GenderBiology.net

Health Reform Law Prohibits Gender Rating, Offers Other Benefits For Women's Health

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 31, 2010

EXCERPT: "Under the recently signed health reform law (HR 3590), health insurance companies will no longer be able to charge women more than men for the same insurance policies, ending a practice known as "gender rating," the New York Times reports. In the past, insurance companies "took full advantage" of the lack of restrictions on gender rating in the individual insurance market, arguing that women should pay more for health coverage because they tend to use the health system more than men, the Times reports."    more

RELATED LINKS:

National Partnership for Women & Families.  March 30, 2010. The Daily Women's Health: Policy Report.  Top Headlines: Health Reform Law Prohibits Gender Rating, Offers Other Benefits For Women's Health.

The National Women's Law Center Reports Download both reports here:

• Still Nowhere to Turn: Insurance Companies Treat Women Like a Pre-Existing Condition. 2010
• Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women. 2008. [landmark report]

Depression Affects How Women With PMDD Respond To Stress, Pain

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 31, 2010

EXCERPT: "As science slowly, but continually, unravels the causes of disorders, it increasingly teases apart biological threads that, when spooled together, begin to take on the warp and weft of separate disorders.

Add to the developing fabrics a severe mood disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which affects 5 percent to 7 percent of all women of reproductive age in the United States but is often misdiagnosed as major depression or other mood disorder.

A recent study further establishes that PMDD is biologically different, and that women with PMDD who have experienced depression could make up a subset."    more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Klatzkin RR, Lindgren ME, Forneris CA, Girdler SS. Histories of major depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder: Evidence for phenotypic differences. Biol Psychol. 2010 Feb 4.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.

Women, Diabetics, Dementia Patients Most Likely To Fall In 'Doughnut Hole'; Reform Seeks To Close Coverage Gap

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 31, 2010

EXCERPT:  "Among elderly Americans, women and those with diabetes and dementia are most likely to find themselves in the Medicare Part D drug plan 'doughnut hole,' the coverage gap that occurs after a beneficiary has reached the annual coverage limit but hasn't spent enough on drugs to qualify for catastrophic coverage."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Ettner SL, Steers N, Duru OK, Turk N, Quiter E, Schmittdiel J, Mangione CM. Entering and Exiting the Medicare Part D Coverage Gap: Role of Comorbidities and Demographics. J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Mar 9.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.

Flaxseed Lowers High Cholesterol In Men: Iowa State NWRC Study

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 29, 2010

EXCERPT:  "A new study from Iowa State University's Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC) may give men a way to combat high cholesterol without drugs -- if they don't mind sprinkling some flaxseed into their daily diet.   ....   While the study found that the flaxseed lignans lowered cholesterol in men, it did not produce a significant change in women."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Presented by Suzanne Hendrich, Kai Ling Kong, Zhong Ye, Xianai Wu, &  Sun-Ok Lee at the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2010, April 24-28, in Anaheim, CA.

Archived content from American Society of Nutrition Scientific Sessions at Experimental Biology 2010

Early Child-parent Attachment Affects Behavior, Especially For Boys

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 27, 2010

EXCERPT:  "The quality of the relationship between children and their parents is important to children's development, but past research on the link between attachment and development has been inconsistent. Now a new analysis concludes that children, especially boys, who are insecurely attached to their mothers in the early years have more behavior problems later in childhood."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

N.A. yet.  Pasco Fearon  March/April 2010  Child Development.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.

Health Reform Legislation Expected To Have Major Benefits For Women

SOURCE: Medical News Today

DATE:  March 25, 2010

Excerpt: "The health reform law (HR 3590) that President Obama signed Tuesday could have an "especially large" impact on women in the U.S., who make the majority of family health care decisions and generally live longer than men, Forbes Woman reports. According to the Department of Labor, women make an estimated 80% of health care decisions for their families. Women also tend to require more medical care over longer periods of time, and they have unique health care needs, such as pregnancy care."  more

RELATED LINKS:

National Partnership for Women & Families. 

Man Flu: Why Men Are The Weaker Sex Where Disease Is Concerned

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE: March 25, 2010

EXCERPT:  "Two UK researchers who developed a mathematical model to investigate why men appear to be the weaker sex where disease is concerned suggest there may be good reasons behind the "man flu" of popular imagination: it could be the result of evolution where ability to pursue adventure and be competitive has given them greater survival advantage than building immunity to disease."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Restif O, Amos W. The evolution of sex-specific immune defences. Proc Biol Sci. 2010 Mar 24.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.

Study On Physiological Responses To Stress Reveals Gender Difference

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 24, 2010

EXCERPT: "Age and gender play a major role in how people respond to stress, according to a new study on 20-to-64-year-olds. Published in the journal Psychophysiology, the investigation was led by scientists from the Universite de Montreal and the Montreal Heart Institute in collaboration with colleagues from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and McGill University."    more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Lévesque K, Moskowitz DS, Tardif JC, Dupuis G, D'antono B. Physiological stress responses in defensive individuals: Age and sex matter. Psychophysiology. 2010 Jan 7.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.

New Roche Elecsys Testosterone II Assay Goes One Better Than Conventional Assays With Improved Accuracy And Reduced Interference For Female Sample

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  March 24, 2010

EXCERPT:  "The new Roche Elecsys Testosterone II Assay delivers enhanced accuracy against the Gold Standard ID-GC/MS methods for female samples (ref1) (in the range of 0.025-1.5 ng/ml). With greatly reduced matrix effect and DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulphate) interference compared to conventional assays, this new automated testosterone assay ensures accurate and reliable results, allowing clinicians to make better clinical decisions about the care of female patients."   more

Painkillers Lower Estrogen Levels, May Explain Cancer Reduction Risk

SOURCE:  MedlinePlus.gov  (HealthDay News)

DATE:  March 23, 2010

EXCERPT: "Postmenopausal women who regularly take aspirin or other painkillers have lower estrogen levels than nonusers, a new study shows, which might explain a decreased risk of breast or ovarian cancer among these women.  ... The new study is the largest, Terry said, to look at aspirin and other analgesic use and measure blood levels of estrogen."     more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Gates MA, Tworoger SS, Eliassen AH, Missmer SA, Hankinson SE. Analgesic use and sex steroid hormone concentrations in postmenopausal women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2010 Apr;19(4):1033-41.

*Note: if you do not have access to this journal, contact your local librarian for assistance in accessing this article through library resources.