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	<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Reproductive Health &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>A healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit</description>
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		<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Reproductive Health &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com</link>
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		<title>First Genetic Markers That Predict Postpartum Depression</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/21/first-genetic-markers-that-predict-postpartum-depression/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/21/first-genetic-markers-that-predict-postpartum-depression/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Depression]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Genetics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genetic testing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[postpartum depression]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=87019</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers say that a blood test may soon identify which pregnant women are at highest risk of developing postpartum depression, so they can seek treatment that could control their symptoms. Up to 20% of new mothers may experience feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and sadness after giving birth, but doctors don&#8217;t have a reliable way of predicting which expectant moms are most vulnerable. While those with a history of mood disorders may have a slightly higher risk of feeling postpartum depression, in most cases there are few signs that foretell which women will develop the disorder in the weeks and months after they deliver. (MORE: Pediatricians Should Start Screening for Postpartum Depression) But in a small study of 52 pregnant women described in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found changes in certain genes, which they could pick up in the blood, that distinguished women who went on to suffer from postpartum from those who did not. The genetic changes were epigenetic modifications, which means they were not permanent alterations in the women&#8217;s genomes but instead reflected differences in the way these genes were activated. The scientists, led by Zachary Kaminsky, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Hopkins, were inspired to look for the genetic changes after studies in mice. They found that estrogen, which increases during pregnancy, triggers changes in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that&#8217;s responsible for memory and mood, and that two genes were affected in particular. Not much was known about these snippets of DNA, except that they played some role in processes that are important for regulating mood &#8212; such as adapting to new environments and reorganizing neural circuits to make such accommodations possible. (MORE: Study: Fish Oil May Prevent Symptoms of Postpartum Depression) It turned out the same genes were affected in women who experienced postpartum depression as well, and Kaminsky and his colleagues believe that the genes made the women more sensitive to the dramatic drop in estrogen that occured after birth. Without<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=87019&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/21/first-genetic-markers-that-predict-postpartum-depression/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Depression</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/depression/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/155420780.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Week in Health: A New Test for Prostate Cancer and the Benefits of Licking Pacifiers Clean</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/11/the-week-in-health-a-new-test-for-prostate-cancer-and-the-benefits-of-licking-pacifiers-clean/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/11/the-week-in-health-a-new-test-for-prostate-cancer-and-the-benefits-of-licking-pacifiers-clean/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 14:29:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=86491</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers announced the promising results of a new genetic test that can predict the most aggressive prostate cancers; New Jersey governor Chris Christie has gastric lap-band surgery, and moms who lick their babies&#8217; pacifiers clean may be doing their kids&#8217; immune systems a favor. These are some of the major stories making health news this week.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=86491&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/11/the-week-in-health-a-new-test-for-prostate-cancer-and-the-benefits-of-licking-pacifiers-clean/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Medicine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Critics and Supporters React To Decision to Expand OTC Access to Plan B</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/01/morning-after-reactions/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/01/morning-after-reactions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 15:43:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emergency contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FDA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HHS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kathleen Sebelius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[margaret hamburg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morning after pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[peggy hamburg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plan B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teva pharmaceuticals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=85894</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Tuesday, the FDA announced that the Plan B morning-after pill will move out from behind the counter and be available for girls ages 15 and older without a prescription. Update: The story has been updated to reflect the FDA&#8217;s decision to appeal a court order requiring the agency to make Plan B available to all women without a prescription. The decision comes after Judge Edward Korman of the District Court of Eastern New York overturned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ ruling to put an age limit on obtaining Plan B without a prescription. In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that all women be allowed to access Plan B, a form of emergency contraception, without prescription. At the time, Plan B was available over-the-counter only to women aged 17 or older. But Sebelius overruled that proposal, and questioned the safety of having young girls taking the drug, which contains higher doses of the same synthetic hormone found in birth control pills, on their own. Under the FDA&#8217;s new ruling, Plan B will now be available next to condoms and other reproductive health products, for girls to pick up off the shelves without engaging a pharmacist. The packaging will contain a code that alerts cashiers to ask for proof of age from anyone purchasing the drug. (MORE: Judge Orders Morning After Pill Be Available Without Prescription, Without Restrictions) Reproductive rights groups sued the government following Sebelius&#8217; decision, which led to Judge Korman&#8217;s ruling on April 5 to make Plan B available over-the-counter without restrictions to all women. In making his argument, Judge Korman said Sebelius’ ruling was made in “bad faith and improper political influence,” writing in his decision, “it is hardly clear that the Secretary had the power to issue the order, and if she did have that authority, her decision was arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” Korman gave the FDA 30 days to lift the current restrictions, but the FDA says the new approval was independent of the judge&#8217;s order, and resulted from an already pending application from Teva that requested its product be<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=85894&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/01/morning-after-reactions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/165732620.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Plan B</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Too Old to Be a Dad?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/11/too-old-to-be-a-dad/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/11/too-old-to-be-a-dad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Kluger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[older fathers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reproduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sperm]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=84403</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are a lot of downsides to being male. We age faster and die younger. But give us this: we&#8217;re lifetime baby-making machines. Women&#8217;s reproductive abilities start to wane when they&#8217;re as young as 35. Men? We&#8217;re good to go pretty much till we&#8217;re dead. The reason, of course, is sperm: Unlike ova, they&#8217;re hardy and decidedly plentiful. Every 16 days or so the male body raises a whole new army of them hundreds of millions strong. Want to use a few of those reproductive foot soldiers to keep conceiving children far into your fifties, sixties and even seventies? Have at it, and I should know: I didn&#8217;t have my children until I was in my mid- and late-40s (for more, read my story in the new issue of TIME, available to subscribers here). But not so fast. Older fathers, it turns out, can present as many medical problems as older mothers—more in fact. For all the concerns about Down syndrome and other genetic disorders that become more common in babies of older mothers, the list of conditions older fathers bring to the table is turning out to be far longer. Just last year, a study in Nature found that rates of autism and schizophrenia rise sharply in the babies of older dads, with the risk doubling for every 16.5 years of paternal age. Another study, also in Nature, found something similar for autism, beginning when a man is just 35—the same ostensible trouble-age as for moms. Yet another paper in the American Journal of Men&#8217;s Health linked paternal age to preterm birth and low birth weight, and others have found connections to cleft lip and certain cancers. The problem arises from the same 16-day turnover rate that make sperm such an infinitely renewable resource. Every batch of sperm represents an opportunity for genetic typos—called de novo mutations—to be passed on. A 20-year-old man and woman will each pass on about 20 de novo mutations to a baby they conceive. By the time the couple is 40, a woman&#8217;s total has remained<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=84403&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/11/too-old-to-be-a-dad/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/130422058085.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">130422058085</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Judge Orders Morning After Pill Be Available Without Prescription, Without Restrictions</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/05/judge-orders-morning-after-pill-be-available-without-prescription-without-restrictions/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/05/judge-orders-morning-after-pill-be-available-without-prescription-without-restrictions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:30:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Approvals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labeling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy & Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraceptives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emergency contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[judge edward korman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kathleen Sebelius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[levonog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morning after pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plan B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teen pregnancy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=84020</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the latest volley over the contraceptive Plan B, a federal judge reversed the Department of Health and Human Services decision to restrict over-the-counter availability of the morning after pill to those 17 years or older . Judge Edward Korman of the District Court of Eastern New York overturned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius&#8217; decision to add an age limit to obtaining Plan B without a prescription; citing concerns over the safety of the emergency contraceptive, which is effective about 50% of the time in preventing pregnancy before the fertilized egg implants in the uterus, being taken by girls as young as 11 years old, Sebelius required anyone under 17 to provide a prescription in order to purchase Plan B, while allowing those 17 and older to buy the contraceptive over-the-counter. It&#8217;s the latest development in a contentious regulatory battle that dates to 2009, when Plan B&#8217;s manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration to change the drug&#8217;s status from a prescription medication to an over-the-counter one. At the time, only women 17 years or older could obtain Plan B without a prescription, and the company wanted to remove the restriction and expand over-the-counter access to women of all ages. After reviewing the application and available studies on the pill, the FDA&#8216;s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) determined that Plan B was safe and effective for adolescents, and concluded that younger girls were capable of correctly using and understanding the risks of Plan B without doctor intervention. (MORE: U.S. Rejects FDA Advice to Sell Plan B One-Step Over the Counter) Based on the CDER conclusions, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg recommended that the contraceptive be sold without a prescription for &#8220;all females of child-bearing potential.&#8221; In an unprecedented move, however, Sebelius invoked her authority as Secretary of HHS, which oversees the FDA, and overruled the recommendation, noting that the company failed to provide research showing that young girls could use the drug safely. Her decision was backed by President Obama, who said, &#8220;As I understand<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=84020&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/05/judge-orders-morning-after-pill-be-available-without-prescription-without-restrictions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Labeling</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/policy-industry/labeling-policy-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/165701705.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">NY Federal Judge Overrules FDA Over-The-Counter Ban On Emergency Contraception Pill</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Study Clarifies Link Between Fertility Treatments and Neurological Problems In Kids</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/26/study-clarifies-link-between-fertility-treatments-and-neurological-problems-in-kids/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/26/study-clarifies-link-between-fertility-treatments-and-neurological-problems-in-kids/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infertility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth defects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fertility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[in vitro fertilization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[infertility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neurological problems at birth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=82977</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Children born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments have shown a higher risk of developmental problems, but what is responsible for the heightened risk? Low birth weight, premature birth and minor problems with brain development have all been correlated with fertility treatments, which include IVF as well as sophisticated insemination techniques. While it&#8217;s possible that the treatments themselves, which require manipulation of the egg, sperm and embryo outside of the woman&#8217;s body, could be contributing to changes in development, it&#8217;s also logical that the infertility that required the procedures in the first place might also be playing a role. And in the latest study investigating the association, published online in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, researchers report that the latter may be largely responsible for the neurological differences documented among children born via fertility treatments. The new study is very small, involving just 209 children who were born to parents who struggled to get pregnant. The findings, however, support previous data that found that techniques associated with IVF were not lniked with increased risk of neurological issues among children at age two who were born using these treatments. In the current study, the researchers focused on a group of couples enrolled in a study of assisted reproductive techniques who were considered subfertile, or unable to conceive after 12 months of unprotected intercourse. The parents took anywhere from 1.6 years to a little over 13 years to get pregnant, producing 209 children. When they reached age two, the children were evaluated for mild neurological and developmental problems, including movement issues, posture, muscle tone and hand-eye coordination. Seventeen of the toddlers showed minor neurological problems, and these children were more likely to be born of parents who took the longest to conceive. The median time to pregnancy for couples whose children did not show neurological issues was 2.8 years, while it those whose children did show minor problems took 4.1 years to conceive. Taking a longer time to get pregnant was associated with a 30% greater risk of having a child with mild neurological issues<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=82977&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Infertility</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/infertility-family-parenting/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rbma_0019.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">rbma_0019</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>In Texas, a Pregnant Teen Sues Her Parents to Avoid an Abortion</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/26/in-texas-a-pregnant-teen-sues-her-parents-to-avoid-an-abortion/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/26/in-texas-a-pregnant-teen-sues-her-parents-to-avoid-an-abortion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bonnie Rochman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=81055</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Earlier this month, Jaime Burnside called an attorney in Texas to help her teen-age son. His girlfriend was pregnant and wanted to have the baby, but her parents wanted her to have an abortion. It’s the kind of case that invigorates the Texas Center for Defense of Life, which has handled three similar situations in the two years since it was founded. “Parents think they’re making a decision for their daughters like pulling a tooth or getting their tonsils out,” says Stephen Casey, who spoke to the boy’s mother and agreed to file suit against the girl’s parents. “But now that the girl is pregnant, the parents become grandparents and they can’t make a decision for the girl about her unborn child.” A judge in Houston agreed. Last week, the parents of the 16-year-old girl — identified as R.E.K. in the lawsuit — said they would comply with an injunction that prohibits them from forcing their daughter to end her pregnancy. According to the lawsuit, the divorced parents also agreed to let the girl continue to use her cell phone and drive her car, both of which apparently had been confiscated after she announced that she was pregnant. The girl’s mom tried to talk her daughter into an abortion, saying she would be “making the biggest mistake of her life” if she had the baby, and the girl’s father texted her that she “needs an ass whoopin’,” according to the lawsuit. The girls’ parents have said the allegations are not true. The parents’ attorney could not be reached. The situation is unspooling not long after Texas cut funds for family-planning services. Nor does the state provide comprehensive sex education in schools, preferring to emphasize abstinence. “We know teens have sex so it would be nice to prepare them to make good decisions,” says Elizabeth Nash, who tracks states’ reproductive rights legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group. “Being a teen mother is a very hard road to hoe.” Burnside can attest to that first-hand. When she was 15,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=81055&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Pregnancy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/pregnancy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/aa043413.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">brochman</media:title>
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		<title>Midwives Say Birthing Centers Could Cut C-Section Rates and Save Billions</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/31/midwives-say-birthing-centers-could-cut-c-section-rates-and-save-billions/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/31/midwives-say-birthing-centers-could-cut-c-section-rates-and-save-billions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:45:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bonnie Rochman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[C-section]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[epidural]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[midwife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=79304</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If more pregnant women delivered their babies at midwife-led birth centers, the nation’s C-section rate would go down and cost savings would go up, reversing the current twin trend of rising health care expenditures and numbers of cesarean deliveries. That&#8217;s the conclusion reached in a study conducted by the American Association of Birth Centers and published in the Journal of Midwifery &#38; Women’s Health. Researchers tracked 15,574 births and found that birth centers saved the health-care system $30 million in facility fees alone. Women who deliver vaginally avoid the cost of surgery and the extra time in the hospital spent recovering. “If even 10% of births happen in birth centers, we would expect a $1 billion savings each year just in facility fees,” says Cara Osborne, a midwife who is one of the authors of the study. But for pregnant women, delivering at a birth center is still a niche practice.  It&#8217;s growing in popularity, but less than 1% of U.S. women have their babies at birth centers, in contrast to other countries where midwife deliveries are far more common. Midwives in the U.S. are hoping to change that, with a publicity campaign called Our Moment of Truth that educates women about the benefits of giving birth in a birth center and without medications. “Women need more midwives,” says Osborne. “This sort of care should be available to all women.” The last major study that looked at birth centers was published in 1989, when the national C-section rate was 18%. That year, women delivering at birth centers had C-sections 4% of the time; that number grew to just 6% in the current study, which relied on figures from 2007 to 2010 from 79 midwife-led birth centers in 33 states. “Midwife-led birth center births can be a way to lower national C-section rates,” says Osborne, who is also an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Arkansas. Across the country, C-section rates have boomed. In 2010, a third of deliveries were cesarean births. With obstetricians increasingly worried about malpractice lawsuits<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=79304&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/10025057-resize.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">brochman</media:title>
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		<title>Women with BRCA Gene Mutation at Higher Risk for Early Menopause</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/29/women-with-brca-gene-mutation-at-higher-risk-for-early-menopause/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/29/women-with-brca-gene-mutation-at-higher-risk-for-early-menopause/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Breast Cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Genetics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infertility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brca]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BRCA1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BRCA2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[breast cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[early menopause]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[early onset menopause]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[infertility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menopause]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reproductive health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78995</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A study finds the first genetic links that predict timing of menopause. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that women with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA 2 genes, which are associated with an up to five times higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, were more likely to enter menopause early compared to women without the gene. The finding, reported in the journal Cancer, has important implications for women trying to get pregnant, since those with the genetic mutations may be more vulnerable to infertility. The study included 400 female BRCA gene carriers in northern California and compared the timing of their menopause onset to 765 women without the gene mutation from the same region. They found that the BRCA carriers were likely to enter menopause on average at age 50, compared to age 53 for the other women. (MORE: Study: No Higher Risk for Women With Breast Cancer Genes in the Family) &#8220;What is really complicated about these patients is that because they have a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer, they’re under a lot of surveillance and a lot of pressure to remove breast tissue and ovaries to reduce cancer risk,&#8221; says senior study author Dr. Mitchell Rosen, director of the UCSF Fertility Preservation Center and associate professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Still, Rosen and his team found early menopause among women with the BRCA mutations who had not undergone surgery to remove their ovaries, and other studies have shown that these women may be prone to ovarian failure, possibly related to the effects of their genetic changes. For smokers, the findings are even more somber. Smoking has been known to alter estrogen levels and menstrual cycles, and the researchers found that women who were considered heavy smokers—smoking over 20 cigarettes a day—tended to experience menopause even earlier, at around age 46. The research adds an additional dilemma for women carrying the gene who still want a family, and may even help to identify new genetic factors underlying infertility. &#8220;This means there<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78995&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/100480417.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Pollutants Linked to Lower Fertility in Both Men and Women</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/15/pollutants-linked-to-lower-fertility-in-both-men-and-women/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/15/pollutants-linked-to-lower-fertility-in-both-men-and-women/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Catherine Elton</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environmental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73759</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It makes sense that what we&#8217;re exposed to can affect our health, including our fertility. And the latest research shows exactly how much. Reporting in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers say that pollutants such as perchlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), industrial compounds and pesticides that are no longer manufactured but remain in older products can still decrease couples&#8217; ability to have children by up to 29%. MORE: Scientists Create Human Sperm from Stem Cells Scientists have long known that farm and factory workers exposed to certain chemicals at high levels experience declines in fertility. But whether the same is true for those exposed to ubiquitous hormone-disrupting chemicals at low levels, frequently without our knowledge, isn&#8217;t clear yet. So scientists at the National Institutes of Health created the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE), the most comprehensive look yet at various environmental pollutants and their potential effect on pregnancy rates, to capture the effects of the compounds not just on female reproductive health but on both male and female fertility. The trial followed 500 couples who stopped using contraception for a period of either 12 months or until they got pregnant, whichever came first. Researchers measured their blood for the presence of 63 organic pollutants such as (PCBs) found in oil-based paint, electrical parts and adhesives until they were banned in 1979, and pesticides that fail to degrade in the environment but are absorbed by livestock and then by people consuming fatty fish, meats and dairy. MORE: Environmental Toxins Cost Billions in Childhood Disease Each couple was given a kit to help them monitor fertility-related hormones to optimize their chances for pregnancy, and the couples kept track of what they ate and other lifestyle behaviors in a daily journal. At the end of the study period, researchers analyzed blood levels of the designated environmental chemicals and the length of time each couple took to get pregnant and found that for each unit increase in blood concentration of 12 pollutants was associated with anywhere from a 17% to 29% decrease in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73759&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Environmental Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/environmental-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/103212519infertilitycrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Pregnancy test</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<title>Early Puberty May Heighten Heart Risks for Women</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/14/early-puberty-may-heighten-heart-risks-for-women/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/14/early-puberty-may-heighten-heart-risks-for-women/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Olivia B. Waxman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73758</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Predicting heart disease risk is not an exact science, but doctors are building the case for another tool to guide their evaluations when it comes to women. Women tend to develop heart disease later in life than men, which makes the familiar risk factors — high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and overweight or obesity — useful, but not entirely reliable predictors of heart trouble. So researchers involved in the decades-long Framingham Heart Study, one of the most extensive investigations of heart disease risk factors that began in 1948, decided to look at reproductive factors that may refine doctors&#8217; ability to help women learn how vulnerable they are to the disease. Experts currently believe that women may not experience heart problems until nearly a decade on average after men because of the female hormone estrogen, which shields the heart until menopause, around ages 50 to 60, after which its levels drop dramatically. MORE: Health Checkup: Helping Hearts That&#8217;s why the Framingham researchers focused on 1,638 female children and third generation participants of the original study members, all over age 40, to see if reproductive factors could be correlated to body weight, and in turn, heart disease risk. They recorded factors such as the age at which a woman began menstruating, the number of children she had, and her age at menopause and connected them to obesity-related measures such as fat distribution in the body and types of fat (visceral fat in the belly area v less metabolically active subcutaneous fat found underneath the skin). &#8220;Understanding whether body fat distribution is associated with female reproductive factors may provide insight into the potential mechanisms linking them to [heart disease] and its risk factors,&#8221; the authors write. (MORE: Study Shows More Than Half of All Americans Will Get Heart Disease) After adjusting for factors such as age, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, hormone replacement therapy, and menopausal status, all of which can influence body weight and heart disease risk, the authors found that earlier menses was linked to higher body mass index (BMI) and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73758&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/128542657womenheartcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">timeolivia</media:title>
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		<title>U.S. Panel Warns Hormone Replacement Therapy Is Too Risky</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/23/u-s-panel-warns-hormone-replacement-therapy-is-too-risky/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/23/u-s-panel-warns-hormone-replacement-therapy-is-too-risky/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=72250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A government group is advising women to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to treat symptoms of menopause for only short periods of time. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent group of health experts convened at the request of Congress, first hinted that HRT may be too risky for long term use in 2005. At that time, after reviewing the available data, the task force warned women against relying on HRT to prevent chronic conditions like heart disease and dementia. Some earlier studies had suggested that the supplemental hormones that women take to relieve night sweats and hot flashes associated with menopause could also protect the heart and brain from aging-related decline. But use of hormone therapy declined after a 2002  Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study found little difference in rates of heart disease among women who used HRT and those who did not. Instead, it reported HRT may increase the risks of heart disease and breast cancer. (MORE: Hormone Replacement Therapy After Menopause: What Women Need to Know) In its most recent analysis, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the USPSTF confirmed its previous findings that the risk of HRT outweigh its potential benefits. The task force made its final recommendation based on a review of 51 additional studies published since 2002. Overall, the data show that HRT, which combines estrogen and progestin, is linked to increased risk of stroke, blood clots, gallbladder disease, urinary incontinence, dementia and breast cancer. Even among women who have had a hysterectomy, and therefore only need to take estrogen and not progestin to protect endometrial tissue, the risks remained significant. The only benefits of HRT the USPSTF found outside of relieving menopause symptoms was a lower risk of fractures. But the risks far outweighed this improvement, the task force concluded.  So for women at average-risk of heart disease or breast cancer, which make up the majority of those who might take HRT during menopause menopause, the panel recommends against long-term use of the hormones. For those who need immediate relief of menopausal symptoms, however, short term<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=72250&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Women&#039;s Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/womens-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/sb10063626bc-001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Is PMS a Myth?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/pms-is-a-myth-new-study/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/pms-is-a-myth-new-study/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maia Szalavitz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menstruation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[periods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[premenstrual dysphoric disorder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[premenstrual syndrome]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=71998</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For many women, premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a familiar preamble to their monthly cycle. But a new review of the data suggests that mood changes aren&#8217;t as closely tied to menses as many have assumed. A team led by Dr. Sarah Romans of the University of Otago in New Zealand reviewed 47 studies that followed women’s moods across the menstrual cycle. Only 15% of the studies found that women tended to have “classic” PMS: moods that worsened as the menstrual period approached and lifted when menstruation occurred. An additional 38% found PMS that lasted into menstruation or another cycle phase. (MORE: Stress Leads to Worse PMS Symptoms) However, a further 38% of the studies found no association between mood and any particular phase of the cycle. And 9% found that the worst moods actually occurred outside of the premenstrual phase. That means that little more than half of the studies (53%) found any link between menstruation and bad mood, and 85% didn’t find classic PMS. “The major finding of this review was that clear evidence for a specific premenstrual-phase-related mood occurring in the general population is lacking,” the authors conclude. Nonetheless, the idea of moodiness occurring cyclically in women has a long-standing history. The authors cite a “long-established tendency to label women’s behavior as overly emotional and to attribute this to female reproductive function.” (MORE: Got PMS? Milk Marketers Launch an Audacious, Funny New Ad Campaign) So is the concept of PMS just a remnant of sexist ideas about women&#8217;s changing moods from a time when most physicians were male? The new study unfortunately isn&#8217;t designed to provide an answer. For one thing, because they wanted to look at healthy women, the authors excluded data on women seeking help for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a syndrome they do not dispute, in which 1% to 9% of women experience extreme mood problems related to the menstrual cycle. Second, given the wide range of factors that affect mood, it’s difficult to distinguish the effects of changing hormone levels. Some of the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=71998&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/pms-is-a-myth-new-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Women&#039;s Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/womens-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/stress.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/stress.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">stress</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0a5ac57e99124922fa628492ad3db6b2?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">MaiaSzalavitz</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Study: Free Birth Control Slashes Abortion Rates</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/05/study-free-birth-control-significantly-cuts-abortion-rates/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/05/study-free-birth-control-significantly-cuts-abortion-rates/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Olivia B. Waxman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sexual Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birth Control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth control pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hormonal implant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IUD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LARC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reproductive health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaginal ring]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=70862</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What would happen if women at risk for unintended pregnancies received the birth control of their choice — especially the more effective kinds — at no cost? The national abortion rate would plummet, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and published in the journal Obstetrics &#38; Gynecology on Thursday. The researchers enrolled 9,256 women from the St. Louis region into the Contraceptive Choice Project between August 2007 and September 2011. The women were aged 14 to 45, with an average age of 25, and many were poor and uninsured with low education. Nearly two-thirds had had an unintended pregnancy previously. Participants were either not using a reversible contraception method or willing to switch to a new one. (LIST: 8 Preventive Health Services that Women Start Getting for Free Today) Researchers provided free, FDA-approved birth control to the women for three years. The women were given their choice of contraception, including oral birth control pills and long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods like implants and IUDs. The researchers specially briefed the participants on the &#8220;superior effectiveness&#8221; of LARC methods — the T-shaped IUD, or intrauterine device, has close to 100% effectiveness and can last five to 10 years, for instance — and 75% of women chose those devices over the pill, patch or ring. Over the course of the study, which lasted from 2008 to 2010, women experienced far fewer unintended pregnancies than expected: there were 4.4 to 7.5 abortions per 1,000 women in the study, after adjusting for age and race — much fewer than the national rate of 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women and lower also than the rate in the St. Louis area of 13.4 to 17 abortions per 1,000 women. The effect of free contraception on the teen birth rate was remarkable: there were 6.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 in the study, compared with the national rate of 34.3 births per 1,000 teen girls. (MORE: Which Birth Control Works Best? (Hint: It&#8217;s Not<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=70862&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/iud-birth-control.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/iud-birth-control.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/iud-birth-control.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">IUD birth control</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b9704e5c0d64fde15dc0d56feb4f86c3?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">timeolivia</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Older Fathers Linked to Kids&#8217; Autism and Schizophrenia Risk</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/23/older-fathers-linked-to-kids-autism-and-schizophrenia-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/23/older-fathers-linked-to-kids-autism-and-schizophrenia-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:15:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Autism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Genetics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Illness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[autism genes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[de novo mutations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decode genetics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genetic mutations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genetics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kari stefansson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[older dads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[older fathers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[schizophrenia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=67222</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Older men are more likely than younger ones to have children with autism or schizophrenia, and a new genetic study points to why: compared with younger dads, older fathers pass on significantly more random genetic mutations to their offspring that increase the risk for these conditions. And when compared to the genetic contributions of the mother, older fathers are responsible for nearly all of a child&#8217;s random genetic mutations: a father’s age at conception may account for 97% of the new, or de novo, mutations found in his offspring, according to the new study led by Augustine Kong at deCODE Genetics in Iceland. The findings may partly explain the rise in autism diagnoses in recent decades — the rate has reached 1 in 88 children in the U.S. — and they shore up previous studies finding that children born to older dads are more likely to have developmental and psychiatric disorders. The study also counters the common assumption that it is a mother&#8217;s advanced age that contributes to these problems. While older mothers are more likely to have children with chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, the new study finds that it is the father&#8217;s age that accounts for virtually all of the genetic risk of autism and schizophrenia attributable to de novo mutations. “Our data indicate there is probably much more reason to be concerned with the age of the father,” says Dr. Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE and senior author of the paper, published in Nature. (MORE: Autism Studies Confirm Genetic Risk for Older Dads) De novo mutations are changes in DNA that arise spontaneously in egg or sperm cells around conception. Most people are born with many such mutations, and most of these changes are harmless. However, some of these mutations have been associated with increased autism risk in previous studies, with that risk rising along with the age of the father. That makes sense since sperm, unlike women&#8217;s eggs, are made constantly throughout a man’s life. With each cell division, the entire genome is copied —<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=67222&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Genetics</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/genetics-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/57012113paternalagecrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/57012113paternalagecrop.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/57012113paternalagecrop.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Baby and DNA</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8216;Legitimate Rape&#8217;? Todd Akin and Other Politicians Who Confused Science</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/21/legitimate-rape-todd-akin-and-other-politicians-who-confuse-science/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/21/legitimate-rape-todd-akin-and-other-politicians-who-confuse-science/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abortion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[legitimate rape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[todd akin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=66947</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=66947&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/21/legitimate-rape-todd-akin-and-other-politicians-who-confuse-science/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/missouri-senate.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/missouri-senate.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/missouri-senate.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Rep. Todd Akin</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Researchers Inch Closer to a Male Birth Control Pill</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/16/researchers-inch-closer-to-a-male-birth-control-pill/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/16/researchers-inch-closer-to-a-male-birth-control-pill/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:38:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Men's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JQ1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[male birth control pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[male contraception]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=66681</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Aside from condoms and a vasectomy, there aren't any reliable methods of birth control for men. But researchers report than experimental new molecule may point the way to a male birth control pill<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=66681&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/16/researchers-inch-closer-to-a-male-birth-control-pill/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/90062354.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/90062354.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/90062354.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">90062354</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Prostate Cancer Screening: Why Can&#8217;t Doctors Agree?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/30/prostate-cancer-screening-why-cant-doctors-agree/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/30/prostate-cancer-screening-why-cant-doctors-agree/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clinical Practice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Men's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy & Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prevention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cancer screening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prostate cancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prostate cancer screening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[psa test]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=64993</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re wondering why experts still can&#8217;t agree on prostate-cancer screening, you&#8217;re not alone. Just two months ago, a major U.S. government panel said that basically no one should get screened for prostate cancer, claiming the simple blood test for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, does more harm than good. Now, a new study looks at government data and finds that, without PSA testing, the U.S. would have three times as many patients each year diagnosed with advanced-stage prostate cancer — and the vast majority of those cases would be fatal. &#8220;Almost all men with clinically apparent metastases at initial diagnosis will die from prostate cancer,&#8221; urologist and study author Edward Messing told reporters, as he explained the importance of his study. The new study reflects a broader divide in the medical community, between public health experts who have largely turned away from PSA screening, and many practicing clinicians who feel the test has helped their patients immensely. (MORE: Men Should Forgo PSA Testing, U.S. Panel Advises) No one denies that PSA tests can help to catch prostate cancer early. But two issues are still unresolved. One is how well screening can actually work to prevent cancer deaths; the other is what kind of negative effects screening brings along with its benefits. On the first issue, there is still some uncertainty. In the U.S., a large randomized trial found no mortality benefit of screening. But an even larger randomized clinical trial in Europe has found a benefit. In its latest results published this spring, the European study team said that men who undergo routine testing have significantly lower risk of prostate-cancer death after 11 years. Still, the real crux of the debate on PSA testing is the second issue: the possible negative effects of screening. No diagnostic test is 100% accurate, and if a PSA test comes back positive for prostate cancer, the patient will usually be referred for a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. That test can have side effects. Then, if the patient does have cancer,  the available treatments<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=64993&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Cancer</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/cancer/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/psa.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/psa.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/psa.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">psa</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Which Birth Control Works Best? (Hint: It&#8217;s Not the Pill)</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/24/iuds-and-implants-beat-the-pill-in-preventing-pregnancy/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/24/iuds-and-implants-beat-the-pill-in-preventing-pregnancy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2012 12:55:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birth Control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth control patch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth control pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraceptive pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hormone injections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[implants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iuds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaginal ring]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=60304</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Long-lasting contraceptives such as the intrauterine device (IUD) and implants are better at preventing pregnancy than more popular birth control methods, including the pill, patch and vaginal rings, a new study concludes. The study involved 7,486 women participating in the Contraceptive Choice Project, run by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The women, aged 14 to 45, were given their choice of contraception for free and then tracked for up to three years for unintended pregnancy. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that longer-lasting contraceptives were up to 20 times more effective — that is, women using IUDs, implants or hormone injections were up to 20 times less likely to get pregnant — after three years than the shorter-acting methods of birth control. (MORE: Plan B: 1 in 5 Pharmacists May Deny Eligible Teens Access to Emergency Contraception) Among the 1,500 women who chose to use birth control pills, patches or vaginal rings, 4.8% became pregnant after one year, compared with only 0.3% of the nearly 5,800 women who chose IUDs or implantable contraceptives. After three years, 9.4% of women using short-acting contraceptives got pregnant, compared with 0.9% of those using longer-acting methods. Women using hormone injections (a minority at 176) had even better success, with 0.1% becoming pregnant after one year and 0.7% becoming pregnant after three years. The results, while striking, aren’t all that surprising, considering that shorter term options depend on consistent compliance to work most effectively: pills must be take daily and patches and rings must be replaced within days or weeks. In contrast, IUDs, which are fitted into the uterus, last five or 10 years, depending on the device. Hormonal implants, which are surgically placed under the skin of the upper arm, are effective for three years. And injections last three months. (MORE: The Pill at 50: Sex, Freedom and Paradox) How well a birth-control method worked depended also on the age of the user: younger women, under 21, using pills, patches or vaginal rings were<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=60304&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/200146015-001birthcontrolcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/200146015-001birthcontrolcrop.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/200146015-001birthcontrolcrop.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Birth control pills</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/69fc92d1c4598c5b98d03fde16cdfa74?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Plan B: 1 in 5 Pharmacists May Deny Eligible Teens Access to Emergency Contraception</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/26/plan-b-1-in-5-pharmacists-may-deny-eligible-teens-access-to-emergency-contraception/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/26/plan-b-1-in-5-pharmacists-may-deny-eligible-teens-access-to-emergency-contraception/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maia Szalavitz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reproductive Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birth Control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contraceptives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emergency contraception]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plan B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=55960</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About 1 in 5 pharmacies incorrectly denies teen girls access to emergency contraception (EC), or the &#8220;morning after pill,&#8221; according to a new study. Posing as either 17-year-old girls or doctors seeking Plan B emergency contraception for their 17-year-old patients, researchers from Boston University called 943 drugstores — every pharmacy listed in five major U.S. cities. Eighty percent of the pharmacies said they stocked the drug. By law, teenagers aged 17 and older can buy Plan B over the counter, but 19% of pharmacists told teenage callers they could not purchase it because of their age. Three percent of doctors were similarly told emergency contraception could not be given to 17-year-olds. When asked whether they knew the legal age for Plan B access, only 57% of pharmacy employees answered correctly to teens; 61% answered correctly to doctors. Not surprisingly, teens were twice as likely as physicians to wait on hold, and four times less likely to be connected to a pharmacist to answer their questions. Pharmacists were no more likely to provide correct information than non-pharmacists when speaking to physician callers. “From our study, it appears that 1 in 5 adolescents who phone pharmacies looking for EC are told they cannot obtain it under any circumstances and that nearly half of all adolescents and physicians are told an erroneously high age for EC access without a prescription,” the authors write. “Such misinformation poses a potentially substantial barrier to access.” MORE: U.S. Rejects FDA Advice to Sell Plan B One-Step Over the Counter Earlier research by the same authors found that teens were more often misled about Plan B availability in low-income neighborhoods, where teen pregnancies are most common. In that study, while the same proportion of teens was given incorrect information overall, 24% of teens in low income areas were told the drug wasn’t available to 17-year-olds, compared with 15% of teens in more affluent neighborhoods. It is not clear from the current study whether pharmacy employees deliberately misled teens to prevent them from getting Plan B or whether they were simply misinformed.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=55960&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Reproductive Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/reproductive-health-medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/planbcropped1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">MaiaSzalavitz</media:title>
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