Women’s Health

Leave a comment Posted on May 23, 2015May 21, 2015 Women's Health

Better Care Together – have your say in improving healthcare services for women.

Better Care Together

Better Care Together is a five year plan which aims to improve services and people’s experiences of health and social care by focussing on prevention and care, while at the same time addressing major financial challenges. Our Women’s service, which includes maternity, care of premature babies and gynaecology, is one of the focus areas where changes need to be made.

The listening event and workshop is open to the public and will take place at The Big Shed in Freemans Common, Leicester from 6pm-8pm on Wednesday 3 June. During this event clinicians from Leicester’s Hospitals will guide attendees through how these services are currently delivered and explain why there is a need for change. There will then be the opportunity to input into and share how the services should best be delivered for patients and families.

Ian Scudamore, Consultant Obstetrician and Clinical Director of Women’s and Children’s services at Leicester’s Hospitals, said: “Working with local people, Better Care Together will help us create safe, high quality and sustainable services that parents want to choose and are proud of. We want to make sure our services are right for the women who use them, so we need to hear your views.”

For further information about the Better Care Together Programme, please visit: http://www.bettercareleicester.nhs.uk/

Leave a comment Posted on January 21, 2015January 21, 2015 Cancer, Patient Talk, Women's Health

Cervical Health Awareness Month – please like and share to show your support for cervical cancer awareness

Cervical Health Awareness Month

This month is Cervical Health Awareness Month. We have produced the image above and it would be great if you could like and share to show your support for raising awareness of cervical cancer.

Each year in the U.S. more than 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and more than 4,000 die as a result. Cervical cancer is a profound health equity issue: in both the U.S. and abroad the disease is linked strongly with poverty and lack of access to medical care, a fact all the more frustrating because screening tests (Pap tests and, when appropriate, HPV tests) and vaccines exist that give us the capacity to essentially eliminate the disease.

Access to these life-saving tools is crucial, and ASHA/NCCC President Lynn Barclay says we have programs in place to help. “Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) require insurance plans to cover cervical cancer screening tests at zero cost to women,” she says. Barclay also points out that HPV vaccines, which are available for both males and females, are covered by the vast majority of health insurance plans. Additionally, the Vaccines for Children program provides vaccines for eligible children through age 18, including the uninsured, under-insured, and Native Americans and Alaska Natives. “Ensuring greater access to these tests and vaccines is not only the right thing to do, but also a wise, efficient way to spend our health care dollars,” she says.

Barclay explains that providing access to medical care is only part of the job, though, and much work remains to be done with educating both the public and health professionals alike. She says it’s important to have ongoing sexual health conversations with our healthcare team, our partner, and our kids, but these talks often get side-tracked: “Regardless of the exact topic, sexual health conversations are usually rushed through or avoided altogether. We’re often just too embarrassed to even begin these talks, much less have them effectively. One place to start is with ASHA’s guide, Ten Questions to Ask Your Healthcare Provider about Sexual Health.”

Barclay says at its extreme, our lack of comfort with these topics even results in women avoiding gynecologic care due to a sense of shame. “There’s no single, simple solution to ending cervical cancer but it’s clear it involves more than just quality health care. When it comes to sexual and reproductive health we should be comfortable in our own skin, and have the confidence to seek the care and support we need. I urge every woman to talk with her healthcare provider about Pap and HPV tests. I also encourage everyone, men and women alike, to talk to the women in their lives – wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, nieces, best friends- and tell them to take care of themselves, safe-guard their health, and have a conversation with their doctor or nurse to see which tests are recommended for them.”

1 Comment Posted on December 5, 2014December 2, 2014 Patient Talk, Women's Health

Breastfeeding in public! What’s your view?

Breastfeeding in public?

An odd question to ask in this day and age?

Well not quite. While most states in America and countries in the European Union allow public breast feeding acceptance of the practice is not total. So in some countries , such as Australia, a law has been enacted to prevent discrimination of women who are breast feeding in public.

Is such legislation necessary?

My own view is no as it is increasingly an issue of becoming a social norm. Obviously not in places like Saudi Arabia but I suspect that too will come in time.

So we thought it would be interesting to run a poll on the subject.

It would be great if you could share your views both in the poll below and in more detail in the comments section beneath that.

You may be interested in a recent video we ran looking at the pros and cons of breastfeeding here.

Leave a comment Posted on November 26, 2014November 21, 2014 Patient Talk, Women's Health

Are we doing enough to stop violence against women? Find out more about the campaign against violence against women.

Stopping violence against women

Current efforts to prevent violence against women and girls are inadequate, according to a new Series published in The Lancet. Estimates suggest that globally, 1 in 3 women has experienced either physical or sexual violence from their partner, and that 7% of women will experience sexual assault by a non-partner at some point in their lives.

Yet, despite increased global attention to violence perpetrated against women and girls, and recent advances in knowledge about how to tackle these abuses (Paper 1, Paper 3), levels of violence against women – including intimate partner violence, rape, female genital mutilation, trafficking, and forced marriages – remain unacceptably high, with serious consequences for victims’ physical and mental health. Conflict and other humanitarian crises may exacerbate ongoing violence.

Between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), with more than 3 million girls at risk of the practice every year in Africa alone. Some 70 million girls worldwide have been married before their eighteenth birthday, many against their will (Paper 1, Paper 5).

Although many countries have made substantial progress towards criminalising violence against women and promoting gender equality, the Series authors argue that governments and donors need to commit sufficient financial resources to ensure their verbal commitments translate into real change. Even where laws are progressive, many women and girls still suffer discrimination, experience violence, and lack access to vital health and legal services.

Importantly, reviewing the latest evidence, the authors show that not enough is being done to prevent violence against women and girls from occurring in the first place (Paper 1). Although resources have grown to support women and girls in the aftermath of violence (e.g., access to justice and emergency care), research suggests that actions to tackle gender inequity and other root causes of violence are needed to prevent all forms of abuse, and thereby reduce violence overall (Paper 4).

“Globally, one in three women will experience intimate partner and/or sexual violence by non-partners in their lifetime, which shows that more investment needs to be made in prevention. We definitely need to strengthen services for women experiencing violence, but to make a real difference in the lives of women and girls, we must work towards achieving gender equality and preventing violence before it even starts,”* explains Series co-lead Professor Charlotte Watts, founding Director of the Gender Violence and Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. “No magic wand will eliminate violence against women and girls. But evidence tells us that changes in attitudes and behaviours are possible, and can be achieved within less than a generation.”*

Ultimately, say the authors, working with both the perpetrators of violence (men and boys) and women and girls will be essential to achieve lasting change, by transforming deeply entrenched societal norms on gender relations and the insidious belief that women are inferior (Paper 3).

Violence is often seen as a social and criminal justice problem, and not as a clinical or public health issue, but the health system has a crucial part to play both in treating the consequences of violence, and in preventing it (Paper 2).

“Health-care providers are often the first point of contact for women and girls experiencing violence,”* says Series co-lead Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno, a physician at WHO, Geneva, who coordinates research and policy on violence against women.

“Health-care providers are often the first point of contact for women and girls experiencing violence,”* adds Dr Garcia-Moreno. “Early identification of women and children subjected to violence and a supportive and effective response can improve women’s lives and wellbeing, and help them to access vital services. Health-care providers can send a powerful message – that violence is not only a social problem, but a dangerous, unhealthy, and harmful practice – and they can champion prevention efforts in the community. The health community is missing important opportunities to integrate violence programming meaningfully into public health initiatives on HIV/AIDS, adolescent health, maternal health, and mental health.”*

The Series urges policy makers, health practitioners and donors worldwide to accelerate efforts to address violence against women and girls by taking five key actions (Paper 5). First, governments must allocate necessary resources to address violence against women as a priority, recognising it as a barrier to health and development.

Second, they must change discriminatory structures (laws, policies, institutions) that perpetuate inequality between women and men and foster violence.

Third, they must invest in promoting equality, non-violent behaviours and non-stigmatising support for survivors.

Fourth, they must strengthen the role of health, security, education, justice, and other relevant sectors by creating and implementing policies for prevention and response across these sectors, and integrating violence prevention and response into training efforts.

Finally, they must support research and programming to learn what interventions are effective and how to turn evidence into action.

According to Series co-ordinator, Dr Cathy Zimmerman, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, “We now have some promising findings to show what works to prevent violence. Our upcoming challenge is to expand this evidence on prevention and support responses to many more settings and forms of violence. Most importantly, we urgently need to turn this evidence into genuine action so that women and girls can live violence-free lives.”*

In a Comment accompanying the Series, former US President Jimmy Carter, founder of The Carter Center says, ” It is my hope that political and religious leaders will step forward and use their influence to communicate clearly that violence against women and girls must stop, that we are failing our societies, and that the time for leadership is now.”

The Series is published ahead of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence (Nov 25–Dec 10, 2014).

Leave a comment Posted on September 17, 2014February 5, 2017 Multiple Sclerosis, Women's Health

Gender and multiple sclerosis – please take our poll to help increase our understanding of gender and multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis awareness

Okay I accept that this is a bit of an odd title for a blog post and poll but please bear with me!

As regular readers of this blog may know my background is in healthcare survey research. One of the areas I was involved in exploring was the lives of people with multiple sclerosis.

When one working with the MS community a good understanding of the landscape is vital. And a lot of this is based on statistical information. Often provided by government sources.

The problem was/is that this information is often at variance with the poll we conducted with people with MS. To gives you one such example is types of multiple sclerosis. It was often suggested that the number of people who had been diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) was in the region of 80% of the MS community. Our results were very different. RRMS never got more that 67% and in some cases lower that 60%. If you have any ideas as to why this should be please share in the comments box below.

A similar figure is given when we look at gender and multiple sclerosis. 80% is often given as the percentage of women who have multiple sclerosis. But I’m wondering if this is really true. The best way I have always found is to as PwMS themselves.

So we would like to invite you to take part in a short poll below which asks the question. “To help us with our understanding of multiple sclerosis could you please share your gender with us?”

Thanks very much in advance.