What’s New

Gardasil – The first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer was recently released.  It is available for females ages 9 through 26 years old.  If your insurance does not cover it, it costs $150 per dose for 3 doses over a 6 month period, for a total of $450. This vaccine prevents the acquisition of the top 4 types of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the sexually transmitted disease that causes genital warts and cervical cancer.

Novasure –A 2 minute outpatient procedure that decreases the amount of bleeding a woman has each month.  It is administered by Dr. Klett in the OR under sedation. If your periods are heavy and you have completed your family, this may be the conservative procedure for you! In up to 70% of cases, the bleeding is stopped or significantly decreased. Only 10% or 1 of every 10 women may need to have a hysterectomy later if this procedure does not work. Have the surgery on Friday and return to work on Monday!

Retension of ovaries- Women under age 45 who have their ovaries removed, usually as part of a hysterectomy for non cancerous reasons, run a higher risk of dying from other disorders, Mayo Clinic researchers report in the largest analysis of its kind. The investigation, to appear next month in the journal Lancet Onocology, is a large scale look at what was accepted practice until recent years. 
Mayo Clinic researchers found that unless hormone therapy had been prescribed, the womans risk of death from all causes was 1.7 times higher than that for women whose ovaries remained intact.   The elevated death risk was mainly restricted to women who were not prescribed estrogen after the surgery until at least the age of 45 to offset the loss of natural estrogen produced by the ovaries.  Those who had their ovaries removed were more likely to die of breast cancer and cardiovascular disorders.  However, researchers also found an increased risk of denemtia and neurological disturbances, such as Parkinson's disease.--Newsday.

Folate Use Before Conception May Avert Preterm Birth - Folate supplementation for at least one year before preganancy was associated with a 50-70% decrease in the incidence of early spontaneous preterm birth in a large cohort study. The benefit of folate supplementation prior to conception was specific to early preterm birth and shows a strong dose-dependent effect, lead investigator Dr. Radek Bukowski reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. An observational analysis on the self-reporting of folate supplementation by 34,480 women showed that those who took folate supplements for at lease a year before conception had a significant reduction in the incidence of spontaneous preterm delivery compared with women who took no folate.