Dynamic Solutions For Women

Research by the Imperial College London has found, after studying the womb linings of over 100 women who were struggling to fall pregnant or who were suffering from recurrent miscarriages, that there may be an enzyme that increases fertility and miscarriage.
They refer to this enzyme as a ‘fertility switch’ – because it seems to ‘switch’ on fertility if high levels exist, and ‘switch’ off fertility (and therefore leads to miscarriage) if there are low levels of the enzyme present.
They say that this could explain otherwise ‘unexplained’ infertility in women – such women may have not enough levels of enzyme SGK1. Women with ‘unexplained’ infertility (i.e. women who do not have any obvious or apparent reasons, like polycystic ovary syndrome, for failing to get pregnant) account for about one in six women who are trying to get pregnant. About one percent of all women who are trying to conceive experience repeated miscarriage.
Lead researcher Professor Jan Brosens, said that the research paved the way for further work into how to reduce unexplained infertility and miscarriage:”I can envisage that in the future, we might treat the womb lining by flushing it with drugs that block SGK1 before women undergo IVF. Another potential application is that increasing SGK1 levels might be used as a new method of contraception.”
Infertility is defined as failure to conceive over a two year period or longer. It is believed to affect somewhere between nine and fifteen percent of women worldwide, more than half of whom will see a doctor with a view to improving their chances of falling pregnant.
The women in the study were found to have high levels of SGK1 if they were struggling to fall pregnant, whilst those with low levels of SGK1 were the ones who were suffering from recurrent miscarriages.
The researchers did some more tests, this time involving mice, and found that the levels of SGK1 fall naturally during the ‘fertile window’ (i.e. during the period of time in which it is biologically possible to fall pregnant normally). The researchers concluded that this natural decline in the enzyme was vital to allow embryos to be received by the uterus and develop into foetuses. They said that treatment to enable conception (which might involve blocking SGK1) would have to be carefully balanced so that enough SGK1 was allowed in the womb to ensure that the pregnancy ‘took’.

Anaemia is a condition that occurs normally when a person has too little iron in their blood. The iron deficiency might be due to a loss of blood (e.g. because of internal or external bleeding, or from very heavy periods over a long time). If a person’s diet does not have enough iron in it to replace the iron lost during a heavy bleed, anaemia occurs. Pregnant women often suffer from anaemia and are advised to take supplements only under the guidance of their GP.
Taking iron supplements (or eating food rich in iron) may not be sufficient to boost your iron levels, though. To absorb the iron properly and make the best use of it in your body you also need Vitamin B12 and folic acid (older people have difficulty in absorbing Vitamin B12 from their diets and may need supplements). You should also avoid drinking tea as the tannin in the tea and the calcium in the milk prohibit the absorption of iron into the blood.
There are other, less common causes of anaemia – for instance, damage to the bone marrow by leukaemia or aplastic anaemia can cause a deficiency in iron, or sickle cell anaemia which is an hereditary condition.
A person can suffer from anaemia for months without suffering any symptoms, but when symptoms do appear they tend to include:
lethargy
weakness
dizziness/faintness
headaches
shortness of breath
palpitations
brittle nails
sore mouth
pale appearance

People tend to get most of their iron from their diets via red meat, and vegetarians in particular have to take care to ensure that they get iron from other sources. Fortified cereals usually contain iron, and supplements are widely available off the shelf.
Treatment depends on the cause. If it’s simply a lack of dietary iron, then adjusting the diet to include iron-rich foods will help. These include:
red meat, liver
leafy green vegetables
eggs
dried apricots
oily fish like sardines
fortified breakfast cereals
wholemeal bread
The other nutrients essential for iron-absorption can be found in:
meat, poultry, cheese, eggs, fish, milk fortified breakfast cereals (Vitamin B12)
broccoli, leafy green veg, pulses, wheatgerm, nuts (folic acid)
Supplements are also widely available.
Vitamin C helps you to absorb iron, so drink orange juice or eat oranges.

October is Breast Awareness month and as always attention is being drawn by professionals to the need for women to be breast-aware and know the symptoms that might signify breast cancer.
A poll of 1,000 women conducted by Breakthrough Breast Cancer found that fifty per cent were afraid of breast cancer but twenty per cent could not name any signs or symptoms that might indicate that they had the disease. Fifty-six per cent of the women surveyed do not check their breasts regularly: most simply forgot, some had never thought to do so, and some said they didn’t know what they were supposed to look for.
There is no right or wrong way to check your breasts: just make sure you feel them regularly (including under the armpits) so that you know what is normal for you. Breast tissue is naturally lumpy and bumpy and so you need to familiarise yourself with what is normal for you so that you would spot anything new.
As well as feeling for new lumps or bumps, you should also check for any change in size or shape of your breasts, and for any inversion (turning-in) of the nipple.
An ambassador for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and former sufferer Bernie Nolan, said, “People assume finding a lump is the only way to spot breast cancer, but there are other vital signs women should be aware of. I noticed my breasts had changed shape and immediately went to see my doctor. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get to know your breasts so you can easily notice any unusual changes. I really want all women to learn about Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Touch Look Check message so they can be breast aware.”
Here are the signs you should look out for and that you should see your doctor about if you notice them:
any change in the size or shape of a breast;
dimpling of the skin on your breast;
a change in the shape of your nipple or if it turns inward when it doesn’t normally;
a lump;
discharge from the nipple, especially if it has blood in it;
a lump or swelling in your armpit;
a rash on the nipple or aereola.
These signs could indicate something harmless but need to be checked out because they can indicate cancer and the earlier you are seen the better your chances of full recovery.
There is another type of breast cancer that is relatively uncommon: inflammatory breast cancer has different symptoms – the whole breast can look swollen and red and be sore and/or hard. The skin can resemble orange peel. Another uncommon type is called Paget’s disease, the symptom of which is mainly a red, scaly rash that can be itchy – it can be confused for eczema.
Look out for all of these symptoms and examine yourself at least once a month. Choose the same time of your monthly cycle so that hormonal changes that may make your breasts change don’t make it harder for you to know what is normal.

For some women, their monthly cycle causes them no bother: they have a period once a month that is neither heavy nor painful; they do not suffer from bloating or mood swings or feel the need to eat all the biscuits in the house.

Others are not so fortunate, and suffer badly from what is known as ‘Pre-Menstrual Syndrome’ (or sometimes Pre-Menstrual Tension).

There’s a PMS Awareness Week, which this year is from 26^th September to 1^st October (though to be honest if you have PMS or live with someone who suffers from it, chances are you’ll be aware of it at least one week every month). It’s all about showing women that they are not alone in their constant up-and-downs of PMS.

Other symptoms aside from those listed above include breast tenderness, migraine, depression and increased aggression. Fortunately, there is a lot of good advice out there to help you to cope with PMS and allow your life to continue as normal.

• Even if you feel like sitting on the sofa with a hot water bottle, a cup of hot chocolate, some paracetamol and a packet of biscuits, that’s actually the worse thing you can do. Instead, you really have to get out there and get active. Go for a walk, a swim, anything that gets you moving and those lovely endorphins (‘happy hormones’) racing around your body. They are your body’s natural pain-suppressant. Exercise is also believed to maintain steady hormone levels if you do it frequently and regularly.
• Try alternative therapies such as agnus castus, which regulates your hormones (the key culprits in PMS).
• Minimise caffeine and alcohol consumption
• Eat fewer saturated fats, which make your body produce prostaglandins, which can increase sensitivity to pain.
• Try omega-3 fatty acid supplements. These were once thought of as ‘brain food’ that would boost intelligence and do all sorts. Not so, but they’re still good for alleviating PMS. If you’re not eating a balanced diet then at least take multi-vitamins and iron tablets daily.
• Taking the contraceptive pill can alleviate many of the physical effects of PMS.
• If depression, aggression and irritability are your main symptoms, you may want to talk to your doctor about being prescribed antidepressants. Some are specifically good at dealing with PMS-related moods.
• For really severe PMS, surgery may be an option if you have completed your family – removal of the ovaries is a permanent procedure that should only be considered after thorough discussion with your doctor and family.

Think of varicose veins and you might well think of elderly ladies with support stockings. However, they are in fact the blight of many women of all ages, and pregnancy can often be a trigger for developing them or making them worse. They are enlarged, blue/purple veins that protrude from the skin, usually on the legs and ankles.

They don’t necessarily require treatment – however, sufferers may feel acutely self-conscious about them but don’t wish to keep hiding their legs under trousers or long skirts. The NHS rarely funds treatment for varicose veins purely for cosmetic reasons, though, so if sufferers merely want to improve the appearance of their legs they would probably have to pay privately.

As well as for cosmetic reasons, sufferers may require treatment if they are painful or uncomfortable, or if they lead to complications like leg ulcers or swelling.

The treatments offered rather depend on factors such as the size of the veins, how bad they are and whereabouts on the body they are situated.

Treatments include:

Compression stockings: also known as support stockings. They squeeze the legs to improve circulation, encouraging the blood to flow up the leg to the heart rather than ‘gather’ in the veins. They don’t necessarily stop the veins getting worse or prevent more occurring. They can be uncomfortable to wear and many women don’t like wearing them because they are so associated with old age.

If compression stockings aren’t an option or aren’t helping, then surgery may be appropriate. It’s usually carried out under general anaesthetic but is normally a day procedure, meaning that unless patients react badly to the anaesthetic they won’t need to stay overnight.

The surgery involves “ligation and stripping” – the culprit vein is tied off from the rest of the circulatory system and removed. The other veins are more than capable of dealing with the removed vein’s workload. Possible side-effects include pain, bruising and bleeding, and in some cases the risk of deep vein thrombosis.

Another option is “sclerotherapy”, which involves injecting a chemical to scar the veins, sealing them closed. It’s less invasive than the above-mentioned surgery but only works well on small or medium-sized veins. It also has more potential side-effects, including: pain, blood clots, lower-back pain, brown patches discolouring the skin, temporary vision problems and headaches.

There are other therapies available, but not on the NHS. These are: laser treatment; transilluminated phlebectomies and radiofrequency ablations.

A wide-reaching study into the effects of the contraceptive Pill has been carried out by scientists at the UCI in America. Previous research has focused on the possible links between the Pill and the likelihood of developing or not developing certain cancers and blood clots. This research has focused on a rather different aspect: the effect of taking the Pill on the brain and memory.

One of the main findings was that taking the Pill causes women to remember things differently to those women who do not take the Pill. Women who take the Pill remember events in terms of the emotional impact they had, rather than on the details of the event itself.

The researchers presented women (some of whom were on the Pill and some who were not) with details of a car crash that involved a mother and a son. The women on the Pill remembered the basic details – like that there was an accident, that the boy had been taken to the hospital and treated – but the women not on the Pill remembered far more detail, such as that there was a fire hydrant next to the car, for example. However, the women on the Pill were much clearer on the emotional impact of the event than the others.

Women not using them remembered more details, such as a fire hydrant next to the car.

One of the researchers, Shawn Nielsen, said “It’s a change in the type of information they remember, not a deficit. What’s most exciting about this study is that it shows the use of hormonal contraception alters memory. There are only a handful of studies examining the cognitive effects of the pill, and more than 100 million women use it worldwide.”

Neuro-biologist and researcher Larry Cahill, explained that the possible reason for the findings was that the hormones oestrogen and progesterone (that are suppressed by the Pill) are linked to the ‘left brain’ memory (that which focuses on language). So if the hormones are suppressed by the Pill, the ‘right brain’ memory and processing (which is more emotional) kicks in to a greater extent.

The researchers stress that taking the Pill does not damage memory, it just changes its focus.

You may have seen franchise opportunities being advertised, but you might not be clear about exactly what they are, or how you would go about funding such a venture.

There are many different types of franchises which vary from teaching languages to running a magazine or teaching baby yoga classes. The set up costs for each franchise are very different, so it is important to do your research and find the right franchise opportunity for you.

Effectively, when you buy a franchise, you are buying a ready-made business model. This means you can set up your business within a matter of weeks and your business can easily be expanded, depending on how ambitious you are.

Franchises can offer much more flexibility than working a 9-5 job, but there are several things to consider before you decide to become a franchisee, including:

What skills do you have? Are you an entrepreneurial type? Do you find yourself watching Dragon’s Den and thinking that you would be far more organised/ambitious/savvy when it comes to your business? Be honest about your skills and whether you think you could make a business work. You need to be sure that you can make a decent go of your business.

Are you a team player? Although for many franchises this means working alone, you are still part of a wider business and you will have to regularly report on the progress of your franchise, and you will also have to pay regular fees. Are you going to be happy reporting back to others or would you prefer to take a self employed route?

Do you have a business plan? Being a franchisee means that you have to understand your market, make decisions that affect your business and have clearly defined targets. Are you prepared to be able to assess your targets, budget effectively and develop your business over a long period of time? Being prepared can be essential to a successful franchise.

Advice on drinking alcohol seems to swing like a pendulum from day to day: one minute it’s a deadly drug that will harm foetuses and cause everything from dementia to cancer; the next it’s a life-extending miracle drug that we should all consume every day.

The latest bit of research has found that for women, at least, consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol helps them to age better.

The researchers found that middle-aged women who consume 15.1 – 30g of alcohol per day (the equivalent of three small glasses of wine) have a good chance of living at least to seventy and not suffering from cancer or other chronic illnesses. Nor will they suffer major physical or mental impairment.

The women who drank steadily and regularly, rather than the odd binge, were around 50 per cent more likely to enjoy a healthy old age when compared to non-drinkers.

The report concluded that, “Moderate alcohol consumption was associated with modestly better overall health status.”

The current law that governs abortions is the Abortion Act of 1976. Over the years, numerous amendments have been suggested and generally vetoed. For instance, the latest date during the pregnancy that an abortion can be carried out legally is still 24 weeks’ gestation despite medical advances that mean that babies of that early gestation can survive.

The latest proposed amendment come in the form of the Health Bill, currently being debated by MPs. The basis of the proposal is that clinics that provide abortions should be banned from also offering counselling to women who are considering or seeking abortions.

The concern that led to the proposals being made was that clinics that offer abortions benefit financially if those abortions are carried out – if the woman chooses not to abort, then they don’t get as much money. MPs think that this presents a conflict of interest.

Those opposed to the changes say that if independent counsellors are required to give counselling, then pro-life groups could put pressure on women to not go through with abortions by giving pro-life counselling.

It’s expected that MPs will reject the proposal – amongst others, David Cameron has said that he will vote against the proposals, fearing that existing, well-known and respected counselling services will be forced to close.

Obesity seems to be linked with most illnesses and ailments, and the continued message from right across the board of scientists and researchers is that losing weight can only be good for you if you are currently obese.

Now, obesity can also be linked to the most common type of breast cancer (as can the other demons of drinking and smoking).  It is believed to be because obesity is closely connected with hormone levels in women after the menopause: the higher the hormone level post-menopause, the greater the risk of breast cancer. 

Researchers looked at around 6,000 women and asked about their weight, age, smoking and drinking habits.  The women did not have breast cancer.  Their hormone levels were tested and found to be higher in women who were obese, and in women who drank more than two-and-a-half units of alcohol a day, and in those who drank 15+ cigarettes per day.  If those lifestyle factors can increase the levels of hormones, said the researchers, then they are bad news for those hoping to avoid breast cancer, which is caused by higher levels of hormones.

There are other factors involved in the development of breast cancer, like physical exercise and the type of diet consumed, but these were not examined in the study. 

The overall, take-home message of the research was, as always, lose excess weight and cut down on smoking and drinking alcohol.