Women Affairs

Women suffering from obstetric fistula in Malawi received free medical care to reverse their condition during the country's Fistula Week. Between Oct. 12 and 18, the Malawian government, with technical and financial assistance from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), treated more than 130 destitute women who have no or little access to health care services. Lausi Adamu, from Makanjira in Malawi's lake district of Mangochi, who does not know her exact age, has suffered from fistula for the last 25 years. Her affliction came to an end last week, when she received an operation free of charge to stop her ailment. Adamu told IPS reporter Pilirani Semu-Banda about her life with the disease as she recuperated in hospital after the operation. How did you develop fistula? It was 25 years ago, when I was in labour for three days while giving birth to my first and only child at home. I received no medical care throughout pregnancy, and it was only my mother who was with me during ...

The chance of having fraternal twins at Angelina's age (33) naturally is under 1 percent; with in vitro, the chances are 25 percent. Says Dr. Arthur Wisot of L.A.'s Reproductive Medical Group (who did not treat the couple), "We live in an era of reproductive freedom, so anybody can do anything they want within legal limits." The actress chose the procedure (which can cost around $12,000 a pop) so "she wouldn't have to deal with the stress of trying to get pregnant," the source tells Us. "She could just knock it out." Indeed, Jolie has spoken about her goal to do just that. "If we're going to have 10 kids, we'd like to raise them while we're young," she told Elle U.K. last year. Brad Pitt turns 45 on December 18.

Deborah Kotz One in seven American couples grapples with infertility, often with no explainable medical cause. A new book, The Fertility Diet, may offer a low-tech, low-cost solution for some. It's based on research from the well-respected Harvard Nurses' Health Study suggesting that diet may play a role in women's efforts to conceive. The book identifies particular nutrients they should be getting, such as iron, or avoiding, such as trans fats, to improve their chances of getting pregnant. How much are the odds increased? The book doesn't say. That's because the 10-step plan was formulated from dietary habits collected from surveys—and not actually tested on infertile women. While no one knows whether this plan can truly help women get pregnant, it's based, for the most part, on good nutrition and smart health habits. Book coauthor Jorge Chavarro, an investigator on the Nurses' Health Study and research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, spoke w...

Kristie Leong M.D. Infertility is the inability to become pregnant after a year of trying. It may take the form of reoccurance of miscarriages in women and othe forms related to a man too. Infertility can be a frustrating problem with a variety of underlying causes. There's no doubt that a woman who is infertile experiences various levels of stress due to her inability to conceive. More and more evidence is emerging that stress may actually play a potential role as a cause of infertility. Of course before infertility can be attributed to stress, physical causes for this problem must be ruled out by a gynecologist. He or she can conduct a series of tests and examinations to exclude structural problems as well as hormone related abnormalities. Once physical causes for infertility are ruled out by a doctor, a trial of stress reduction training might be in order. What evidence is there that stress plays a role in infertility? Several studies have shown that infertile women wh...

It may not seem so at the time, but women who suffer through morning sickness during their pregnancies actually may be fortunate. Those women may have a 30 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life than mothers-to-be who experience nine nausea-free months, a new study by epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo suggests. "Although the exact mechanism responsible for causing nausea and vomiting during pregnancy has yet to be pinpointed, it likely is a result of changing levels of ovarian and placental hormone production, which may include higher circulating levels of a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin," said David Jaworowicz, Jr., first author on the study. "In vitro studies have shown that this hormone possesses several activities that have potential protective effects against cancer cells," said Jaworowicz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Preventive Medicine in UB's School of Public Health and Health Profession...

Getting pregnant is a wonderful thing. The miracle of life is taking place within you. One of the things you may not be aware of when you become pregnant is stretch marks. Many mothers tend to avoid this particular topic. I can’t say I blame them. Based on the overall scheme of things it is kind of trivial. As a result you tend to hear more about everything else. Maybe mother don’t want anyone to know about the scars of giving birth which in some cases can be on their skin years after giving birth? In essence there is nothing much to do to prevent them. It is purely genetic. In the event you have the elasticity in your skin then you may be one of the lucky ones who gets away with no stretch marks and probably will be the envy of many others who did not. One lady stated that six months after giving birth to her second child she still had stretch marks. There are many snake oils sales people out there on TV advertising miraculous creams and so on. Don’t be fooled! Many women claim that t...