North America | United States | Corruption

FDA: Government Recommends Untested, Unlicensed Vaccines for Pregnant Women

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In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the FDA has admitted, for the first time, that government agencies, including the CDC, are recommending vaccines for pregnant women that have neither been licensed for pregnant mothers by FDA nor tested for safety in clinical trials. The lawsuit, filed by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) attorney, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on behalf of Informed Consent Action Network(ICAN), a vaccine safety advocacy group, sought all clinical trial data used by FDA to approve influenza vaccines for pregnant women. The FDA’s terse reply: “We
North America | United States | Medicine

Nursing Student Kicked Out College For Refusing to Lie about Vaccines (Audio)

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Nichole Rolfe, formerly Nichole Bruff, was a nursing student at Baker College in Michigan who dreamt of being a nurse practitioner of midwifery before the nursing department’s director dismissed her–shortly before she was to graduate–after Rolfe questioned instructors who were teaching students to lie to patient’s in order to coerce them into getting vaccinated. Nichole spoke with Robert Scott Bell about her story
North America | United States | Medicine

Newborn infants experience psychiatric drug withdrawal

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Babies born to women with psychotic disorders often have the deck stacked against them. Their mothers tend to receive less prenatal care; have poorer nutrition; use more tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs; are unlikely to be married; and often have limited social support. New labeling recently promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that these babies may also be susceptible to withdrawal symptoms from their mothers' antipsychotic medications, but some practitioners fear the results of those warnings will be worse than the symptoms of withdrawal. Last month the FDA poste
North America | United States | Health

10% of Pregnant Women Drink Alcohol, Study Finds

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More than 10 percent of pregnant women in the United States, and 18 percent of pregnant women age 35 and older, say they drank alcohol in the past month, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What's more, among all pregnant women who reported drinking alcohol, about a third reported binge drinking, meaning they consumed at least four alcoholic beverages on one occasion, the study found. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is a health concern because it can cause birth defects and developmental disabilities in babies, and increase the risk of comp
Europe | U.K. | Health

Women more likely to die after heart attack treatment, say researchers

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Women are more likely to die following heart attack treatment than men, research has found. They are also less likely to have an angioplasty procedure, a procedure to widen blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to get the blood back flowing to the heart, a study carried out by the Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre discovered. Experts said this could be down to the fact that women tend to be older when they suffer heart attacks, and are also more likely to be diabetic. They suggested, however, that the fact that fewer women undergo angioplasties could be down to the “wrong attitude o
North America | United States | Health

Are Thousands of Women Getting Mastectomies When They Don’t Need to?

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You might have heard about the latest cancer findings, which were published in the medical journal JAMA Oncology and expertly explained by The New York Times. In short: A massive 20-year-long study found that hoards of women who got lumpectomies or mastectomies to remove abnormal breast cells (which are generally considered a precursor to breast cancer) were just as likely as the average woman to die of breast cancer within two decades. The new research completely conflicts with the common sense that removing abnormal breast cells (i.e., ductal carcinoma in situ or D.C.I.S.) whic
Europe | Great Britain | Career

Maternity leave discrimination means 54,000 women lose their jobs each year

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Women returning from maternity leave are more likely to face discrimination in the workplace than they were a decade ago, according to a report published today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The study by the EHRC estimates that around 54,000 new mothers are losing their jobs across Britain every year – almost twice the number identified in similar research undertaken in 2005. It also found that 10% of women were discouraged from attending antenatal appointments by their employers, putting the health of mother and baby at risk. Caroline Waters, deputy chair of the EHRC,
South Asia | New Zealand | Health

Anti-depressant use during menopause ‘raises risk of broken bones’

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Women who take common anti-depressants to counter the impact of menopause may have a 76 per cent higher risk of broken bones, scientists warn. The risk appears to last for several years after women take the drugs, leading to calls for doctors to reduce the period for which they are prescribed. For many women, the onset of the menopause triggers mood changes and depression, and each year thousands are prescribed a type of anti-depressant called SSRIs - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the best known of which is Prozac. The drugs are also sometimes prescribed to help women cope
North America | United States | Health

Many African-American women ‘silent and alone’ with infertility

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Researchers from the University of Michigan exploring the experiences of African-American women coping with infertility have found that many experience infertility in silence and isolation from friends and family. The study, published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, also found that infertility impaired many of the women's sense of self and gender identity. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are an estimated 6.7 million women ages 15-44 in the US with an impaired ability to get pregnant or carry a baby to term. Around 1.5 million married women ages 15-
Europe | U.K. | Health

Thousands of teenage girls enduring debilitating illnesses after routine school cancer vaccination

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When Caron Ryalls was asked to sign consent forms so that her then 13-year-old daughter, Emily, could be vaccinated against cervical cancer, she assumed it was the best way to protect Emily’s long-term health. Yet the past four years have turned into a nightmare for the family as Emily soon suffered side effects. Only two weeks after her first HPV injection, the teenager experienced dizziness and nausea. “The symptoms grew increasingly worse after the second and third injections, and I went to A&E several times with severe chest and abdominal pains as well as difficul
Latin America | Peru | Corruption

Peruvian women haunted by forced sterilisation seek state apology

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Government health workers spent hours going from door to door to coax, cajole and bully women in a farming community in Peru's highlands to come with them for free medical treatment. Esperanza Huayama, then three months pregnant, was one of scores of women who clambered onto buses that morning 20 years ago for the three-hour ride to a clinic. Lying in a hospital bed, Huayama soon realised something was wrong - but it was too late. Moments later doctors administered anaesthetic and when she woke up, Huayama had been sterilised - victim of a birth control campaign targeting mostly indig
Europe | Great Britain | Ethics

‘Consent in childbirth is a joke’: How British women are silenced in the delivery room

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The case of an American woman, who was unwillingly cut by doctors during birth, has shocked many. But this problem isn't confined to the US, says Milli Hill. British women find it just as hard to get their voices heard. Two years ago, in a California hospital, a woman named Kelly was told she needed an episiotomy while giving birth. Kelly questioned the decision to make the cut in her perineum – between her vagina and anus. “I haven’t pushed yet”, she exclaimed. But the doctor approached her with scissors, saying, “I’m the expert here”. Although the 27-year