GynoFiles

Body composition has a very complex relationship between fat, hydration, muscle, and bone mass. The regulatory hormones that control each are integrally linked and seem to control how we gain or lose weight, how the weight is distributed, how fit we are, how much muscle we can build as we get older and many other aspects of our health. To help understand this complex relationships how fit you are is more accurately measured by body composition readings than BMI. Specifically knowing your relative skeletal muscle mass can determine if you have an appropriate amount of strength for your gender and age. Knowing your body fat, and the differential between your visceral fat and your overall fat percentage can help determine your overall leanness. It is important to be lean for thermoregulation.  Once it was thought that heavier women would have fewer hot flashes because of overall higher estrogen levels. Then the prevalent theories were that body fat functions as a natural 'sweater l...

Were you ever on hormone therapy? Were you ever taken off hormone therapy? Were you ever too scared for hormone therapy? All of this is understandable in light of new findings that politics, and 'alternative interpretations' hampered the interpretation of the Women's Health Initiative study findings. To read about this perspective here are some editorial comments . The good news is that there has been aggressive study of the following menopausal helpful strategies because of this 'misinterpretation' of the risks of hormone therapy: 1. A search for effective bust even safer dosages 2. A search for alternative therapy 3. A better understanding of long term bone health and the risks of alternative therapies 4. Nutritional and fitness management of menopause 5. Non-medication laser therapy for sexual pain with menopause 6. Non-hormonal management of irregular bleeding in perimenopause All of these have significantly helped women, and thus we have to argue tha...

The condition of premature menopause is a potentially serious disorder with consequences on more than just the ovaries, but can affect the thyroid gland as well as the adrenal gland. A working group from European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology drafted the first international guidelines for managing premature ovarian insufficiency trying to address this issue. They have pointed out that some individuals who have POI  actually have chromosome disorders such as Turner's syndrome (X0 ) that should be identified prior to undergoing IVF or other fertility procedures like donor eggs. A young woman having irregular periods or occasionally hot flashes, in her 30s, may be given a diagnosis of menopause, but it's not always true that she's actually transitioned permanently though menopause. The normal age of menopause is menopause occurring the age of 40. Menopause before 40 has been called premature , or premature ovarian failure (POF), or Primary ovarian insuffi...

Amenorrhea is the absence of menstruation. For women who used to have a period and now doesn't, she is said to have secondary amenorrhea . For those wo never had a period, that is primary amenorrhea and that is a very different condition. One or more missed menstrual periods is just a missed period, but over 90 days or three cycles in a row with no bleeding is termed amenorrhea. It is also true if you have not yet had a period by the age of 16 you have amenorrhea. The most common cause for amenorrhea is pregnancy. Other causes would include problems with the reproductive organs, or with the glands that help regulate hormone levels. Treatment of the underlying condition would resolved the condition. The first test is a pregnancy, and this should be done on blood.   women need in early pregnancy would be checking for anemia, checking their blood count, their blood type, whether they have infections like HIV, hepatitis or syphilis, and checking for immunity to vaccine treatable infe...

Tampons are designed to catch menstrual flow. They are easy to use, affordable, and preferable in many cases. Simplistically speaking choosing the right tampon shouldn't be difficult for most women and fairly quidkly we learn that both the fit and the absorbancy have to match your anatomy and physiology to be comfortable and safe. Tampons that contained certain types of fibers in the 1970s and 1980s that were too absorbant encouraged the overgrowth of bacteria that caused Toxic Shock Syndrome .  Once these polyacrylate rayon-containing tampons were removed from the market very few of these cases are ever reported. Tampons are packaged to be sterile from production, but most are not sterile, and rarely there have been recalls of sanitary products that have been determined to carry bacteria from the manufacturing point. Tampons are not a typical source of infection. Tampons come in many sizes, and larger ones will retain more menstrual blood, for the most part. Most phys...

Longer cycle pills are very popular now. We have proven that it's a bit less likely to have escape ovulations, it is much less likely to have hormone symptoms on the days when no birth control pills are taken, but there is the annoying issue of irregular spotting and bleeding when a woman doesn't expect that bleeding. The makers of longer cycle pills have put together their statistics and added them to the package insert of pills. FDA approved birth control pills designed in a "84/7 regimen", meaning that women will have fewere and shorter, and lighter periods than women who take the old pills for 21 days and give their body a hormone break for 7 days during which every 28 day periods were triggered. These pills are both safe, effective and convient for women, but the FDA has just issued some clarifications to the package inserts for women regarding the amount of bleeding that women may expect. There are now specific numbers given to women regading each 91 day t...