The following press release was issued by the FDA. While the seriousness and pain of bone fractures is significant, the side effect profiles of this drug sound pretty serious. What is the risk/benefit ratio? Is the trade-off worth it? We would love to hear from women who are making these choices.
JUNE 1, 2010: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Prolia, an injectable treatment for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who are at high risk for fractures.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the bones become weak and are more likely to break. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 80 percent of the people in the United States with osteoporosis are women. One out of every two women over age 50 will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis.
An article was released in the June 10, 2010 edition of the well-respected journal, Nature, that raises the question of doing research studies on pregnant women. Women get colds, the flu, infections and other diseases during their pregnancies that have nothing to do with their mom-to-be status. Many women simply “toughen it out” hoping their condition is just a virus that will run its course. Other times, they rely on their obstetrician’s experience with other patients who may have been prescribed an antedote that the physician has used successfully in her/his practice, but has not actually been studied in well-designed research studies that included pregnant women.
According to the World Health Organization, alcohol is one of the most significant risk factors for diseases including chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Compared with men, women become more cognitively impaired by alcohol and are more susceptible to alcohol-related organ damage. Women develop damage with less intake and over a shorter period of time than men. When men and women of the same weight consume equal amounts of alcohol, women have higher blood alcohol concentrations. This is due in part because women have proportionately more body fat and a lower volume of body water compared with men of similar weight. This leads to women having a higher concentration of alcohol because there is less volume of water to dilute the alcohol.
Today, the scientific journal, Nature, released a Commentary by Institute Director Teresa Woodruff and two of her post doctorate students that we hope will open up the dialogue about the current status of women’s health research. For the reader’s convenience, the entire press release is listed below as well as a link to the article. More examples of sex bias will be featured on this blog over the next two weeks, so we hope you will tag this site!
A recent publication from the National Osteoporosis Foundation reported that many women with postmenopausal osteoporosis underestimate their risk for fractures. This is particularly alarming when it is coupled with new information released from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that found potential increased risk of fracture of the hip, wrist and spine if you take certain drugs for heartburn, acid reflux, or ulcers.
according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They examined published data from numerous adult and child vaccine trials and found that sex is a fundamental, but often overlooked predictor of vaccine response that could help predict the efficacy of combating infectious disease. The review is featured in the May 2010 issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.