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Archive for the 'Women’s Health' Category
read comments (0)MENOPAUSE: TREATMENT
Author: admin
There is great debate as to whether this should be regarded as a natural phenomenon, and part of the ageing process, or whether it should be seen as a disease. If the thyroid gland stops secreting thyroid hormone we consider that to be a disease state. We replace the hormone with synthetic thyroid hormone in the form of tablets. If the pancreas stops producing insulin (which is what happens in diabetes), we replace it with injections of insulin. However, when the ovaries cease production of oestrogen it has been accepted as part of the natural ageing process. This is probably because it happens to all women, whereas thyroid disease and diabetes only affect some individuals. If thyroid deficiency and diabetes are left untreated they can have fairly dramatic and fatal consequences, but there are those who argue that untreated menopause also leads to premature death, from heart disease and osteoporosis. In the ‘olden days’ women—and men—had much shorter life expectancies, so that women did not have as many post-menopausal years. Now women in Australia have an average life expectancy of around 83 years, so they have a longer time in a state of hormone deficiency.
It seems to make biological sense that women should be able to reproduce until about the age of 40, but not much older. If women were able to have babies into their fifties and sixties, even seventies, what would happen to the children when the mother died of any of the diseases of old age? (These issues are being brought up in the public debate about the use of IVF for older women.)
There are many varied views on menopause, and whether or not intervention from medical technology is a good thing. I do not propose to give a definitive answer, but feel that women should be given information about their options, the risks and benefits, and allowed to make up their own minds.
Before launching into a detailed description of what other people can offer the menopausal woman to help her through her menopause, we would like to remind women that we also have the capacity to help ourselves. A woman who enters her middle years with a healthy body and a positive attitude may find her menopause not so problematic. Menopause does not have to be viewed as an inevitable disease approaching, which is how the ‘medicalisation’ of menopause sometimes makes it seem. We tend to focus on the negative aspects, yet many women find this an enlightening time, when their lives can change course, as they pass from one phase to another.
Many women will seek help during their peri-menopausal years, and there are a variety of treatments available to them from traditional medicine and other fields. The aims of the medical treatment of menopause are twofold. Firstly it can decrease the severity and frequency of the symptoms of the climacteric, such as hot flushes, vaginal discomfort and mood change. This can mean a better quality of life for the woman. Secondly, it is aimed at reducing the risk of the longer term development of osteoporosis and heart disease. This can also affect a woman’s quality of life, as well as how long she lives.
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Most women have some bleeding and period-like cramps for several days and even up to a couple of weeks after an abortion. Some women don’t have any bleeding at all. Some women feel sick in the stomach and rather tired straight after the abortion. It is good if you can have someone with you to take you home. You should not drive, so if there is nobody to take you, plan to get a taxi. If you work, you will probably need to take the rest of the day off to recover.
Your next period will probably come between four to eight weeks afterwards. If you start on the Pill straight after an abortion your period should come when you finish the first 21 days of pills. You may feel very emotional for a few weeks after the abortion. Emotions can range from depression to relief and everything in between. If you feel this way it is good to talk to someone like a close friend or a counsellor to help you through that time.
Where can you get an abortion?
You will need to talk to someone in your state to find out where you can get an abortion. Or check the telephone book in your state under ‘abortion’ or ‘pregnancy termination services’, or contact a Family Planning Centre, a Community Health Centre or a Women’s Health Centre for a referral.
What does it cost?
The cost of abortion varies depending on the type you have and the clinic or hospital concerned. It is best to ask about the cost when you enquire about abortions in your state.
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Another traditional method is called the Withdrawal method. It is usually just called withdrawal, so that’s what we will call it. It is also known as coitus interruptus or ‘being careful’. Withdrawal is not talked about much or recommended anymore, as there are so many other reliable methods available, but it has been used fairly successfully for centuries.
What is withdrawal? Withdrawal involves the man removing his penis from the woman’s vagina just before he ejaculates or ‘comes’.
How does withdrawal work? If the man does not ejaculate inside the woman, there will be no sperm in the Fallopian tubes to meet an egg and start a pregnancy.
How effective is withdrawal? Withdrawal has not been studied a lot as a method of contraception, but it is thought to be quite effective as long as the couple is committed to using it and the man has enough control to do it properly.
How do you use withdrawal? You have sex until the man feels that he is about to come. Then he pulls out of the woman’s vagina and ejaculates somewhere away from the entrance to her vagina, so that semen does not get inside her.
Why would I want to choose withdrawal?
You may want to choose withdrawal if a situation arises where you have sex unexpectedly and there is no other method available. You may want to use it as a backup to another method, particularly a natural method. Some people choose withdrawal so they can have a rest from other methods, especially when an unexpected pregnancy would not be a problem. Withdrawal doesn’t cost anything and is always available.
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How effective is an implant? Implanon is more than 99 percent effective. That means that if 100 women used Implanon as their method of contraception for one year, at most only one woman would have an unplanned pregnancy.
Why would I want to choose an implant? You may want to have an implant if you need a very effective method of contraception that you don’t have to think about every day or remember to use. If you don’t want to be pregnant for a couple of years or more, but you would like a method of contraception that can be easily reversed, an implant may be a good choice. If you are not able to take the hormone oestrogen, or you get unwanted side effects from it, you may find it suits you to use a method of contraception that has no oestrogen in it, like Implanon.
Are there any reasons I could not have an implant? You would not be able to have an implant if there is a chance you could be pregnant If you have unusual bleeding from your vagina that hasn’t been diagnosed, you shouldn’t have an implant until the reason for the bleeding is known. Hormonal problems or a history of hormone-affected cancers, like breast cancer, may mean you can’t use Implanon for contraception. You would need to discuss this with your doctor. A few medications can react with the progestogen in the implant and may make it less effective at preventing a pregnancy. Tell your doctor if you are taking any medication and find out if you can still have an implant.
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MEN IN THE BATHROOM: TAIL WINDS
Author: admin
The average healthy Australian bloke passes wind twelve times a day. He releases around half a litre of gas – enough to blow up a small balloon.
These days, we know more about farting than ever before. Fearless investigators have collected emissions from all sorts of people on all sorts of diets and then documented their findings. They know exactly what farts are made of, how much they weigh, why some are noisy and what different aromas can mean.
They tell us that, by self-report, women only average seven a day and that more than half of these are odourless. Men report an odour two-thirds of the time.
Everyone has intestinal gas. People swallow air as they eat and drink. Some actually gulp it when they are nervous. Often this comes back up as a burp, but once the air gets through the stomach, the only way out is through the back passage.
Gas is also created in the intestines by bacterial activity, and while some of this is used or reabsorbed, the remainder has only one escape route.
When Sydney gastroenterologist Professor Terry Bolin and nutritionist Rosemary Stanton wrote a book on intestinal gas, they were amazed at the response. Farting is still a social taboo and people are hungry for information about it. Their book Wind Breaks is now in its third printing and is also being published overseas.
They say that the amount of gas a man produces depends partly on his diet and partly on the kind of bacteria living in his bowel. Volunteers in a study they conducted were each given a hand counter which they kept in their pockets and clicked every time they passed wind. This showed men had a farting range of three to thirty-eight a day.
Nerve endings around the rectum are exquisitely sensitive and people can feel a fart escaping, even when it’s deadly silent. Other researchers in the United States insert a small catheter into the rectum to count and trap emissions.
Some men pass small volumes of gas often and others pass larger volumes less often. Farting frequency depends on the sensitivity of the walls of the rectum. If the walls are sensitive to small amounts of distension, the man will pass small volumes more often than if his rectum tolerates greater distension.
With age, the bowel becomes less elastic and more sensitive to being distended. This means older men often can’t hold in gas and so they pass wind more frequently. They do not actually produce more gas.
It is not harmful to hold in gas but it can become a habit and make the man feel bloated and uncomfortable. It may even cause pain.
Changes in mood, especially tension, can increase the gas in the bowel because food passes rapidly through the small intestine before it has time to be digested. It then ferments in the large bowel and gas is produced. Tension may also increase the amount of gas being held.
Farts are made up of five main gases: nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. All of these are odourless. It is traces of other chemicals that give each fart its unique aroma.
Men who seek medical help for wind are usually concerned about aroma, fearing that a pungent smell indicates bowel disease. Odours are usually the result of diet and are rarely due to disease such as a bleeding peptic ulcer or a malfunctioning pancreas.
Many protein foods, including meat and eggs, contribute to Ratal odour. Some spices and herbs also produce pungent aromas, as do onions, garlic and concentrates like shrimp paste.
In Australian Doctor, Rosemary Stanton wrote that she is concerned that people who know the value of increasing dietary fibre are unwilling to do so for fear of flatulence. There is a correlation between fibre and flatulence but people who don’t eat enough fibre still produce gas, even when fasting. There are different types of fibre, and people who feel uncomfortable after eating one type should experiment to find another that suits them.
Some foods have a reputation for causing flatulence but nutritionists have found ways of reducing their gas-producing potential. They say, for example, that mildly cooked cabbage causes less flatulence than limp, overboiled cabbage.
Soaking beans and then discarding the soaking water before cooking also cuts gas potential.
Beans have always suffered bad press. Even Saint Jerome is said to have forbade his nuns to eat beans, believing that in partibus genitalibus titillationes producunt. (They tickle the genitals.)
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