Women's Health

BACKGROUND: The increased stress the world experienced with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affected mental health, disproportionately affecting females. However, how perceived stress in the first year affected menstrual and menopausal symptoms has not yet been investigated. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the effect that the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic had on female reproductive and mental health. METHODS: Residents in British Columbia, Canada, were surveyed online as part of the COVID-19 Rapid Evidence Study of a Provincial Population-Based Cohort for Gender and Sex...

BACKGROUND: Since 2019, the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic and its consequences from restrictions to risks have impacted our lives in all aspects. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to the changes that were implemented as a result of the shift in healthcare priorities and the medical and social implications of the lockdown. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the experience of giving birth during the pandemic, how this is affected by acquiring coronavirus disease-19 infection, and its effect on postnatal mood...

BACKGROUND: Despite a strong international standpoint against female genital mutilation, the prevalence of female genital mutilation in Somalia is extremely high. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of female genital mutilation among female health care service providers in order to formulate appropriate policies and programs to eliminate this harmful practice. DESIGN: Facility-based cross-sectional survey conducted in 2019 among female doctors and nurses working in Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia...

BACKGROUND: Autistic women and gender diverse people have specific needs related to their physical and mental health. They also experience more barriers to accessing services. While there are autobiographical accounts of the 'invisible' challenges that autistic women and gender diverse people face day-to-day, there has been limited research that explores how these experiences impact health and wellbeing. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to understand the everyday experiences of autistic women and gender diverse people, and their impact on health and wellbeing...

We are a group of 11 women in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nine of us are immigrants from Mexico. One of us is from an immigrant household. One of us is neither. We have been working collaboratively on a research study called Tertulias (Spanish for " a social gathering "), which is an innovative women's peer support group approach we created to reduce social isolation, depression, and stress among women immigrants from Mexico, and to increase their resilience and sense of empowerment. In the process of implementing the Tertulias study, we are revealing the profound power of peer support, friendship, and small, quotidian kindnesses...

Three-dimensional printing is an innovative technology that has gained prominence in recent years due to its attractive features such as affordability, efficiency, and quick production. The technology is used to produce a three-dimensional model by depositing materials in layers using specific printers. In the medical field, it has been increasingly used in various specialties, including neurosurgery, cardiology, and orthopedics, most commonly for the pre-planning of complex surgeries. In addition, it has been applied in therapeutic treatments, patient education, and training wof medical professionals...

Access to comprehensive and culturally competent reproductive health care is essential for individuals and communities to realize and achieve health and well-being, as one prefers. The disability community represents a diverse group of individuals with a wide spectrum of functional, physical, sensory, and/or neurodivergent abilities. Existing barriers to reproductive health care are a consequence of environmental and attitudinal barriers, not from the disabilities themselves. People with disabilities are also not frequently centered or included in discussions surrounding reproductive rights...

BACKGROUND: Violence during childbirth indirectly contributes to maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. It also causes intrapartum health consequences such as prolonged labor, postpartum hemorrhage, and postpartum psychological problems, including postpartum depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other negative feelings that lead to a decreased desire for facility delivery and increase the events of home deliveries which reduce the quality of life. In Tanzania, several efforts have been made to promote respectful maternity care...

BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbances are associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Thus, it is necessary to understand the continuous patterns of sleep during pregnancy and how moderators such as maternal age and pre-pregnancy body mass index impact sleep. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the continuous changes in sleep parameters objectively (i.e. sleep stages, total sleep time, and awake time) in pregnant women and to describe the impact of maternal age and/or pre-pregnancy body mass index as moderators of these objective sleep parameters...

BACKGROUND: Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis management primarily entails azole therapy used as required or as an extended daily or weekly maintenance therapy for 6 months or more. Unfortunately, relapse within 3-6 months of ceasing maintenance therapy is experienced for more than half the patients, for whom indefinite treatment is required. OBJECTIVES: To explore the feasibility of trial design examining a prophylaxis treatment to prevent recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis symptomatic episodes and reduce adverse effects...

BACKGROUND: Antenatal care provides unique opportunities to assess severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 seroprevalence and antibody response duration after natural infection detected during pregnancy; transplacental antibody transfer may inform peripartum and neonatal protection. We estimated seroprevalence and durability of antibodies from natural infection (anti-nucleocapsid immunoglobulin G) among pregnant people, and evaluated transplacental transfer efficiency. OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study to measure severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 seroprevalence, and a prospective cohort study to longitudinally measure anti-nucleocapsid immunoglobulin G responses and transplacental transfer of maternally derived anti-nucleocapsid antibodies...

BACKGROUND: Severe maternal morbidity and mortality are increasing in the United States with continued healthcare disparities among Non-Hispanic Black women. However, there is sparse data on the disparities of severe maternal morbidity and mortality by race/ethnicity as it relates to community type. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether residing in rural communities increases the racial/ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality. DESIGN: This study is a cross-sectional analysis of women admitted for delivery from 2015 to 2020...

BACKGROUND: Surgical repair is one of the management strategies for obstetric fistulae, which are associated with tragic obstetric morbidities. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the proportion of repair failures and associated factors among women who underwent obstetric fistula surgery at the Mettu Hamlin Fistula Center. DESIGN: This study is an institution-based, retrospective, cross-sectional design. METHODS: This study included 385 patients who underwent obstetric fistula repair surgery at the Mettu Hamlin Fistula Center between 2015 and 2020...

Despite advocacy and recommendations to improve health care and health for persons who identify as women, women continue to face inequities in access to and quality of care. Person-centered care for women is one approach that could reduce gendered inequities. We conducted a series of studies to understand what constitutes person-centered care for women and how to achieve it. The overall aim of this article is to highlight the key findings of those studies that can inform policy, practice, and ongoing research...

BACKGROUND: Stress during pregnancy can lead to significant adverse outcomes for maternal mental health. Early evaluation of prenatal stress can help identify treatment needs and appropriate interventions. Disparities in the social determinants of health can contribute to stress, but what constitutes stress during pregnancy within the social determinants of health framework is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To scope how prenatal stress is defined and measured among pregnant people exposed to three prominent social stressors in the United States: insecurity pertaining to food, housing, and immigration...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Dysmenorrhea is an often incapacitating condition that is characterized by painful menstruation and general body malaise. In Zimbabwe, this condition is understudied, and its associated risk factors are poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of dysmenorrhea among female students at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study that employed simple random sampling technique to obtain data from 382 students using pretested and self-administered questionnaires...

BACKGROUND: Postnatal depression (PND) is associated with adverse infant neurodevelopmental outcomes. Evidence is limited on how PND influences neonatal (<28 days old) outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, such as Kenya, which bear the global burden of neonatal morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES: To explore how PND influences neonatal feeding and care practices among women in the early postnatal period in rural Western Kenya. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study...

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest female Veterans are under-identified as homeless in the VA healthcare system, which may impact their ability to access necessary services. In addition, the increasing number of female Veterans experiencing homelessness requires a better understanding of their access to necessary healthcare and social care. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the barriers and facilitators for access to healthcare and social care among women Veterans experiencing homelessness...

Pelvic actinomycosis with an intrauterine device accounts for approximately 3% of all actinomycoses. It is a chronic infectious disease characterized by infiltrative, suppurative, or granulomatous inflammation, sinus fistula formation, and extensive fibrosis, and caused by filamentous, gram-positive, anaerobic bacteria called Actinomyces israelii . The slow and silent progression favors pseudo tumor pelvic extension and exposes the patient to acute life-threatening complications, namely colonic occlusion with hydronephrosis...