Latest news with #ReproductiveHealth
India Today
2 days ago
- Health
- India Today
Is Instagram fuelling a rise in PCOS among teenage girls?
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal disorder common among women of reproductive age. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), PCOS is characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, excess androgen (hormone) levels, and multiple cyst in the is also linked to long-term risks like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and endometrial was once commonly diagnosed in older women, but doctors are now seeing a growing number of girls as young as 10 developing the A study published in peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Health found that high prevalence rate of 17.40% of PCOS among young adults in Delhi, NCR, and modern lifestyle shifts are largely to digital age has introduced new stressors, disturbed sleep cycles, and increased physical inactivity, all major contributors to hormonal imbalances. These lifestyle changes shaped by social media and technology are playing a critical role in this health STRESS FACTORWrapped in screen addiction, the teenage life of scrolling social media for hours at a stretch has become a common sight. While these platforms do offer entertainment and connectivity, they also expose users to perfectionist beauty ideals, constant comparisons, and the pressure to maintain a curated online presence.'Over the past few years, I've observed a steady increase in younger girls, some as young as 14, presenting with PCOS symptoms like irregular cycles and weight fluctuations,' said Dr. Ashwini Nabar, gynaecologist at Lilavati Hospital, media contributes to subtle stress cycles, constant notifications, and overstimulation, all of which can impact hormonal health in developing adolescents," she stress caused by these factors leads to elevated cortisol levels, a hormone which disrupts the body's ability to regulate insulin, another hormone that regulates the blood sugar levels. This contributes to hormonal imbalances that increase the risk of INACTIVITYLong hours of scrolling promote inactivity, which is another significant contributor of teenagers spend hours sitting, engaging in their devices, with little to no physical movement. This lack of physical activity results in weight gain and insulin resistance -- two major factors in PCOS development."It's a vicious cycle where inactivity and PCOS feed into each other, further exacerbating the condition," said Dr. Arpana Haritwal, Principal Consultant, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Max Smart Super Speciality break this cycle, exercise is essential. It not only helps in managing weight but also improves insulin sensitivity -- key to managing like walking, swimming, cycling, and aerobics are often recommended for girls managing PCOS DISRUPTIONSleep is another critical factor in hormonal health. Late night social media usage disrupts natural sleep patterns, affecting the production of the sleep hormone, called melatonin. Blue rays emerging from screens interrupted with melatonin production, making it hard for individuals to fall sleep cycles cause hormonal imbalance. Ideally, seven to eight hours of sleep are necessary to maintain hormonal balance, but social media interrupts this critical rest period,' explained Dr. hormonal imbalance again contributes to stress, weight gain and insulin resistance, a very common condition, happens when the body's cells don't respond to insulin, making it harder for glucose to enter cells for energy. This can lead to elevated blood sugar levels, potentially contributing to type 2 diabetes and other health DIET TRENDSSocial media has become a breeding ground for unverified and extreme diet online influencers without professional qualifications or credibility promote restrictive diets and dangerous, unhealthy eating habits, promising quick weight loss and body trends can lead to severe nutritional deficiencies and further exacerbate hormonal most common deficiencies observed in girls following such trends include vitamin B12, vitamin D, and iron deficiencies. Such deficiencies weaken the body's ability to maintain hormonal balance and cope with metabolic counter these effects, Dr. Haritwal recommended a balanced diet: 'A high-fibre and high-protein diet, plenty of hydration, and a focus on fresh fruits and vegetables are crucial for managing PCOS.'advertisementIncorporating healthy fats and avoiding processed foods can also significantly improve overall THE ISSUEDoctors suggested that parents, teachers, and medical professionals need to take the initiative to inform teenagers about how lifestyle habits affect activity that minimises screen use and promotes physical movement is a must. Whether through the introduction of hobbies, sport, or outdoor pursuits, such adjustments can counteract the effects of a sedentary and nutritionists need to discuss the relationship between PCOS, lifestyle, and stress and provide personalised and integrated treatment this, there needs to be control of toxic content on social media, especially diet trends and unattainable beauty standards."Addressing these lifestyle factors sensitively and in balance, rather than restricting them, is crucial for long-term management and for empowering young girls to take charge of their health at an early age," emphasised Dr. dramatic increase in PCOS among young women highlights the necessity of dealing with lifestyle changes caused by the digital era. Social media is a central driver in this case, influencing stress levels, activity, sleeping habits, and encouraging healthy along with maintaining a digital balance, society can empower young girls to take charge of their hormonal health by Arima Singh- EndsTrending Reel
CBS News
2 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
HHS eliminates CDC staff who made sure birth control is safe for women at risk
For Brianna Henderson, birth control isn't just about preventing pregnancy. The Texas mother of two was diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal heart condition after having her second child. In addition to avoiding another pregnancy that could be life-threatening, Henderson has to make sure the contraception she uses doesn't jeopardize her health. For more than a decade, a small team of people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to do just that, issuing national guidelines for clinicians on how to prescribe contraception safely for millions of women with underlying medical conditions — including heart disease, lupus, sickle cell disease, and obesity. But the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, fired those workers as part of the Trump administration's rapid downsizing of the federal workforce. It also decimated the CDC's larger Division of Reproductive Health, where the team was housed — a move that clinicians, advocacy groups, and fired workers say will endanger the health of women and their babies. Clinicians said in interviews that counseling patients about birth control and prescribing it is relatively straightforward. But for women with conditions that put them at higher risk of serious health complications, special care is needed. "We really were the only source of safety monitoring in this country," said one fired CDC staffer who worked on the guidelines, known as the U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, or MEC. "There's no one who can actually do this work." KFF Health News agreed not to name this worker and others who were not authorized to speak to the press and feared retaliation. The stakes are high for people like Henderson. About six weeks after having her second baby, she said, her heart "was racing." Brianna Henderson poses for a portrait with her husband, Tech Henderson, and children, Rafael Bowens Jr. and Talaycia Henderson, outside their home in Grandview, Texas, on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Brianna Henderson has become an advocate for educating women about peripartum cardiomyopathy, the rare and potentially fatal heart condition she was diagnosed with after the birth of her second child. Desiree Rios for KFF Health News "I feel like I'm underwater," Henderson said. "I felt like I couldn't breathe." She eventually went to the hospital, where she was told she was "in full-blown heart failure," she said. Henderson was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy, an uncommon type of heart failure that can happen toward the end of pregnancy or shortly after giving birth. Risk factors for the condition include being at least 30 years old, being of African descent, high blood pressure, and obesity. The CDC contraception guidelines say that combined hormonal contraception, which contains both estrogen and progestin to prevent pregnancy, can pose an "unacceptable health risk" for most women with peripartum cardiomyopathy, also known as PPCM. For some women with the diagnosis, a birth control injection commonly known by the brand name Depo-Provera also carries risks that outweigh its benefits, the guidelines show. Progestin-only pills or a birth control implant, inserted into a person's arm, are the safest. Henderson said her cardiologist had to greenlight which contraception she could use. She uses a progestin-only birth control implant that's more than 99% effective in preventing pregnancy. "I didn't know that certain things can cause blood clots," Henderson said, "or make your heart failure worse." Heart failure is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity in the U.S., with PPCM accounting for up to 70% of heart failure cases during pregnancy. Sweeping HHS layoffs in late March and early April gutted the CDC's reproductive health division, upending several programs designed to protect women and infants, three fired workers said. About two-thirds of the division's roughly 165 employees and contractors were cut, through firings, retirements, or reassignments to other parts of the agency, one worker said. Among those fired were CDC staffers who carried out the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a survey established nearly 40 years ago to improve maternal and infant health outcomes by asking detailed questions of women who recently gave birth. The survey was used "to help inform and help reduce the contributing factors that cause maternal mortality and morbidity," one fired worker said, by allowing government workers to examine the medical care people received before and during pregnancy, if any, and other risk factors that may lead to poor maternal and child health. The firings also removed CDC workers who collected and analyzed data on in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. "They left nothing behind," one worker said. U.S. contraception guidelines were first published in 2010, after the CDC adapted guidance developed by the World Health Organization. The latest version was published in August 2024. It includes information about the safety of different types of contraception for more than 60 medical conditions. Clinicians said it is the premier source of evidence about the safety of birth control. "It gave us so much information which was not available to clinicians at their fingertips," said Michael Policar, a physician and professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. "If you've got a person with, let's say, long-standing Type 2 diabetes, someone who has a connective-tissue disease like lupus, someone who's got hypertension or maybe has been treated for a precursor to breast cancer — something like that? In those circumstances," Policar said, "before the MEC it was really hard to know how to manage those people." The CDC updates the guidelines comprehensively roughly every five years. On a weekly basis, however, government workers would monitor evidence about patients' use of contraception and the safety of various methods, something they were doing when HHS abruptly fired them this spring, two fired workers said. That work isn't happening now, one of them said. Sometimes the agency would issue interim changes outside the larger updates if new evidence warranted it. Now, if something new or urgent comes up, "there's not going to be any way to update the guidelines," one fired worker said. In 2020, for example, the CDC revised its contraception recommendations for women at high risk of HIV infection, after new evidence showed that various methods were safer than previously thought. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard declined to say why CDC personnel working on the contraception guidelines and other reproductive health issues were fired, or answer other questions raised by KFF Health News' reporting. Most women of reproductive age in the U.S. use contraception. CDC data from 2019, the most recent available, shows that more than 47 million women ages 15 to 49 relied on birth control. About 1 in 10 used long-acting methods such as intrauterine devices and implants; 1 in 7 used oral contraception. The latest guidelines included updated safety recommendations for women who have sickle cell disease, lupus, or PPCM, and those who are breastfeeding, among others. Clinicians are now being told that combined hormonal contraception poses an unacceptable health risk for women with sickle cell disease, because it might increase the risk of blood clots. "It can really come down to life or death," said Teonna Woolford, CEO of the Sickle Cell Reproductive Health Education Directive, a nonprofit that advocates for improved reproductive health care for people with the disease. "We really saw the CDC guidelines as a win, as a victory — they're actually going to pay attention," she said. The 2024 guidelines also for the first time included birth control recommendations for women with chronic kidney disease. Research has shown that such women are at higher risk of serious pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia and preterm delivery. Their medical condition also increases their risk of blood clots, which is why it's important for them to not use combined hormonal contraception, fired CDC workers and clinicians said. The CDC information "is the final say in safety," said Patty Cason, a family nurse practitioner and president of Envision Sexual and Reproductive Health. Having only static information about the safety of various types of birth control is "very scary," she said, because new evidence could come out and entirely new methods of contraception are being developed. Henderson said it took her heart two years to recover. She created the nonprofit organization Let's Talk PPCM to educate women about the type of heart failure she was diagnosed with, including what forms of birth control are safe. "We don't want blood clots, worsening heart failures," Henderson said. "They already feel like they can't trust their doctors, and we don't need extra." KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Zawya
20-06-2025
- Health
- Zawya
Mobile clinics enhance access to health care services in Niger
In Niger, West Africa's largest country by land surface, access to health care services is a major challenge. Just one in two people has access to health services. One of the ways to bridge the gap is through mobile clinics in remote areas and deploying medical teams from health districts to villages. Among the main beneficiaries of the initiative are pregnant women. They are now able to receive emergency assistance and care for timely detection of any complications. Mariama, 42, who suffered complications after a fall, is grateful to have received care thanks to a mobile clinic. Ordinarily, she would have had to travel for a whole day to the nearest district health facility in Dosso town from her home in the southwest of Niger. 'As I was preparing to make the trip, I was informed of a mobile clinic in our area, and I went there the very next day. The team midwife consulted me and discovered that I had premature rupture of membranes,' she recounts. Under the initiative 'mobile clinic teams visit villages that are hard to reach for health care in general and reproductive health services for women and children in particular,' says Nafissatou Salifou Panga, midwife and Reproductive Health Focal Point for Dosso health district. 'It is a huge relief that pregnant women are able to benefit from care that detects risks in time and provides them with appropriate care.' Thanks to the care and follow-up she received, Mariama gave birth safely. Like Mariama, 267 pregnant women in Dosso and Filingué districts benefited from mobile clinic consultations in 2024. In all, almost 28 000 people were consulted and 3767 women received reproductive health services. Around 16 000 women were sensitized by community outreach teams on reproductive, maternal and neonatal health in the two districts. In Mariama's case, the community health teams shared awareness messages that enabled her to be informed in time of the arrival of the mobile clinic. By reaching populations far from health centres, the mobile clinic initiative also helps to improve health coverage at district and national levels. For example, the maternal mortality ratio fell from 441 per 100 000 live births in 2017 to 350 in 2023, according to World Bank data. Dr Aissatou Laouali, in charge of the reproductive health programme with World Health Organization (WHO) in Niger, says the initiative helping to accelerate efforts towards health for all. 'For vulnerable populations, rapid access to quality health care is vital. Through these initiatives, we hope to move forward in solving the challenges particularly faced by mothers and children living in remote areas." To ensure service quality, the district, in collaboration with WHO, organizes planning meetings and field supervision trips and supports the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene in improving maternal and child health, in particular by providing technical guidelines, standards and protocols for reproductive, maternal and child health. Other support includes training health workers and improving the facilities in mother-and-child health centres, regional and district hospitals, and integrated health centres. WHO also supports training of health providers to ensure quality of care and health surveillance to curb maternal mortality. Niger has maintained the mobile clinics introduced earlier. In 2024, with support from WHO and donor financing, operational and medical equipment and supply needs of the mobile clinics were catered for. Additionally, 56 health workers and community outreach officers were trained in reproductive health in Dosso and Filingué districts. 'I was very satisfied with the care provided … I encourage the women in my community to come to the mobile clinic for any health problem,' says Mariama. 'If I hadn't gone to the centre after the incident, I would have had an infection with the risk of losing my baby." Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Malay Mail
13-06-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
Education Ministry to ramp up sex ed in schools by 2027 to curb harassment, online predators
KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — The teaching time for the Reproductive and Social Health Education Guidelines (PEERS) module will be increased in the implementation of the 2027 School Curriculum. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the module, which was launched in November last year, among other things, aims to increase reproductive health awareness among the community, especially students, teachers and parents. 'All MOE (Ministry of Education) educational institutions are requested to comply with the guidelines to address the issue of sexual harassment. Psychosocial support services also need to be further strengthened to provide support to students,' she said in a statement today. Fadhlina said MOE takes seriously media reports on the existence of paedophile pages on social media featuring school students and urged that such pages be reported immediately. 'The existence of social media pages that display pornographic and immoral content needs to be curbed,' she said. At the same time, she also urged parents to play a proactive role at home by educating and protecting children from the threat of sexual harassment. 'They are also responsible in ensuring that the dignity of children is preserved,' she said. — Bernama
CBC
13-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Yukon group wins $1M Arctic Inspiration Prize for Indigenous midwifery centre
A project focused on Indigenous midwifery and reproductive health care in the Yukon is the big winner of this year's $1-million Arctic Inspiration Prize, with the money set to go toward building a new facility in Whitehorse. It's one of several projects from across the North that were named as Arctic Inspiration Prize winners at a gala ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon. The finalists were announced last month. Apart from the $1-million grand prize, other projects will get anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 in funding. The Arctic Inspiration Prize awards millions of dollars each year to projects in education, health, culture, arts, language, science, traditional knowledge, climate change and the economy. A total of $3.7 million was awarded this year. The largest prize will go toward a project led by the Council of Yukon First Nations called Bibia Nàtsät Ku. It would open a house in Whitehorse where Yukon First Nations elders and midwives could offer sexual and reproductive health care, including birthing services. It would also offer training for Indigenous students. Charlene Charlie, a member of the Bibia Nàtsät Ku team said in a statement on Tuesday that the prize represents a "turning point." "It means we can begin building a house of care that honours our ways of knowing, our languages, and our futures," she said. "This will not only transform sexual and reproductive health care delivery in the Yukon, but will also influence systemic change across the Arctic — helping to shape safer, more culturally appropriate care for Indigenous communities throughout the North." Other prize winners announced on Tuesday include: $500,000 for a Nunavut-based, Inuit-led education program for neurodiverse and marginalized youth by the Pirurqatigiit Resource Centre. $500,000 for a mentorship and leadership program for elders in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region. $233,000 for a nutrition and education program in Baker Lake, Nunavut, aimed at combating Type 2 diabetes rates. $500,000 for Cheko, a Yellowknife-based project to empower youth through land-based learning, mentorship, and entrepreneurship skills. $425,000 for a project led by the Qimutjuit Men's Association in Nunavik to address food insecurity and strengthen cultural practices through harvesting camps. Six winners were also announced in the youth category, with each project receiving $100,000 except one, a traditional beading and sewing program in Nunavut, which will receive $90,000. The $100,000 prize winners in the youth category are: A documentary about a youth dog sledding club in the Beaufort Delta region. The Dehcho Youth Energy Action Council, which draws on Dene knowledge to find climate solutions. A pan-northern youth gathering to find solutions for issues related to mental health, education and environment. The Northern Laughter Movement, which uses humour and storytelling as tools for wellness and leadership. A documentary project about the impacts of climate change on traditional hunting practices among Gwich'in in the Peel watershed region.
