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It’s Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and two medical organizations are taking a stand to emphasize the importance of colorectal screening in women in hopes of further improving early detection and reducing deaths from the disease. Both the American College of Gastroenterology and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have released statements to increase the use of colorectal screening options in women.

Most adults in the United States have experienced vaginal sex, but the number of younger adults reporting no sexual contact has increased since 2002, according to the March issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Statistics Report.

More North Americans are obese today than were 20 years ago, and the prevalence of obesity in Canada is about 10 percentage points lower than it is in the United States, according to a data report issued March 2 by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

High body mass index (BMI) and low levels of physical activity are associated with increased risk of triple-negative and estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers in postmenopausal women, according to a study published online March 1 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and has beneficial effects on its individual components, according to a meta-analysis published in the March 15 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Breast cancer incidence rates among non-Hispanic (NH) white women in the United States stabilized between 2003 and 2007 after a sharp decline between 2002 and 2003 that followed a drop in the use of postmenopausal hormone therapy, according to a study published online Feb. 28 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

There is a lack of sex-specific data relating to the safety and effectiveness of high-risk cardiovascular devices prior to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, according to a review published online March 1 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

According to government estimates, the incidence of ovarian cancer is almost 13 per 100,000 women per year, and most cases are diagnosed in an advanced stage. As such, proper treatment is critical to ensure survival. However, Dr Melissa M. Thrall, fellow in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington, found that less than 40% of women reliant on Medicare receive standard care.

Primary care physicians are the entry point for care for many patients. They are often responsible for determining when additional expertise is needed and to which specialist a patient should go for additional care. Although studies have shown that gynecologic oncologists can improve surgical and survival outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer, the referral rate from primary care physicians to gynecologic oncologists remains relatively low.

Both patients and physicians can bring qualities to a clinical encounter that result in its being perceived as difficult, and patients involved in these types of encounters have worse short-term outcomes, according to research published online Jan. 25 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Approximately 5% of women who seek medical assistance for menorrhagia from their primary care physicians or gynecologists never make their way to a hematologist, even though many of these women have such underlying hemostatic abnormalities as decreased von Willebrand factor (VWF), platelet dysfunction, and decreased coagulation factors. These women in turn are in danger of experiencing bleeding complications during surgery, childbirth, or other invasive procedures.

In women with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer, treatment with trastuzumab for one year after chemotherapy is associated with significant disease-free survival at a four-year follow-up, according to a study published online Feb. 25 in The Lancet Oncology.