Women's Health Archive

The health effects of balancing career and parenting have been studied a lot, but most of the attention has focused on a single period in the middle of a woman's life. Recently, researchers affiliated with Harvard University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health decided to look at how sustaining that balancing act over decades affects a woman's risk of dying before age 75.

The team studied data on work histories, marriages, and parenting for more than 7,500 women in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study—an ongoing biennial survey of the health and lifestyles of thousands of women and men. They found that a woman's risk of dying between ages 55 and 75 varied substantially with her history of work, marriage, and childrearing. Married women who went back to work after staying at home with their children had the lowest death rate—around 5%—while single mothers who had never worked had the highest rate—12%. The death rate was just under 7% for nonworking married mothers, and slightly above 8% for single working mothers. The report appeared in the April 2015 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The release of new guidelines on mammography never fails to renew the heated controversy over the potential benefits and harms of this procedure. The latest draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) are no exception. The USPSTF recommends that women begin having mammograms at age 50 and stop at age 75. (The American Cancer Society and other medical organizations recommend that women begin getting regular mammograms at age 40.) The draft recommendations say there isn’t enough evidence to recommend or discourage the use of a new technique called 3-D mammography for screening, and also say there isn’t enough evidence to recommend that women with dense breasts, who are at higher risk of breast cancer, should have an ultrasound or MRI in addition to screening mammography. Comments can be made on the USPSTF draft until 8:00 pm Easter Time today. A final version of the recommendations is expected to be released in the fall of 2015.

A large study reinforces the current thinking on hormone therapy after menopause: it doesn't shield women from heart disease and may slightly increase their risk of a stroke.

For decades, doctors believed that hormone therapy could prevent heart disease. But in 2002, findings from the landmark Women's Health Initiative revealed that long-term hormone use boosted heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer risk.

Fibroids are noncancerous tumors that grow in the uterus. They may be smaller than a seed or bigger than a grapefruit. Depending on their size, number, and location, fibroids can cause heavy bleeding and long menstrual periods (which can, in turn, cause anemia), pelvic pain, frequent urination, or constipation. Fibroids can also cause infertility and repeated miscarriages. About 7 in 10 women will develop this condition at some point. Given how common uterine fibroids are, it’s surprising how few randomized trials have been done to compare treatment options. A clinical practice article in today’s New England Journal of Medicine lays out the options for treating uterine fibroids and discusses the factors women and their doctors should consider when making treatment decisions.

To get the full benefit of your workout, you need to know how hard you're exercising, and that can be different for everyone.

Hot flashes and other symptoms can take a decade or longer to recede, but there is no reason to suffer in silence. There are new options for relief and new tools to guide you.

What we know about menopause has changed a lot over the past few decades, thanks to volumes of research. For example, studies reported in recent months indicate that hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms last longer than previously thought, affecting substantial numbers of women in their 60s. And randomized clinical trials have taught us that hormone therapy can be a safe and effective way to control symptoms, although it's no longer recommended for reducing risk of cardiovascular disease. "There's now a critical mass of research showing that, for many women, the benefits of hormone therapy for treating hot flashes and improving quality of life outweigh the risks," says Dr. JoAnn Manson, Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women's Health at Harvard Medical School.

It's well known that women fall more often than men, but why is that so? A team of Canadian researchers tackled that question by looking for factors that tend to put women at higher risk than men for spills.

The researchers studied around 15,000 adults ages 65 and older who were enrolled in the Canadian Community Health Survey–Healthy Aging. All the participants were asked if they had suffered a fall serious enough to limit their normal activity. People who answered "yes" were then queried about their lifestyles and medical histories. When the researchers analyzed the answers, they determined that stroke, arthritis, and poor nutrition increased the risk of falls in both men and women. However, different risk factors were linked to falls for women, including being 85 or older, having at least one alcoholic drink a week, taking five or more medications, and having diabetes or osteoporosis. The findings were reported online Feb. 19, 2015, by the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Younger women with heart disease may be unaware of their condition and may not recognize the symptoms of a heart attack, according to a report in the March 2015 issue of Circulation. The finding came from a survey of women under 55 who had survived heart attacks.

Researchers from the Translational Research Investigating Underlying Disparities in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients' Health Status (TRIUMPH) study interviewed 30 women ages 30 to 55 who were hospitalized for heart attacks. They asked the women about their risk factors, the preventive measures they took the symptoms they experienced, and the treatment they sought and received.

It's no secret that healthy living can reduce your risk for developing heart disease. But ever wonder how much it may help? Up to 92%, suggests a study published Jan. 6, 2015, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It evaluated health habits of 70,000 young and middle-aged women during a 20-year period. The habits included not smoking; exercising for at least 2.5 hours each week; watching TV for fewer than seven hours a week; consuming a diet rich in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains but low in red meat, refined grains, and sugar; consuming no more than one alcoholic drink daily; and having a body mass index in the normal range. Compared with women who had none of those habits, women with all six reduced their risk of developing heart disease by 92%. Why do those habits provide so much protection against heart disease? "Limiting TV watching frees up time for exercise, and the other activities are known to reduce blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and blood sugar, which reduce the three major risk factors for heart disease—hypertension, high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and diabetes," says Dr. Randall Zusman, a cardiologist and Harvard Medical School associate professor. And even though the study involved young and middle-aged women, Dr. Zusman reminds us that it's never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

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Q. There seems to be agreement that supplements are worthless in supporting good health. I've been taking a multivitamin for older women for many years. I also take a calcium supplement since I am lactose intolerant. Should I discontinue the multivitamin, the calcium, or both?

A. You are definitely right about the recent consensus that most supplements, and certainly multivitamins, provide very little, if any, benefit to our health. So yes, stop taking the multivitamin. A far more important strategy to maintain good health is eating a diet containing lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, unsaturated fats, and small amounts of protein. Our bodies were designed to absorb nutrients from food, and that continues to be the best way to get them in our systems.