OBGYN.net Staff

Articles by OBGYN.net Staff

I've been seeing a man regularly for the past year. We get along great and the chemistry is there – lots of love on both sides. However, I feel growing anger. I've been waiting for him to ask me to live with him or get married. I've been giving him plenty of hints but it's not working. I think he likes it the way it is. I don't want to lose him but the stress of waiting really affects my feelings. Why can’t I get him to act? How long should I wait?

I was a dysfunctional husband throughout my marriage because of my marijuana habit. After we separated, my father took ill and my Mom’s health was failing so I was back and forth to help her.

If you have just been told that you may need to have a hysterectomy, what are you feeling? Frightened, uncertain, vulnerable, angry, out of control -- don't panic. I don't think anyone could have had any more of a negative reaction than I did when I was told, "you should probably think about having surgery."

More than 10 million American women suffer from excessive menstrual bleeding or heavy periods, a condition known as menorrhagia. In fact, more than 20 percent of the 600,000 hysterectomies performed annually in the United States treat menorrhagia. But because this health issue is so rarely discussed, few women realize that the condition can be easily treated during a 30-minute outpatient procedure as opposed to having a hysterectomy.

Despite the major public health impact of leiomyomas, little is known about their cause. Until recently, the steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone were considered the most important regulators of leiomyoma growth. There is abundant evidence that estrogen promotes fibroid growth including the clinical observations that fibroids grow in the presence of high levels of estrogen, such as during the reproductive years, and that they regress in the presence of low levels of estrogen, such as following menopause or during gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist therapy.

The first laparoscopic hysterectomy was performed in 1989 by Henry Reich. Nowadays the laparoscopic hysterectomy for a uterus up to 300 grams, without other pathologies that could limit its mobility or without a poor vaginal access, has to be considered a basic well standardized procedure.

Myomectomy is becoming a much more frequently performed procedure certainly it is one that is sought out much more frequently by our patients. Probably the most intimidating form of fibroids is that which occurs in the broad ligament, and particularly one which occurs in the cervical region.

Pap Smears

The Papanicolaou (Pap) test is the best screening test we have in medicine. Countries that perform the test, like the USA, prevent over 90% of cervical cancers. Pap tests should not detect cervical cancer, because it is the cervical cancer we want prevent. Our goal is to detect pre-cancerous changes, and treat cases in their pre-cancerous state. Earlier findings require less costly and less painful treatment.

The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) has endorsed the American Cancer Society's (ACS) new guidelines, "Early Detection of Cervical Neoplasia and Cancer," released in the Nov./Dec. issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The new guidelines represent a significant step forward in advising the health care community and the public on the importance of cervical cancer screening and the relationship between the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) virus and cervical cancer.

Depression and incontinence appear to be associated in women, but the statistical strength of that association depends on the instrument used to classify depression, according to this population-based, cross-sectional study. Investigators used data on 5,701 women aged 50 to 69 years collected during interviews conducted for the Health and Retirement Study.

EHR poll

Are you using Electronic Health Records? What do you think about them? Share your gripes or sing the praises of EHRs.

Ovarian carcinomas from 30 BRCA1 germ-line carriers of two distinct high penetrant founder mutations, 20 carrying the 1675delA and 10 the 1135insA, and 100 sporadic cases were characterized for somatic mutations in the TP53 gene. We analyzed differences in relation to BRCA1 germline status, TP53 status, survival and age at diagnosis, as previous studies have not been conclusive.

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of (pre)neoplastic lesions in overtly normal Fallopian tubes from women predisposed to developing ovarian carcinoma. The presence of (pre)neoplastic lesions was scored in histological specimens from 12 women with a genetically determined predisposition for ovarian cancer, of whom seven tested positive for a germline BRCA1 mutation.