A study published online by the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that women who are screened for the BRCA gene and found not to be carriers often undergo ovarian Ca screening, despite the fact that the lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is only 1% to 2% in the general population.
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome who take combined oral contraceptives are more than twice as likely as women without PCOS who take oral contraceptives to have a venous thromboembolism (VTE), according to the findings of a new study.
Cell free DNA testing using the plasma of pregnant women is a noninvasive prenatal test that has tremendous potential as a screening tool for fetal aneuploidy.
The available evidence shows that the use of local estrogen treatment may improve the symptoms of urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women but that systemic estrogen worsens incontinence.
In a head-to-head trial, chromosomal microarray analysis was shown to be more effective than traditional karyotyping in prenatal diagnosis. Results of the study-which is the largest of its kind and which received support from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development-reflect the accuracy, efficacy, and incremental yield of the technologies.
Researchers who prospectively examined the association between cigarette smoking/smoking cessation and the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) have found that even “light-to-moderate” smokers (those who smoke 1 to 14 cigarettes daily) are at increased risk. The study looked at 101,018 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study without known coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cancer beginning in 1980. (The Nurses' Health Study has collected biannual health questionnaires from US female nurses since 1976.)
Human papillomavirus (HPV) detection among older patients may be due to reactivation of the virus, not a new acquisition, according to new research. This fact, as well as the aging of the baby boomer generation-the first generation to have experienced the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s-means that perimenopausal women who are found to have HPV may have acquired it years before.
Treatment of fibroids with hysteroscopic morcellation has pros and cons. For in-office treatment, the advantages and disadvantages are described here.
Is epidural analgesia or combined spinal-epidural (CSE) analgesia better for pain management in labor?
According to the American Medical Association, the southern part of the United States is facing an HIV epidemic. Do you proactively talk with your patients about their risk of contracting HIV?
Prophylactic dexamethasone decreases the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting without causing observable adverse effects in patients after laparoscopic gynecological surgery, concludes a new meta-analytic review.
Doubling the duration of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment in women estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer reduces risk of late recurrence and death compared with the current standard-of-care of 5 years' therapy. So say the results of a large international randomized trial presented at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and simultaneously published in The Lancet.
The New York Times claims that today, about 39% of doctors nationwide are independent, down from 57% in 2000, citing estimates by the consulting firm Accenture. The article "A Hospital War Reflects a Bind for Doctors in the U.S.," which appeared on the New York Times web site on November 30, 2012, discusses the state of healthcare in Boise, Idaho, which the authors call "a medical battleground" and claim is representative of the healthcare situation in many cities around the United States.
Researchers in the United Kingdom have found an increased prevalence of asthma among children born to parents who used assisted reproductive technologies (ART). A large registry-based study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Essex in England drew from the Millennium Cohort Study, a UK-wide, prospective study of 18,818 children recruited at age 9 months.
A review of new publications by the Update Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology found that the guidelines for the follow-up and management of patients with breast cancer who have completed treatment are still sound.
A National Institutes of Health-funded study published in the Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology provides evidence that exposure to the compound bisphenol A (BPA) during human pregnancy is considerable, and that elimination of BPA occurs more slowly in fetuses than in adults.
A mouse model suggests that prenatal treatment with neuroprotective peptides may have potential in improving learning performance in Down syndrome, according to researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Sleep apnea affects women and men differently because of sex-specific changes in the brain. This is the finding of researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)'s School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Brain Research Institute.
Levels of exposure that are defined as 'safe' by the official limits, are actually having non-trivial adverse effects, according to new reports.
What do you make of this not-uncommon uterine problem? The patient is a middle aged woman with pelvic pain.
Applied relaxation techniques can effectively manage vasomotor symptoms of menopause, primarily hot flashes, in healthy women, according to the results of a new study conducted in Sweden.
Prostaglandin inhibitors, such as celecoxib and indomethacin, and calcium channel blockers, such as nifedipine and nicardipine, had the highest probability of delaying premature labor by 48 hours and improving maternal and neonatal outcomes, according to a systematic review and network meta-analysis published in a recent issue of BMJ.
Fear-not clinical indications-may be the driving force in women's decision-making about contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM). That is the surprising conclusion from a population-based study presented by investigators from Michigan at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Quality Symposium in San Diego.
The 2011 US birth rate was the lowest ever recorded, according to a report by the Pew Research Center for its Social & Demographic Trends project. The decline was greatest in births to immigrant women.
A number of studies conclude that breast cancer screening has little to no effect on mortality. Is it time to scrap the practice?
For women undergoing fertility treatments, the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors use may decrease pregnancy rates and increase miscarriage rates.
In our annual physician compensation survey, find out how your net income, salary, bonus, overhead, and work hours compare to other ob/gyns.
Name the vessels shown in this color Doppler image of a fetal abdomen in 22 week-old fetus. Is anything abnormal?
Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are not only highly effective, they are appropriate under a variety of conditions. Here, the authors present 3 scenarios in which patients would benefit from LARC methods.
Contemporary OB/GYN's Editor-in-Chief makes his predictions about where healthcare is headed over the next four years.