Posted on Apr 14, 2011 under Women's Health |
I was planning to have a child in the future and now find that I need a hysterectomy to remove the cancer. What are my options?Discuss with your doctor if the operation needs to be done immediately. If the cancer is in the cervix, can a new operation be done to leave the body of the womb behind? What options do you have for storing eggs? Can my ovaries or an ovary be preserved?
My new partner does not know that I have had cancer and am infertile. How do I discuss this without destroying the relationship?You have to be quite honest from the start. Ask your doctor on how to break the news gently. Be positive about your future, and the other life goals you have planned.
I have to have a radical vulvectomy as a result of vulva cancer. What are the chances of reaching orgasm or me ever feeling sexy?This will take time, understanding and effort…usually enjoyable! Orgasm is still possible. Make sure you speak to your doctor before the operation and get a referral to a sexual counselor if need be.
After surgery there is a chance that my vagina will have changed, and I am concerned I will not be able to have a ‘normal’ sex life. What can I do to have penetrative sex?If the vagina has narrowed or is less distensible you may have to try different positions for vaginal intercourse. Sometimes there may be pain with extra pressure. Trial and error with other positions will allow you to resume a satisfying sex life. A sexual counselor will be able to suggest alternative methods.*4/144/5*
Posted on May 08, 2009 under Women's Health |
Surgeons gain access to, and remove, one or more of the reproductive organs in a number of ways. This is the basis for another method of classifying hysterectomy.
If access is gained via an incision in the abdomen the operation is called an abdominal hysterectomy. This is usually performed when:
• one or both ovaries are to be removed
• there are large fibroids, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease or tough adhesions surrounding the intestines
• the surgeon wants to examine by touch or inspect the abdominal organs because of suspicious symptoms
• the surgery is likely to be prolonged because, for example, the woman is obese.
The incision in the abdomen can be either vertical (an ‘up and down’ cut) or horizontal (‘transverse’ ), and is about 13 cm in length. If the incision is horizontal, it is usually possible to minimise the visibility of any permanent scar by cutting near or below the pubic hairline (the so-called ‘bikini cut’) or along the line of a previous Caesarean scar. You should discuss the position of any scar before the operation to ensure your surgeon knows your views on this.
Whatever type of hysterectomy is going to be performed, a pre-surgery ultrasound is useful as it can help decide which type of operation is likely to be most suitable, and it means the woman and the surgeon are better prepared for what lies ahead. It is reasonable for a woman to request an ultrasound if any form of hysterectomy is proposed.
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Posted on Apr 23, 2009 under Women's Health |
The food we buy in the supermarket is produced by intensive methods of farming heavily dependent on the use of chemicals, and our government has little control over the levels of toxins it contains.
For instance, DDT is banned in the UK but it can enter our food chain through imported food. It is still detected in breast milk and is very hard to eliminate from the body.
In 1994, the British government found ‘unexpectedly high residues of actually toxic pesticides in some individual carrots’. And in some cases, the amount of pesticide was three times the government’s Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).
There are 3,900 brands of insecticide, herbicide and fungicide approved for use in the UK. Some fruit and vegetables are sprayed ten times with chemicals before they reach the supermarket shelves. And huge amounts of chemicals can be used after harvesting. For example, green tomatoes are exposed to ethylene gas to turn them red. And fruit is dosed with chemicals such as carbendazium and metalaxil to stop it rotting before it gets to the shop. It can also be waxed to ‘seal in’ the chemicals.
Pesticides are also used during livestock production. And meat production is heavily dependent on antibiotics to stop intensively reared animals getting diseased. This overuse of antibiotics could cause an increase in devastating human diseases like ÒÂ and meningitis which are now becoming resistant to antibiotic treatment.
Food poisoning bugs (like salmonella and Campylobacter), found in farm animals, are already becoming resistant to drug treatment. Penicillin use on UK farms has increased eight times in the last 30 years. In fact the amount of antibiotics used is higher than in human medicine.
The European Union has banned 19 antibiotics in animal feed because they are worried that the development of new drug-resistant super-bugs could kill humans. (Antibiotics pass through the animal’s digestive system, through the milk, which is sold on for us to drink or to be made into cheese, yogurt or butter.)
US beef has been banned by the European Union because growth hormones given to cows in the US to increase milk yields are thought to be linked to breast and prostate cancers.
Additives and preservatives in prepared and processed food are listed as E numbers on labels. But European wine-labelling regulations forbid the listing of ingredients on the bottle. Fish bladders, sulphur, egg white and gelatine (made from animal bones) are just some of the substances that are apparently added to wine. And grapes may have received up to 14 applications of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides before they are made into wine.
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Posted on Mar 24, 2009 under Women's Health |
Women often ask if their partners can have symptoms similar to those experienced by themselves at menopause, and whether any treatment is available.
It is not possible to give a black and white answer to questions like this. If such symptoms do exist, they cannot be compared with menopausal symptoms in women, in whom decline in ovarian function is more sudden and obvious.
A number of studies have shown that with advancing years there is a decline in testicular function.19 Several surveys of groups of older men show that there is a loss of body hair, an increasing frequency of impotence and a decline in the levels of male sex hormones in the blood.20 It should be emphasised that these are findings in older men, and although they may occur in younger men or men in their middle years, they are much less frequent.
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