Women's Health Archive

Since 1990, the maternal mortality rate in the United States, while still relatively low, has risen by 50%. Meanwhile, many other women experience pregnancy-related conditions that cause serious injury, and thousands more struggle with illnesses and a lack of support.

Research into the connection between breastfeeding and obesity in children found that babies who got milk directly from the mother’s breast for the first three months of life had the lowest risk of becoming obese, because they are less likely to overfeed.

Research we're watching

A test that screens for human papillomavirus (HPV) beat a commonly used cervical cancer screening method in detecting changes that may lead to cervical cancer, according to a study published July 3 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Some 19,000 women were screened for cervical cancer using either the HPV test or a more traditional and commonly used liquid-based cytology test. After 48 months, all the women were tested again using both tests. Researchers found that among women who'd had a normal initial screening, those who'd been screened with the HPV test had significantly fewer grade 3 or worse precancerous cervical changes at the final testing compared with those screened with liquid-based cytology.

In response, the U.S Preventive Services Task Force now recommends either HPV testing only once every five years or liquid-based cytology once every three years for women ages 30 to 65.

Several sex-specific issues may foretell a higher risk of cardiovascular problems in women and men.

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You probably know the key health indicators that pose a danger to your heart, such as high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure. But many people are not aware of the sex-specific conditions that may serve as early warning signals for heart disease.

For women, these include problems that sometimes occur during pregnancy, as well as other diseases that are more prevalent in females (see "Female-focused cardiac risks"). For men, it's a relatively common problem that's less commonly discussed: erectile dysfunction.

Women are at higher risk for heart attacks that don't involve blocked arteries — and they should receive the same follow-up treatment as conventional heart attack patients.

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For years, people who suffered heart attacks but didn't have major blockages in their arteries — a condition called myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) — were thought to have a less serious form of heart disease. As a result, doctors often opted against aggressive follow-up treatments. But a study published June 15 in the International Journal of Cardiology contributes to the growing body of evidence that MINOCAs merit follow-up treatment.

The study, which looked at data from an online Swedish cardiac registry, found that a quarter of people who were diagnosed with MINOCAs went on to have another major cardiovascular event, such as another heart attack, a stroke, or heart failure. Of the original group of 9,092 people who were diagnosed with MINOCAs (62% of them women), some 2,147 went on to have another cardiovascular event during a follow-up period averaging about 4.5 years.