Women's Health Archive

Find out how estrogen-containing birth control can affect thyroid hormone replacement, and why your levothyroxine dose may need closer monitoring.

Pregnancy can change the balance of risks and benefits around flu vaccination. Key safety considerations may help guide a discussion with your obstetrician.

While menopause means the end of irregular periods and heavy bleeding typical in women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS; formerly polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS), they continue to face some of the same symptoms along with greater lifelong health risks.

For women with pelvic organ prolapse, surgery is typically considered when symptoms interfere with daily life and when conservative measures to relieve the symptoms have failed or are unappealing.

Musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause is a newly recognized condition that links falling estrogen levels to widespread joint and muscle pain, stiffness, fatigue, and other symptoms. Estrogen loss at midlife can also reduce muscle mass and bone density.

After starting treatment for high blood pressure, your hot flashes are back. Explore how medications and other conditions might be involved.

A new breast lump can be alarming, but not all require immediate surgery. A doctor will determine the appropriate next steps, which may include medical tests.

Low libido can include both less desire for and less satisfaction with sex. A variety of medications can dampen sex drive by altering hormone levels or nerve signals, dulling sensation in the genitals, or triggering fatigue or mood changes. They include some antidepressants, cardiovascular drugs, antihistamines, antiseizure drugs, opioids, chemotherapy, hormone blockers, oral contraceptives, and fertility drugs. People whose medications affect their libido can ask their doctor to adjust the dose or timing or substitute another drug without sexual side effects.

Guidelines recommend that women starting hormone therapy do so before age 60 and within 10 years of menopause onset. Starting later may raise the risks of heart attack, stroke, or dementia. Women who start hormone therapy at 70 or older face even greater cardiovascular risks.

Pain from gallstones (hardened, stonelike lumps of bile or other digestive fluids that block bile ducts) usually occurs in a distinct pattern. Gallstone attacks typically provoke steady, intense pain in the upper right abdomen that can radiate to the shoulder or back.