Women’s Health Week – It’s Your Time

Cycling mother and daughter, Netherlands/via Wikimedia Commons

Women, especially working women with families, often are their own last priority—the job and family come first. This week is the 13th annual National Women’s Health Week, which started on Mother’s Day, May 13, and will last until May 19th. The theme for this year is “It’s Your Time.” And it’s the perfect time for women to stop and take stock of their own health needs. This year’s Women’s Health Week is particularly poignant, coming on the tail of the recent debates about access to birth control on the national stage.

Coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, this special week is meant to bring together health organizations, businesses, government offices, and communities in order to promote women’s health. You can find more information about how to get involved on womenshealth.gov.

Our views on women’s health continue to evolve. For example, menopause: what is a “normal” symptom during menopause? What treatments are available for various symptoms, and what can women do to help themselves? What do we currently know about the effects of certain treatments, and are they worth the possible benefits? Are we overmedicalizing women’s bodies? Or what about pregnant nurses on the job? What might endanger their health or that of their developing babies?

We’d like to offer some of our recent articles on women’s health to help increase awareness of some health […]

2016-11-21T13:10:09-05:00May 16th, 2012|Nursing|0 Comments
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Emergency Contraception: Why It Matters and How Nurses Can Improve Access

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Unintended pregnancy can, in some circumstances, be detrimental to the health of both the women who become pregnant and the children born as a result. And such pregnancies happen far more often than you might think, accounting for nearly half of all pregnancies in this country, with even higher rates among women ages 18 to 24 and low-income women. Yet we have had the means to safely prevent such pregnancies for decades, through emergency contraception. Why isn’t emergency contraception used more often?

That’s a question author Kit Devine explores in “The Underutilization of Emergency Contraception,” one of April’s CE features. First, Devine describes the four methods currently available: conventional oral contraceptives and the copper intrauterine device (IUD)—both are used for birth control and can also be used to prevent pregnancy after intercourse has occurred—and the agents levonorgestrel and ulipristal acetate, which are FDA-approved for emergency contraception. Effectiveness ranges from 51% to 62% (for conventional oral contraceptives) to as high as 99% (for IUDs).

Known and likely barriers to their use include […]

2016-11-21T13:10:18-05:00April 16th, 2012|Nursing|1 Comment
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Perspectives on Sebelius Overrule of FDA on Plan B

Women’s health advocates were quick to cry foul Wednesday when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the opinion of the Food and Drug Administration that the popular “morning after” emergency contraceptive “Plan B One Step” should be allowed to be sold without a prescription — and without age restrictions.

That’s from an NPR story on the response of women’s groups to the ruling by HHS head Sebelius. Many others have weighed in via various forums since the ruling. What gives? Is the decision politically motivated? Or was it because Sebelius actually believed in the rightness of her objection enough that she should overrule the FDA, something that’s apparently not at all usual practice?

Here are some quotes from an MSNBC Vitals blog article about the issue, from a major ethicist and from a leader in pediatric care:

“In facing a tough call, HHS has put politics over science when it comes to sex,” said Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and a frequent contributor to msnbc.com.

Dr. Robert Block, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, called the decision “medically inexplicable,” saying that it defies strong data that shows emergency contraception is safe and effective for girls and women of all ages.

President Obama […]

2016-11-21T13:11:12-05:00December 8th, 2011|Nursing|3 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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