Blog

Estimates of Young Breast Cancer Survivors at Risk for Infertility in the U.S.

Gonadotoxic therapies, such as chemotherapy, used to treat breast cancer can have harmful effects on fertility- they destroy ovarian follicles, or women’s reserve of ova, resulting in amenorrhea and/or early menopause. Additionally, many endocrine therapies used to treat breast cancer have indirect effects on fertility, often impairing ovulatory and endometrial function.

Approximately 11% of women diagnosed with breast cancer are under age 45, and one of the largest predictors of infertility after cancer treatment in women is age: 5% of women diagnosed with cancer at age 30, 32% of women diagnosed at age 35, and 80% of women diagnosed at age 40 are infertile after cancer treatment. Women under age 45 have unique survivorship concerns- including the risk of infertility due to cancer treatment.

Original Article

Delinquent girls more likely than boys, to die violently as adults

Delinquency in youth predicts a significantly higher rate of violent death in adulthood — especially from firearms — and females are among the most vulnerable, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study.

Delinquent females died violently at nearly five times the rate of those in the general population, according to the study, while delinquent males died at three times general population rates.

Death rates in Hispanic males and females were five and nine times more than the general population rates, respectively.

Original Article

Are you taking too much calcium?

Bone health in women has raised a lot of concern and generated many recommendations. Current guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that women ages 65 and older be screened routinely for osteoporosis. To reduce bone loss and decrease risk of fractures, calcium and vitamin D recommends have been outlined as well; premenopausal women should consume at least 1,000 mg per day and postmenopausal women should consume 1,2000 mg per day (total diet and supplement). But are women taking too much calcium?

Original Article

Oncofertility Patient Education

A variety of patient education materials have been created for providers to use in the oncofertility care setting- materials that describe fertility preservation options in easy-to-understand language and have been designed in multiple platforms ranging from informational fact sheets to internet videos. The Oncofertility Consortium has gathered the existing oncofertility patient aids and organized them within our Oncofertility Decision Tool Web Portal.

An entire section of the portal is devoted to patient education. We have done this so providers can quickly access materials when reproductive age patients whose fertility is threatened by their disease or treatment are on their clinic schedule.

Original Article

Alaskan campaign places pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms

As the state with the highest rates of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the U.S., Alaska is introducing a new campaign aimed at preventing pregnant women from drinking, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Starting in December, pregnancy tests will be placed in the bathrooms of 20 bars and restaurants across the state.
Original Article

Oncofertility Clinical Guidelines, Recommendations, & Opinions

Need to stay up to date on the latest clinical guidelines, recommendations, and opinions? Our Oncofertility Decision Tool Web Portal has an entire section devoted to bringing you ALL of the clinical guidelines affecting fertility preservation and oncology care.  We designed it this way so the resources you need are at your fingertips- organized in one easy to access online location. Check out our Clinical Recommendations, Guidelines, and Opinions section of the Oncofertility Web Portal today!

Original Article

The Sitdown: Teresa Woodruff is a driving force for sex equity in medical science

Women’s Health Research Institute Director, Dr. Teresa Woodruff was featured in a recent Chicago Sun-Times piece. Discussing everything from her research, her advocacy efforts, and even her hobbies, Dr. Woodruff breaks down the importance of sex-based research. From basic science to clinical trials, both sexes need to be examined to determine differences (if any) in treatment or prescription drug dosage.

Original Article

Hormone Treatment Restores Bone for Young Women with POI

Researchers have found that hormone replacement therapy in young women with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) led to increases in their bone mineral density, restoring levels to normal.

The findings provide important treatment information for women with POI and their physicians.  Researchers at the NIH examined scans of the hip and lower spine to determine the effects of hormone treatment on bone mineral density of women with primary ovarian insufficiency.

Original Article

Article “Gender Equity Transforms Medicine” Receives Award of Excellence

In an article featuring Dr. Melina Kibbe, Dr. Teresa Woodruff and Dr. Amy Paller, among others, Sandra Guy gives voice to the gender equity movement in medicine. The article, featured in the Fall 2013 edition of Society for Women Engineers, detailed the various roles sex differences play in research and medicine. Enumerating sex differences from cancer detection to skin disease to artificial limbs, Guy follows the journey of discovery and advocacy towards better science where sex is examined as a research variable.

Original Article

Oncofertility Decision-Making Publications

Yesterday we announced our NEW Oncofertility Decision Tool Web Portal. This online portal serves as a one-stop-shop for health care providers in need of tools to facilitate fertility preservation conversations with their patients whose disease, or its treatment, threatens fertility. In addition to decision tools and aids, we have collected and organized the existing literature discussing oncofertility communication strategies and provided online access to the publications in our web portal. Many of the publications come directly from Dr. Woodruff’s various Oncofertility books- the same books you may have read chapter summaries about in this very blog. The web portal has taken all of those book chapters, along with journal articles, and compiled them for health care providers. They are organized by publication year and patient population.

Original Article

Archives