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China Aoxing Pharmaceutical Company Acquires A Novel Menstrual Pain Drug
China Aoxing Pharmaceutical Company, Inc. (OTCBB: CAXG) ("China Aoxing"), a pharmaceutical company specializing in research, development, manufacturing and marketing of narcotic and pain-management products, announced that it has acquired all rights to TJSL, a novel drug at Phase II development stage to treat primary dysmenorrhea ("PD"), or menstrual pain, in adult women.
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IPS Examines Obstetric Fistula In Southern Senegal
Inter Press Service News Agency examines the prevalence of obstetric fistula in the southern region of Senegal. According to state reproductive health officials in the town of Kolda, 58 percent of births take place at home without medical assistance. "Women in the region suffer from exceptionally high rates of fistula," which "occurs when extended pressure damages the soft tissue in a woman"s pelvis during the process of giving birth" and can lead to debilitating complications and ostracization from their families, IPS writes.
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Blogs Comment On Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Health Reform, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Judge Sotomayor Provides Important Testimony on the Constitutional Right to Privacy and Its Application to Reproductive Rights," Marcia Greenberger, Womenstake: "One major line of questions, asked repeatedly throughout the hearings" for President Obama"s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her "views on the constitutional right to privacy," Greenberger writes, adding, "Given that this right is central to women"s lives, protecting" such "decisions involving whether to bear children ... and having consensual adult sexual relations, it is important to analyze Judge Sotomayor"s answers carefully." According to Greenberger, because Sotomayor "had not ruled directly on the right to privacy as a federal judge, her testimony in this area warrants particular attention." Following questions from senators such as Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sotomayor portrayed a "clear agreement with the right to privacy and strong description of the court"s current precedents regarding Roe and women"s health," which "lend[s] further support to the view from her legal record that she would not undermine Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the Supreme Court" (Greenberger, Womenstake, 7/16). ~ "Major Steps Forward for Health Care Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen, outreach manager for the National Women"s Law Center, reports that the health care reform legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "particularly important for women because of the critical headway it makes towards women"s ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care throughout their lives." The bill "works towards confronting many of the particular obstacles faced by women in our current health care system," such as banning the "discriminatory" practice of basing insurance premiums on gender, even when maternity benefits are excluded, Nguyen writes. The bill also bans insurance companies from rejecting patients based on medical history, which has prevented many domestic violence survivors and women who have had caesarean sections from obtaining coverage. Nguyen concludes that "the momentum for health care reform could not have come at a more needed time" because women and their families "need quality, affordable and comprehensive health more than ever" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 7/15).~ "Democrats for Life of America Ousts Member Who Supports Contraception," Feministing: Feministing reports that Democrats for Life of America removed Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) from its advisory board because he supports efforts to improve access to contraception. According to Ryan, he was dismissed from the board after four years after attempting to persuade the group to support contraceptive use as a way to avoid unintended pregnancies. According to the blog, "This is why we call anti-choicers "anti-choice": because they"re not just about making abortion illegal." It adds, "They don"t want women to have access to contraception either -- something that 98% of American women will use at some point in their lives" (Feministing, 7/15). ~ "Umpires, Perspective and the Supreme Court," Jim Wallis, Sojourners" "God"s Politics": "During his opening remarks for his own confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice [John] Roberts made" an analogy between judges and umpires "that has gotten a lot of play in the media and has already been used quite a few times during" Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Wallis writes. He adds that "nothing in the world would frustrate me more than an umpire who would call the game differently based upon the color of the jersey that" players were wearing. "But I haven"t seen that happen," Wallis writes, adding, "In fact, the biggest problem we face isn"t an umpire that has favored one team over the other, but umpires who make mistakes in their rulings and judgment because of their lack of perspective." He adds that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and "others w
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Outcome Of Children Born After Fertility Treatment, Embryo Freezing: Two Studies

Study 1 Twins born as a result of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are more likely to be admitted to neonatal intensive care and to be hospitalised in their first three years of life than spontaneously conceived twins, according to new research published online in Human Reproduction [1]. It is known already that ART twins are at higher risk of problems such as low birth weight and premature delivery than singletons around the time of their birth, but, to a large extent, these risks exist as part of the problems associated with multiple births in general. Up to now there has been conflicting evidence about whether assisted reproduction itself is responsible for adding to the number of problems seen in ART twins. To answer this question, researchers in Australia and the UK looked at perinatal outcomes and hospital admissions for all twin children born in Western Australia between 1994 and 2000, whether as a result of ART or spontaneous conception. Twins that arise as a result of ART usually do so because two (or sometimes more) separate embryos are implanted in the woman"s womb. They are non-identical and each has its own placenta. However, twins that arise as a result of spontaneous conception can either be non-identical because two eggs have been fertilised at the same time, or identical because one fertilised egg has divided to make two embryos. Identical twins share a placenta in about two-thirds of all cases, and this is associated with an increased risk of death and other complications. In order to ensure that, as far as possible, they were comparing like for like, the researchers matched the ART twins with spontaneously conceived, non-identical twins of different sexes (referred to in the study as "unlike sex spontaneously conceived twins", or "ULS SC twins"). Michç¨le Hansen, a researcher and PhD student at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Western Australia, said: "We found that twins conceived following ART treatment had a greater risk of adverse perinatal outcome, including preterm birth, low birthweight and death, compared with spontaneously conceived twins of unlike sex. ART twins had more than double the risk of perinatal death compared to ULS SC twins, although the risk was similar to that of all SC twins, including identical twins. "ART twins stayed longer in hospital than ULS SC twins at the time of their birth: an average of 12 days compared with eight days. ART twins were four times more likely to be admitted to neo-natal intensive care than ULS SC twins, and were more likely to be admitted to hospital during the first three years of their life. After adjusting for confounding factors such as year of birth, maternal age, parity and so on, ART twins still had a nearly two-thirds higher risk of being admitted to neo-natal intensive care, and a higher risk of being admitted to hospital in their first three years of life, although this was only statistically significant in their second year, when their risk was nearly two-thirds higher." Ms Hansen continued: "Couples undergoing fertility treatment should be aware that, in addition to the known increased perinatal risks associated with a twin birth, ART twins are more likely than spontaneously conceived twins to be admitted to neonatal intensive care and to be hospitalised in their first three years of life. "We don"t know the reason for the increased risks of adverse perinatal outcome and hospitalisation and preliminary analysis of specific diagnoses does not provide any answers. The underlying causes of parental infertility and/or components of the ART procedure may be increasing the risks of adverse outcome, and increased concern about children born after a long period of infertility may also be contributing to their increased risk of hospitalisation. Estimates of the cost of an ART twin delivery should take into account these increased risks, and, in order to reduce the problems associated with twin births, clinicians and couples should consider the benefits of opting for single embryo transfer." Study 2, also published online in Human Reproduction, provides reassuring evidence on the outcome of children born after embryos were frozen and stored, before being thawed and transferred to the womb [2]. The results are good news as an increasing number of children, estimated to be 25% of ART babies worldwide, are now born after freezing or vitrification (a process similar to freezing that prevents the formation of ice crystals). The study, led by Dr Ulla-Britt Wennerholm, an obstetrician at the Institute for Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy (Goteborg, Sweden), reviewed the evidence from 21 controlled studies that reported on prenatal or child outcomes after freezing or vitrification. She found that embryos that had been frozen shortly after they started to divide (early stage cleavage embryos) had a better, or at least as good, obstetric outcome (measured as preterm birth and low birth weight) as children born from fresh cycles of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) or ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). There were comparable malformation rates between the fresh and frozen cycles. There were limited data available for freezing of blastocysts (embryos that have developed for about five days) and for vitrification of early cleavage stage embryos, blastocysts and eggs. "Slow freezing of embryos has been used for 25 years and data concerning infant outcome seem reassuring with even higher birthweights and lower rates of preterm and low birthweights than children born after fresh IVF/ICSI. For the newly introduced technique of vitrification of blastocysts and oocytes, very limited data have been reported on obstetric and neonatal outcomes. This emphasises the urgent need for properly controlled follow-up studies of neonatal outcomes and a careful assessment of evidence currently available before these techniques are added to daily routines. In addition, long-term follow-up studies are needed for all cryopreservation techniques," concluded Dr Wennerholm. [1] Twins born following assisted reproductive technology: perinatal outcomes and admissions to hospital. Human Reproduction. doi:10.1093/humrep/dep173 [2] Children born after cryopreservation of embryos or oocytes: a systematic review of outcome data. Human Reproduction. doi:10.1093/humrep/dep125 Emma Mason European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology


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