Women's Health

In some parts of the country, this might require bug spray.

Who Should Be Worried About Zika And What Should They Do?

5:38pm May 17, 2016

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Mosquito season is just getting underway in the U.S., and some areas have the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. Pregnant women in places like Florida and Texas are at greatest risk.

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In some New York City schools, the bathroom dispensers provide sanitary products for free.

New York Aims To Become The Next State To Toss The Tampon Tax

7:26pm May 16, 2016

by Fred Mogul

If 2015 was the year of the period, 2016 may be the year when women have to pay less for sanitary supplies, or even get them for free. Some state, local and federal legislators are pushing for change.

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Supporters of insurance coverage for birth control rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court in March.

As Supreme Court Sends Back Birth Control Case, Both Sides Claim Victory

4:14pm May 16, 2016

by Julie Rovner

The Supreme Court gave lower courts additional instructions to try and reach an accommodation on balancing religious rights and no-cost access to contraception.

Frontier Airlines says that there are places to pump breast milk at all the airports where it flies.

Pilots And ACLU Sue Airline Over Breast Milk Pumping At Work

6:14pm May 13, 2016

by Tara Haelle

Four female pilots says that Frontier Airlines failed to provide legally required accommodations so they could pump breast milk and do their jobs. The ACLU filed a complaint on their behalf.

Women only got top billing in 37 percent of medical studies published in leading journals over the past two decades.

Top Medical Journals Give Women Researchers Short Shrift

8:25pm May 09, 2016

by Lauren Silverman

Women scientists get first-author credit on medical studies much less often than their male coauthors. That has career implications and could even be skewing the study of women's health.

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These two normal mammograms show the difference between a breast with dense tissue, left, and one that is less dense. The dense tissue reads as white, the same color as breast cancer on a mammogram.

Letters Telling Women About Breast Density Are Often Too Darn Dense

3:25pm April 26, 2016

by Patti Neighmond

Half of states require that women who get mammograms be notified if they have dense breasts because they increase cancer risk. But the letters are often jargony and hard to understand, a study finds.

Michael Herzenberg and his birth mother, Lee.

Health & Safety

Only Human: A Birth That Launched The Search For A Down Syndrome Test

11:49am April 26, 2016

by Mary Harris

After Stanford scientist Lee Herzenberg gave birth to a son with Down syndrome, she and her husband worked to find a noninvasive test that would help mothers learn about the health of the fetus.

Demographers can use average life expectancy of a population as a clue to underlying changes in health and culture.

Life Expectancy Drops For White Women, Increases For Black Men

9:50am April 20, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

Suicide, drug abuse and alcohol have started to shorten the lives of white women, a U.S. report on data from 2013 to 2014 suggests. Life-expectancy for many black men went up from 71.8 years to 72.2.

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Fatty plaque (shown here in yellow) blocks about 60 percent of this coronary artery's width. The increasing thickness of artery walls is just one factor that can increase vulnerability to a heart attack or stroke.

Possible Heart Benefits Of Taking Estrogen Get Another Look

8:05pm March 30, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

Evidence has ping-ponged over the decades on the effects of hormone therapy on a woman's arteries. The latest study suggests a brief stint on hormones might be helpful — if given at the right time.

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Close up low section of two girls sitting side by side

'Girls & Sex' And The Importance Of Talking To Young Women About Pleasure

2:59pm March 29, 2016

Author Peggy Orenstein says that when it comes to sexuality, girls hear that "they're supposed to be sexy, they're supposed to perform sexually for boys, but ... their sexual pleasure is unspoken."

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