International Women's Day in Healthcare

What do women in health care choose to challenge this International Women’s Day?

Four inspirational women tell us what #ChooseToChallenge means to them and women in health care.

Read more at Hospital and Healthcare here.

One of the MISSIONS for IWD is "To assist women to be in a position of power to make informed decisions about their health."

Read more about the IWD missions here.

Source: IWD

Women's Health Week 7-11 September 2020

"With the stress COVID-19 has placed on everyone's lives, it’s now more important than ever to look after your overall health and wellbeing. This September, Women’s Health Week will be a great reminder to take time out to check in on your health and to keep making positive changes that can last a lifetime." Access EAP.

For more information and free resources visit the Jean Hailes' Women's Health Week Website. It's time to put your health first.

Click the below image for supporting promotional materials.

Women's Health Week 2-6 September 2019

Go to womenshealthweek.com.au to look for and register events, find daily information on the above topics and take control of your health.

Moving ultrasound pictures capture babies' first breaths

Watching a newborn baby take its first breath has always been a significant moment for parents and healthcare staff. Now, for the first time, doctors at the Royal Women’s Hospital have captured moving ultrasound images of the lungs of newborn babies as they take their first breaths.

The research, involving the Women’s and Monash University, signals a breakthrough in understanding how human lungs transition from the womb to the first breaths at birth.

Researchers say the new information could lead to the diagnosis of severe breathing problems in very preterm babies in the first minutes of life, instead of the current several hours, allowing for live-saving treatment.

Read the full article here in The Australian Hospital and Healthcare Bulletin

                                              Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Cari

Women's Health Faces a Healthy Future

The National Health and MedicalResearch Council has begun work on a new national health strategy for women. The National Women’s Health Strategy 2020–2030 aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all women in Australia over the next decade, especially those at greatest risk of poor health.

Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said the Strategy was the first since 2010 and was expected to be completed in 2019. ‘Women experience health challenges differently to men and we need to ensure that this is reflected in our health system’, Mr Hunt said.

"Maternal and infant health, chronic disease, healthy ageing and mental illness and other conditions affecting women will be a major focus of the new National Strategy."

He said 28 new medical research projects into women's health conditions were the first commitment of the Strategy.

"The projects will zero in on significant health challenges that affect Australian women, including breast cancer, maternal health, immunisastion rates and cardiovascular disease - a leading cause of death in Australian women," Mr Hunt said.

He said that although females born in Australia in 2015 could expect to live to 84.5 years, women continued to face health challenges. 

Read more here on PS News. 

Australian Women Against Violence

The Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) was established in March 2010 as one of five National Women’s Alliances funded by the Australian Government. AWAVA ensures that women’s voices, particularly marginalised women’s voices, are heard by Government.
The website under the Resources link includes a information on family violence, child protection and ending violence against women.
Australian Women Against Violence Alliance 

Experiences of maternity care in NSW public hospitals: Patient Perspectives

This report from the Bureau of Health Information provides detailed information about the experiences of care for women during various stages of the maternity journey, highlighting where NSW performs well, and potential areas for improvement. 
Most women said they were engaged in decisions about their care although women who gave birth to their first baby, and women who had a caesarean section responded to many survey questions less positively. 

 Experiences of maternity care in NSW public hospitals: Patient Perspectives. January to December 2015, Bureau of Health Information. 2017  

Trends in Symptoms of Postpartum Depression

In the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC provides the percentage of women with symptoms of postpartum depression overall and over time using Pregnancy Risk Assessment

Monitoring System data from 2004, 2008, and 2012.

Postpartum depression is common and associated with adverse infant and maternal outcomes (e.g., lower breastfeeding initiation and duration and poor maternal and infant bonding). Despite the decline in postpartum depression, symptoms remain common, affecting about 1 out of 9 women in 2012. This report highlights the differences in the percentage of women with symptoms of postpartum depression by state and by characteristics. Ongoing monitoring and activities to promote appropriate screening, referral, and treatment are needed to reduce symptoms of postpartum depression among women. 

 Ko JY, Rockhill KM, Tong VT, Morrow B, Farr SL. Trends in Postpartum Depressive Symptoms — 27 States, 2004, 2008, and 2012. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:153–158.

Mesh, graft, or standard repair for women having prolapse surgery

PROSPECT was the largest randomised study of the use of mesh or graft in transvaginal prolapse surgery to date. The investigators in this trial assessed augmentation of transvaginal prolapse surgery with synthetic absorbable or non-absorbable mesh (type 1 monofilament macroporous polypropylene) or biological grafts (porcine acellular collagen matrix, porcine small intestinal submucosa, or bovine dermal).
The findings from Glazener and colleagues' study support the limitations of prolapse repair surgery, with persistent symptoms or anatomical support loss in too many patients. In their study, the investigators noted that more than 80% of the participants had at least one residual, postoperative prolapse symptom.

Glazener, Cathryn MA et al. (2017). Mesh, graft, or standard repair for women having primary transvaginal anterior or posterior compartment prolapse surgery: two parallel-group, multicentre, randomised, controlled trials (PROSPECT).  The Lancet , 389(10067), 381-392. 

Busting the cranberry myth

A recent program on ABC's Health Report titled Busting the Cranberry Myth, looked at a randomised trial which showed no significant difference in women in nursing homes who took cranberry capsules for urinary tract infections, compared to a control group who took a placebo. The lead author of the paper, published in JAMA, Manisha Juthani-Mehta, was interviewed on the program and explained her findings. She did say that cranberries probably help ease the symptoms of urinary tract infections, but could not find evidence that they can treat the problem.

Manisha Juthani-Mehta et al. Effect of Cranberry Capsules on Bacteriuria Plus Pyuria Among Older Women in Nursing Homes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2016;316(18):1879-1887. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.16141

Intimate partner violence reports

Two new reports from Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety have recently been published, showing that among women aged 18-44, family violence  is the biggest risk factor contributing to disease burden - greater than smoking, alcohol use and obesity. Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects one in three women, seriously impacting their health.  
Examination of the burden of disease of intimate partner violence against women in 2011: final report provides details of  IPV as a risk factor for an "attributable" total, non-fatal and fatal burden of disease.

A preventable burden - Measuring and addressing the prevalence and health impacts of intimate partner violence in Australian women: key findings and future directions is by one of the authors of the above paper, Kim Webster. Here she provides useful infographics and suggestions for reducing the health burden of IPV by better support and for women and children after violence, and more effective preventative measures. 

See also Kim Webster's explanatory article in The Conversation: Study confirms intimate partner violence leading health risk factor for women.

Every Last Girl report

A report published by Save the Children UK for the International Day of the Girl last week ranks the best and worst countries to be a girl.  Every Last Girl: free to live, free to learn, free from harm includes a 'Girls’ Opportunity Index,' which measures countries against five indicators: early marriage, adolescent pregnancy, maternal mortality, women in parliament, and secondary school completion.

Australia is ranked only 21st out of 144 nations. The two major factors contributing to Australia’s poor rating were the low proportion of women in parliament and a relatively high teen pregnancy rate. Sweden rates most highly.

The report states that over 700 million women in the world today were married before they turned 18, and one in three of those women were married before they turned 15. 30 million girls are at risk of genital mutilation and 2.6 billion girls live in countries where marital rape is not criminalised. There are many other barriers to global equality for girls, including economic exclusion, education gaps and trafficking and slavery. 

Cardiovascular risk and disease in Australian women

Hidden hearts: cardiovascular risk and disease in Australian women is a report from the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research at the Australian Catholic University. The report reveals that CVD is the major killer of Australian women, costing our health system over $3 billion per year.

The five most common forms of CVD are coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation , stroke and peripheral artery disease. All these forms are potentially deadly and disabling, causing more fatalities than the most common forms of cancer.  "Within an ageing population in whom levels of most risk factors are at historically high levels, the burden of CVD among Australian women is set to increase for the foreseeable future." The report calls for more awareness-raising, more research, updating of guidelines and more standardised prevention and management programs.

Years overweight or obese increases cancer risk

A huge longitudinal study in the US, involving almost 74,000 women, has found that the more time a woman spends being overweight or obese over her lifetime, the higher the risk of her developing several forms of cancer.  This supports other evidence of a high body mass index being a large health risk factor in high-income countries, and for the first time looks at the cumulative impact of overweight on cancer in particular. The authors recommend that health professionals recognize the role of obesity management in cancer prevention.

Melina Arnold et al. Duration of Adulthood Overweight, Obesity, and Cancer Risk in the Women’s Health Initiative: A Longitudinal Study from the United States PLoS Medicine. Published: August 16, 2016

Once again, The Conversation has published a useful summary and overview of this research.

The Nurses' Health Study

The Nurses' Health Study was formed in 1976 with 121,701 female registered nurses in the USA, originally to look at the relationship between the use of oral contraceptives and breast cancer.  Graham Colditz has published a paper in Public Health Research & Practice, which looks at how the study, still operating forty years later, has broadened its focus through biannual questionnaires, to include a much wider analysis.

Nurses’ health study: demonstrating the impact of research, and adapting new measures and approaches to increase relevance and effect of cohort studies looks both at this particular study, which now reports on a wide range of measures and their relationships to chronic disease, and also at the contribution of cohort studies as a methodology.  "The aim of this report is to highlight the features of the Nurses’ Health Study and other cohorts that demonstrate continuing contributions to the changing epidemiology of chronic conditions."


Public Health Res Pract. 2016;26(3):e2631628  DOI: doi.org/10.17061/phrp2631628             

Investing in Women's Mental Health

A new paper from The Australian Health Policy Collaboration discusses the extensive evidence that women’s mental health needs are significantly different from those of men. Certain mental illnesses are more prevalent in women, they use mental health services more frequently than men, and they want a broader range of treatment options than are currently available.
The burden of poor mental health among women results in adverse social and economic consequences, including disability, reduced life expectancy, impoverishment of individual women, unemployment, reduced productivity, and increasing costs of healthcare and welfare.

Investing in Women's Mental Health: Strengthening the Foundations for Women, Families and the Australian Economy. Policy Paper No 02-2016. April 2016  

Women in NSW 2015

Women in NSW 2015 provides findings on a range of social and economic outcomes for women across health and wellbeing, education and learning, work and financial security, leadership and representation; and safety and justice. This is the only report of its kind for women in Australia and this year for the first time, the complete indicator data set is also available in the accompanying NSW Women’s Report Card 2015.

The report can be accessed at https://www.women.nsw.gov.au/womens_data

Women, mental health, and hormones

If you're interested in the brain, both neurologically and psychologically, ABC Radio National's program All in the Mind is worth podcasting.  Recent programs have included narcissism and domestic abuse, the use and addictive qualities of benzodiazepines, music for dementia sufferers and the science of self.

In the program, Women, mental health and hormones, guest psychiatrists, endocrinologists and women's health experts discuss why women experience twice as much depression and four times as much anxiety as men.  Biological, social and psychological factors mean that men and women experience mental illness differently and a new hormonal therapy is described as one way gender issues can be more targeted.

Violence against immigrant and refugee women

With White Ribbon Day receiving good media coverage this week, one timely paper recently published is from Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) - Promoting community-led responses to violence against immigrant and refugee women in metropolitan and regional Australia. 

This paper presents the state of national and international knowledge about family violence against immigrant and refugee women. Some of the findings include the fact that although there are similar forms of family violence for these women as other women, there are differences where women depend on perpetrators for economic security and residency rights.  There is very little evidence that mandatory arrest and pro-prosecution approaches are helpful for these women, and they may even deter them from seeking help. 

Menopause: diagnosis and management

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new guideline on menopause.  The guideline aims to improve the consistency of support and information provided to women in menopause and is intended both for healthcare professionals who care for women in menopause and women in menopause, and their families and carers.

NICE Guideline NG23:  Menopause: diagnosis and management  November, 2015.