomonas vaginalis, and bacterial vaginosis (BV).

If you have vaginal discharge, especially after sex with unpleasant smell or vaginal itching, then you might have bacterial vaginosis, but most of the women do not show any such symptoms. Samples of fluid and cells from vagina will be taken to see if the vaginal infection is present.

Laboratory Studies Confirms Bacterial Vaginosis!

Laboratory studies, which help to detect the bacterial vaginosis include:

Whiff Test. In this method, potassium hydroxide solution (few drops) is added to the sample of vaginal discharge. Production of strong fishy odor confirms bacterial vaginosis.

Vaginal pH. If the patient has bacterial vaginosis, this test causes rise in vaginal pH above 4.5 (normal vaginal pH is 3.8-4.5). If the vaginal pH is more than 4.5, then it confirms BV.

Wet Mount. Normal saline (salt) solution is mixed to the sample of vaginal discharge after placing on a microscope slide. This is examined under microscope to identify the presence of bacteria, to look for WBCs, which indicates infection, and to look clue cells (indicator of bacterial vaginosis).

Obese women with polycystic ovarian syndrome are at increased risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. The study highlights the need to screen and treat these women to prevent early heart disease.Polycystic ovarian syndrome is usually diagnosed in women in their 20s or 30s.

Detection of coronary artery calcium is an indication of atherosclerosis. But, women without polycystic ovarian syndrome and with coronary artery calcium do not have heart disease risk factors compared to women with ovarian syndrome.

The study concluded that long term studies to follow the progression of coronary artery calcium in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome are urgently needed.

Study source: http://www.reuters.com

The latest research has been done on exercise and its uses for post menopausal women. The result has been found out as: the hot flashes which occur in post menopausal women cannot be reduced through exercise, but it will help to cope up with several problems of anxiety, depression and stress.

Even though the hot flashes which occur in the post menopausal women is not a permanent problem, it makes the women to suffer a lot with stress, depression and anxiety whenever it occurs.

The useful physical activity which is suggested by the experts to cope up with the problems in post menopausal women is walking.

The occurrence of hot flashes also differs in different types of women. Black women will have more hot flashes when compared to white women, because they will have low hormone profiles and they appear heavier when compared to white women.

Get study information on exercise and its uses for menopause symptoms at:

http://www.healthscout.com

According to the new research, women who had miscarriage or abortion run three times the normal risk of having low birth weight babies. The research showed that more miscarriages and abortions a woman has, the greater are the chances of giving birth to underweight child or premature child in the future.

Children born with low birth weight or prematurely are the major contributors of death. According to the research data, the rates of low birth weight and premature births are highest among women who are black, young or old, unmarried and poorly educated.

The research concluded that women should be aware of the potential risks which cause low birth weight or premature birth.

More research information at:

http://www.sciencedaily.com

According to University of Florida surgeons, 20 percent of women with breast cancer who plan to undergo lumpectomy, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals important information that alters the treatment plan.

Breast MRI can find additional cancerous areas in the breast that previously avoided detection. MRI can also discover cancer in the opposite breast which are not detected with standard imaging tests like mammography and ultrasound. MRI can also detect or determine a tumor which is actually larger than expected.

Women need a mastectomy sometimes instead of breast-conserving lumpectomy. If the tumors are bigger than indicated on standard imaging, second operation to remove cancerous cells is needed if MRI findings signal the need for surgeries.

Surgeons preferred MRI as it benefits many cancer patients because it detects cancers that are otherwise missed, particularly in women with dense breasts.

For related information on Breast MRI, visit:

http://www.sciencedaily.com

Endometriosis is a benign gynecological disease that affects millions of women worldwide.

It occurs when endometrial tissue, the lining of the uterus, grows outside the uterus (womb) and connects to the organs of the pelvic or abdominal cavities (ovaries, fallopian tubes, or urinary bladder) where it is not supposed to grow.

Endometriosis is the major cause of female infertility. Its impact on a woman’s ability to become pregnant is very high.

It is found that, in the United States, about 10-20% of all childbearing age women have endometriosis.

The womb lining that grows outside the uterus develops into growths or lesions that react to the rise and fall of estrogen and progesterone hormones (generated by ovaries during menstrual cycle) the same way as the endometrium responds inside the uterus.

With the rise of hormones, the endometrium (uterine lining) outside the uterus swells and thickens; and sheds and bleeds with the drop of hormone levels, thus indicating the onset of the next menstrual cycle.

Unlike the normal endometrial tissue that sheds and discharges as menstrual bleeding from the body, the blood that sheds out of the misplaced endometrial tissue in the abdominal cavity has no outlet to go out of the body.

Caesarean delivery is an operation that enables your baby to born through an incision made on your pregnant stomach. Caesarean can be planned in advance or sometimes suddenly if there are any complications or difficulty in labor.

Reasons for caesarean delivery:

• The common reason is previous caesareans
• If the placenta lies so low in the uterus that it covers the exit to the birth canal. This is called as placenta previa.
• If there is a vaginal bleeding and natural delivery may not happen
• If the umbilical cord falls forward and baby cannot be delivered easily, known as cord prolapse.
• Fetal distress, which may occur in labor or late pregnancy when the blood supply to the placenta is reduced
• Baby’s position, where baby is positioned sideways