Online Women's Health

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, a quote by the famous Benjamin Franklin. This quote still holds true today, and it applies to all aspects of human life including medicine.   The purpose of a screening test is to have very high sensitivity and cost effectiveness in detecting diseases. Which means that a screening test should be able to detect diseases at earlier stages when the cure is much more feasible. Screening helps you spot diseases before symptoms even ensue. Some people can get scared of the idea of “knowing” that they may be at risk of a certain pathology, but trust me, the management is way less complicated the earlier the detection is. So, let’s go through the most common screening recommendations for women.   Cervical cancer Starting with one of the most preventable cancers worldwide. Cervical cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the developing countries. But if we look at the developed countries that have adequate scree...

(This article does not apply to couples having difficulty conceiving or infertility) Planning for a pregnancy? Why? Isn’t pregnancy considered to be a natural phenomenon? Well, yes! Pregnancy is natural.   One can believe that “whatever will be, will be” or as Doris Day sang “Que sera, sera!”, and actually as I previously mentioned in my post about birth control pills, around 50% of pregnancies in the states are unplanned. However, is there a benefit for planning your pregnancy? Are there any advantages for preparing your mind and body to embark on this journey? Planning your pregnancy falls under an important yet hidden aspect of obstetrics known as “ preconception counseling ”. A big proportion of couples are not aware of this facet of obstetrics, as most women present to our clinics after a positive home pregnancy test. Yet preconception counseling is as important as following the pregnancy itself. The objective is to identify the social, behavioral, environmental and me...

I cannot overstress the importance of contraception. Well actually the only thing more important than contraceptive methods, is women’s knowledge about them. More than 50% of pregnancies nowadays (in the states) are unplanned, and trust me the number is certainly not lower in our Arab countries.   In today’s post I will not be tackling all aspects of contraception (will be touched upon in future posts), yet I will focus on “the pill” with all its advantages, disadvantages, misconceptions and non-contraceptive benefits. To take you a bit back in time, Dr. Sanger, while in her 80s, funded the research necessary to create the first oral birth control pill. And it took us 10 years for the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) to approve the pill’s use as a method of birth control in 1960. Since that time the hormonal composition and concentration of the pills changed significantly. And nowadays we have tens of pill brands in the market ( Liao PV, Dollin J. Half a century of the ora...

What Happens During a Gynecologic Visit?! One of the most frequently asked questions by women worldwide is "what should I expect from my annual Gynecologic visit?".  Well the answer is simple; your gynecologist is your primary health care provider.  It is crucial for everyone to have his/her own health care provider, and the best one for women is their Gynecologist.  During your yearly visit, your Gynecologist will ask you basic general health questions (past medical history, past surgical history, social history (smoking, alcohol, drug use...), medications use, vaccination records and family history of diseases and cancers). Indeed, you may find these questions sometimes irrelevant to your chief complaint or reason for visit, however every question has its own worth and will guide your doctor for a better, more tailored plan of management.  Also your physician is expected to dwell more into any gynecologic concerns (abnormal uterine bleeding (ie. abnormal patters in...