Blog

Fish: What Pregnant Women and Parents Should Know.

The FDA and the EPA are revising their joint fish consumption Advice and Questions & Answers to encourage pregnant women, those who may become pregnant, breastfeeding mothers, and young children to eat more fish and to eat a variety of fish from choices that are lower in mercury. This is a DRAFT for which you may provide comment. Once finalized, it will replace the current advice which was issued in 2004.

Original Article

WTTW Feature: Ending the Gender Bias in Research

Dr. Teresa Woodruff and Dr. Melina Kibbe of the Women’s Health Research Institute’s Leadership Council were featured recently on WTTW Chicago Tonight. They discussed their activism for the inclusion of males and females in pre-clinical research studies. The recent shift by the NIH to include both genders in NIH-funded basic research, will help minimize gender biases in devises and medications once studies reach the clinical phase. Dr. Woodruff and Dr.

Original Article

Fertilization Fairytale: ‘Knight in Shining Armor’ Sperm and ‘Damsel in Distress’ Eggs

Despite the fact that fertilization requires mutual, active participation by both eggs and sperm, gender roles are often projected onto reproductive biology, leading to the portrayal of eggs as passive and sperm as active. For example, the opening credits in the 1989 movie Look Who’s Talking portray a common perception of fertilization. As the Beach Boys’ song “I Get Around” plays in the background, we see sperm inside a women’s reproductive tract moving toward her egg. The scene is narrated by one of the sperm, though we can hear some of the other sperm talking.

Original Article

Drug dose recommendations should be tailored to sex.

Why should drugs be tested in both males and females?   Because physiological differences between males and females affect drug activity. Factors like body weight, GI motility,  intestinal enzyme activity, and kidney clearance rate affect how drugs move through the body and affect the absorption, excretion, distribution and metabolism of a drug in men and women differently.  A drug’s mechanism of action may also impact men and women differently.   For example, men and women react differently to many antidepressants, antipsychotic agents, and pain killers.  Sometimes the fix is a simple change in dosage (like the FDA recommended for Ambien recently).  In other cases, the cause may be more complex due to hormonal differences, gene expression or metabolism.

Original Article

Early Menopause Increases Risk of Heart Failure

Heart disease risk increases with age for everyone, but symptoms of heart disease can be more evident particularly after menopause. Researchers for the first time have linked symptoms of heart failure to menopause, according to a new study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Data that included more than 22,000 postmenopausal women from the Swedish National Patient Register, showed that women who went through menopause at an earlier age of age 40 to 45 (average is 51 in the United States), had a heart failure rate 40% higher than women who went through menopause between the ages of 50 and 54. The rate of heart failure dropped by 2% for every 1-year increase in age for onset of menopause.

Original Article

CBS 60 Minutes re-runs segment on sex inclusion in research

The 60 Minutes segment “Sex Matters: Drugs Can Affect Sexes Differently” is set to re-air this Sunday at 6:00pm central time. The Women’s Health Research Institute and it Leadership Council members worked with CBS on this show.  The recent strides by the WHRI, the NIH, and other media outlets has shed a renewed light on the issue of sex inclusion in research. If you missed it last time, tune in this Sunday to learn about the way drugs affect men and women differently. Watch the preview now on the 60 Minutes website!

Original Article

Archives