Menopause and Big Pharma

This New York Times article highlights the company Pfizer, who recently absorbed the drug company Wyeth, now plans to appeal product-liability cases concerning their menopausal drugs that Wyeth lost. Many of the people who have sued Wyeth have claimed that their menopausal drugs have caused breast cancer and other health problems. The article also discusses conflicting viewpoints and research about hormone therapy in general.

The Effect of the New Breast Cancer Guidelines on Black Women

This NPR story takes a look at how the new breast cancer screening recommendations will affect black women. As opposed to their white counterparts, black women have lower breast cancer rates overall but get the disease more often before the age of 40 and often have worse outcomes.

The transcript and the audio for the story can be found here.

An Overview of Recent Recommendations on Breast Cancer Screening

Good piece that aired on NPR's Weekend Edition discusses the conflicting recommendations that were recently published. Read the transcript or listen to the broadcast here.

Family Planning Clinics in Minnesota

Below is a list of family planning clinics throughout Minnesota:

Outlook Clinics

Family Tree Clinic

Planned Parenthood Clinics

Annex Teen Clinic

New Study examines Racial Gap in Infant Mortality Rate

In Dane County, Wis., 21 black women's lives and pregnancies are being examined to try to explain why the significantly higher incidence in infant deaths among black women as compared to their white counterparts.

Read the New York Times article about the study here

When to get screened for Breast Cancer

There has been a lot of debate recently about the health screening issue and misinterpretations of guidelines and recommendations put out by organizations like the American Cancer Society and the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF). Today, in the New York Times health section Gina Kolata sorts through these guidelines and highlights the brand new recommendations out today by the USPSTF in her article "In Reversal, U.S. Urges Mammograms at 50, not 40."

Breast Feed to Lose Weight?

Weight loss has been a long-suspected "benefit" that goes along with breast-feeding and has recently re-gained some attention thanks to celebrity moms citing breast feeding as one of the ways they've gotten back down to that size 2 after giving birth. However, recent epidemiological studies have found mixed results. This article summarizes some of these studies and cites a few other pros and cons of breast feeding.