Hormonal birth control was first released in 1960, as a combined (estrogen and progestin) oral contraceptive pill. Since then, there has been an explosion of different options when it comes to hormonal contraception in addition to the pill – from patches to IUDs and even hormone injections. While family planning is an extremely important […]
For a really long time, we’ve been teaching (and have been taught) that weight gain and weight loss are all based on the simple idea of how many calories we take in and how many calories we burn. If we eat 2000 calories in a day and burn 2000 calories that same day with our […]
Can I just do my own Pap? Pap smears are anything but comfortable and unfortunately, there is no way around it—or is there? Recently, a research group in the Netherlands found that self-collected samples had similar accuracy rates in terms of detecting “cervical intraepithelial neoplasmia” or abnormal cells compared to clinician-collected samples. In this […]
Have you had your Pap recently? Pap testing has been one of the most successful public health interventions of the 20th century. Cervical cancer used to be the most common cause of death from pelvic cancer. Now it is one of the least common, thanks to early detection of precancerous lesions. During a Pap test, […]
This is the second article in our Lasting Weight Loss Series for 2019. (Read Post 1 here) What does it mean to eat “normally”? If you think looking around you and watching who are enjoying their lives, eating anything is the definition of “normal” eating, you’re likely wrong. According to the NIH, 34% of […]
Every New Year, almost half of Americans make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. That’s right, someone out there keeps statistics on New Year’s resolutions! It’s not surprising given that a third of Americans are overweight and another third are obese. As physicians, helping people achieve their best health often includes a discussion […]
For centuries, women have tracked their fertility using science and calendars. From temperature to tracking your menstrual cycle on a calendar, you can estimate when you are near ovulation. Technology is now changing the game. From Fitbit to fertility apps, women are beginning to use their smartphones to track their most fertile periods. Based […]
Wouldn’t it be amazing if women could have nearly 100% protection from unintended pregnancy without having to remember to do anything? Well, they can. Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) options have been around for awhile now. For women who are not interested in becoming pregnant in the next year or more, they are a wonderful […]
Some of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea and for the fourth year in a row these STIs are on the rise. Nearly 2.3 million people in the United States had these infections in 2017, and they are spreading and on course to increase this year as well. […]
There is only one, yes ONE, vaccine available that prevents cancer. The HPV vaccine. A little over 10 years old, the HPV vaccine was developed to prevent infections from the human papilloma virus—the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US (and the world). Though most women clear HPV infection rapidly, in some women […]