When Carrie (not her real name) was 33, she discovered she was pregnant for the fourth time. For the married Ottawa-area mother of three, the pregnancy was the product of an affair. They had used condoms all but once and, while she knew the risks of getting pregnant, they seemed small, given her age and the fact that she’d struggled with serious health complications in her last two pregnancies.
Tag: risks
FDA Warns Against Procedure to Remove Uterine Fibroids; Says it Could Spread Hidden Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday took the rare step of urging doctors to stop performing a surgical procedure used on tens of thousands of women each year to remove uterine growths, saying the practice risks spreading hidden cancers within a woman’s body.
Analysis: Are We Overusing IVF?
The indications for IVF have expanded from tubal disorders to many causes of subfertility, including unexplained. But with limited evidence underpinning its extended remit Esme Kamphuis and colleagues explain how the risks could outweigh the benefits.
NuvaRing, Yaz, And Third-Generation Contraception: Is The Medical Establishment Failing To Protect Women?
Monday, Vanity Fair published an article questioning why a potentially lethal product, NuvaRing contraception, remains available for sale. Yet the real question is: Why do so many doctors, who fully understand the potential health risks, continue to prescribe life-threatening contraceptives to women?
Despite Incentives, Many Couples Aim for Twins with IVF
For many couples undergoing in vitro fertilization, the desire to rapidly complete a family apparently outweighs concerns over medical risks and the lure of cash savings, according to Dr. Fady I. Sharara.
Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Blood Clots
Woman who take estrogen and progestin, a combination hormone replacement therapy (HRT), have double the risk of developing blood clots. The findings add more grief to a growing list of risks associated with HRT, including, heart attack, breast cancer and stroke.
Hormone-Replacement Therapy: Could Estrogen Have Saved 50,000 Lives?
For more than a decade, doctors have cautioned women about the risks associated with hormone-replacement therapy. But those warnings may have put one group of women at increased risk of dying early, according to the latest study.
Finding a Balance in Menopause
After a decade of rancorous debate over the risks and benefits of menopausal hormone therapy, experts from more than a dozen top medical organizations worldwide have finally come to something resembling a consensus. What did they decide, and why are women still baffled?
The Doctor’s Corner: An Early Start on Treating Menopause
A Global Consensus Statement, hot off the press in the April issue of the journal Climacteric, concludes that the benefits of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) outweigh the risks when started before the age of 60, or within 10 years of menopause.
Kan. case reveals risks with assisted reproduction
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The case of a Kansas sperm donor being sued by the state for child support underscores a confusing patchwork of aging laws that govern assisted reproduction in the United States and often lead to litigation and frustration among would-be parents.
Complex questions about parental responsibility resurfaced late last year, as Kansas officials went after a Topeka man who answered a Craigslist ad from a lesbian couple seeking a sperm donor. Because no doctor was involved in the artificial insemination, the state sought to hold William Marotta financially responsible for the child when the women split up and one of them sought public assistance. A hearing is set for April.
Many states haven’t updated their laws to address the evolution of family structures — such as same-sex families, single women conceiving with donated sperm or artificial inseminations performed without a doctor’s involvement. At-home insemination kits are inexpensive, and obtaining sperm from a friend, or even a donor met over the Internet, allows women to avoid medical costs that generally aren’t covered by insurance. Read full article.