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You may have heard me say that 25 to 35% of all women have fibroid tumors of the uterus. Well in light of the article below I think I'll have to change my spiel. It seems that you are "normal" only if you have fibroid tumors.
High cumulative incidence of uterine leiomyoma in black and white women- ultrasound evidence.
Day Baird D, Dunson DB, Hill MC, Cousins D, Schectman JM.
Uterine leiomyoma, or fibroid tumors, are the leading indication for hysterectomy in the United States, but the proportion of women in whom fibroid tumors develop is not known. This study screened for fibroid tumors, independently of clinical symptoms, to estimate the age-specific proportion of black and white women in whom fibroid tumors develop. Randomly selected members of an urban health plan who were 35 to 49 years old participated (1364 women). Premenopausal women were screened by ultrasonography. We estimated the age-specific cumulative incidence of fibroid tumors for black and white women. The estimated cumulative incidence of tumors by age 50 was >80% for black women and nearly 70% for white women.
The results of this study suggest that most black and white women in the United States develop uterine fibroid tumors before menopause.
PMID: 12548202 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Once again the FDA is considering making the "morning-after pill" over-the-counter. This controversy should be decided in the next few months.
The good news is it would be readily available. The bad news is that insurance companies would stop paying for it. Read more about it here.
FDA Considers OTC 'Morning After' Pill
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - Federal health officials are debating if it's time to put emergency contraception — also called the morning-after pill — on pharmacy shelves right next to the aspirin, available without a prescription.
Proponents say such a move would greatly increase women's ability to get the pills in time to prevent pregnancy: preferably within 24 hours but no more than 72 hours after rape, contraceptive failure or just forgetting birth control.
The morning-after pill marks the first in a series of ever more complex over-the-counter switch decisions facing FDA. Next year, the agency will be asked to allow nonprescription Mevacor, one of the popular cholesterol-fighting statins; it expects to eventually consider over-the-counter blood pressure medicine, too.
Already, five states allow women to buy the morning-after pill directly from certain pharmacists without a doctor's prescription. They are Washington, California, Alaska, Hawaii and New Mexico. Now the maker of one emergency contraceptive brand, called Plan B, has asked the FDA to go further and allow the pills to sell over-the-counter nationwide, as is done in numerous other countries.
FDA's scientific advisers will debate the request next month. Contraception advocates are pushing hard for no restrictions. They say easy over-the-counter access could spur wider use of emergency contraception, in turn preventing up to 1.7 million unplanned pregnancies each year and hundreds of thousands of abortions.
But emergency contraception does have opponents, including the Vatican, who oppose any interference with a fertilized egg. Critics contend if regular birth control pills are too risky for nonprescription use then emergency use is, too — and that broader access to emergency contraception actually could increase sexually transmitted diseases.
"You will have people ... falling back on this idea we'll all just go to the drugstore in the morning and get a morning-after pill," says Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, an organization that opposes abortion. Still, it's a question FDA will consider. As for side effects, the quick-ending hormone dose from emergency contraception doesn't cause problems like blood clots that longtime use of regular birth-control pills can, says FDA drug chief Dr. John Jenkins.
The above is not meant to be medical advice. Please read the attached Disclaimer, Etc.
I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.
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