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This week on the Women's Forum there have been two posts that have "touched home" for me. I must share with you that I was hesitant at first to answer them. Why, you are probably asking... Well they are Both subjects that I am completely familiar with and yet felt reluctant to open-up about on the forum.

Janet George is a mother of three, grandmother of seven, and a breast cancer survivor. Her story began after a routine mammogram. Janet's mother died of breast cancer, so regular mammograms have always been part of her healthcare. Janet was notified that a small tumor had been found during a routine mammogram, and her cancer was diagnosed after a wire localization biopsy.

Disclosure Declaration •Grant Support –National Institutes of Health, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc, Pharmacia Corp., Berlex Laboratories, Proctor and Gamble •Honoraria and consultation fees –Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., Berlex Laboratories, Pharmacia Corp., TAP Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Co. •Participation in company sponsored speakers’ bureau –Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., Berlex Laboratories, Pharmacia Corp., Merck Pharmaceuticals.

Educational tutorial on endometriosis.

ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES: . Objectives . Know the risks, benefits and side effects of oral contraceptives . Utilize basic concepts in OC prescribing . Know how to modify regiments to manage side effects .Objectives .Know the risks, benefits and side effects of oral contraceptives .Utilize basic concepts in OC prescribing .Know how to modify regiments to manage side effects

Extended Use of Combined Oral Contraceptive PillsDr Hamed EllakwaAssociate Professor of Obsterics and GynecologyMenoufiya University, Egyptdrhamedellakwa@yahoo.com

Endometriosis-An Overview Prof. Dr. Mohammad A. Emam Prof. of Obstetrics and Gynecology Mansoura Faculty of Medicine Mansoura Integrated Fertility Center (MIFC) EgyptEmam MA, EGYPT, 2003

INFLAMMATORY BREAST CANCER (IBC) is an advanced and accelerated form of breast cancer automatically rated as Stage IIIb that usually is not detected by mammograms or ultrasounds. It requires immediate aggressive treatment with chemotherapy prior to surgery and is treated differently than more common types of breast cancer.

Two new types of antiprogestins that can suppress menstruation and could end the monthly misery many women suffer have passed their first tests in animals, scientists report today (Friday 27 July) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction.

Talk about breast cancer and naturally, people think of the disease that is the number one cancer among women. But the truth is that breast cancer is on the rise among both women and men, and researchers think the national obesity crisis may be to blame.

The HERS trial was the first study to put a damper on enthusiasm for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a preventive therapy for heart disease. A second trial called ERA (Estrogen Replacement and Atheriosclerosis trial), reported at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held in Anaheim, California, March 12–15, 2000, provides additional evidence that HRT does not prevent heart disease.

Hysterectomy is one of the most common abdominal surgical procedures performed in women today with 600,000 hysterectomies in the USA annually, one in three women undergoing hysterectomy, and 6–20% in European countries.

The optimal surgical approach to treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women continues to be a topic of controversy. This debate is fueled, in part, by the difficulty in comparing data on the different surgical procedures due to variations in patient selection, diagnostic methods, techniques, outcome criteria, and length of follow-up.

Interview with Steve Fleischman

Roberta Speyer: “This is Roberta Speyer and I’m reporting for OBGYN.net. I have the pleasure of talking to Dr. Fleischman who is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University and in private practice with Gynecology & Infertility, PC. Today we are going to talk about urinary incontinence and how OBGYN physicians can fit this into their practice. As a practicing OBGYN yourself, this is something you have a great degree of specialization in. Tell us a little about your practice Dr. Fleischman.”

A study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health found that postmenopausal women with heart disease who took hormone therapy and high dose antioxidant vitamins - either alone or in combination with hormones - did not have fewer heart attacks, deaths, or progression of coronary disease.

Urinary incontinence (leakage) refers to the involuntary loss of urine from the bladder, which constitutes a social or hygienic problem for the individual. Bladder control problems affect about 17 million people in the United States.

Each year, about 180,000 women in the United States discover they have breast cancer. Those at greatest risk are women over the age of 50. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that younger women account for up to 30% of cases.

Many women experience vasomotor symptoms at or around the time of menopause. Hot flushes and night sweats are considered primary menopausal symptoms that may also be associated with sleep and mood disturbances, as well as decreased cognitive function.

The average age of natural menopause in Western societies is estimated to be 51 years; women in Canada can therefore expect to live, on average, a third of their lives in post-menopausal years. During these years women are at increased risk of chronic diseases such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Researchers from Italy have found that premenopausal breast cancer patients treated with triptorelin and chemotherapy were less likely to experience early menopause and were more likely to resume menses than patients who received chemotherapy alone.

Today, Putting Women's Health First launched a national campaign to educate women about cervical cancer, the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) role in its development, and the importance of effective screening in preventing the disease.

The use of chemotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer can result in transient or permanent amenorrhea, and research indicates that each month of chemotherapy translates into 1.5 year of lost reproductive life. This is especially significant for women younger than 40 years, which accounts for 6% of the population diagnosed with breast cancer.

Recent studies have indicated that β-adrenergic signaling is involved in the regulation of immune responses to breast tumor cells, and data from in vivo studies show an association between β-adrenergic signaling with increased nodal involvement and development of metastasis but no effect on primary tumor growth. Based on this evidence, Dr Thomas I. Barron, from the department of pharmacology and therapeutics at Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, in Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues chose to explore the relationship between beta blocker use and breast tumor characteristics as well as breast cancer morbidity.

Cervical cancer is preventable. Early detection of pre-cancerous changes - through screening - is key.