Meredith Vieira comes to New Jersey to promote women’s health

In one of her final appearances before a live audience as co-anchor of NBC’s Today show, Meredith Vieira — who is leaving her five-year successful run to pursue other challenges — came to central New Jersey on Wednesday to moderate a panel at the Healthy Woman’s Forum, a day for women to discuss “vital concerns and learn new, healthy practices that can boost confidence and competence both personally and professionally.”

Over 350 New Jersey women gathered at the Forum in West Windsor to listen to advice on how to lead more healthy and meaningful lives.

A segment of the Forum will air on Today on Tuesday, June 7th.

The Healthy Woman’s Forum is the brain and heart child of Joyce Hofmann and Sharon Rose Powell, Ed.D., two residents of the Princeton area. Hofmann has run the Princeton Weight Loss Corp. for over 25 years; Powell, directed the Princeton Center for Leadership Training for 22 years and now provides counseling through her firm, Princeton Psychological Partners, LLC.

The day’s goal was “to examine how to find balance in our daily living and promote our physical and mental health.” Workshops focused on promoting physical and mental health, including how to lose weight and keep it off, alternative approaches to medicine, the challenges of midlife and beyond, including menopause, raising children with less stress, and overcoming anxiety and fears.

Prior to the Vieira-moderated panel, we attended two of seven workshop offerings on promoting physical and mental health. I attended “Midlife and Beyond: Balancing Hormones, Emotions, Nutritional, and Metabolic Need” and “Matters of the Breast,” since I thought I might hear some sexual health discussion.

The “Midlife and Beyond” workshop, led by two physicians, focused on menopause and the controversial issue of hormone replacement therapy. The take-home messages of the workshop were that there’s nothing wrong with taking hormones safely, and an educated patient is an important part of the decision.

When sexuality finally surfaced in the session, the discussion focused on clinical aspects connected with women at midlife: painful intercourse, lack of desire, vaginitis, yeast infections, pelvic pain, and fibroids. Although one of the physicians mentioned the need for “adult sex education,” there was, sadly, no discussion about the emotional, non-medical aspects of sexuality at midlife, involving love, intimacy, and new relationships.

Similarly, the discussion in “Matters of the Breast” focused solely on the medical aspects of breast cancer. I understand this approach, as there were breast cancer survivors in the workshop who wanted the latest information about surgical choices, treatments, cure rates, reoccurrence, and how to have a positive attitude. Yet the subject of sexual desire after breast surgery and partners’ roles in post-surgical relationships never arose.

The workshop’s message was reassuring: Most lumps are not malignant and 75 percent of breast cancers show no family history. We also learned that about 200,000 cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year— the median age at diagnosis is 67 years. Twenty-two percent of new cases will be diagnosed among women 75 to 84 years old. (The message here: keep getting an annual mammogram.)

The physicians leading both workshops stressed the importance of good health practices that include diet and exercise in order to control weight gain and reduce the intake of estrogens, which are connected to breast cancer.

Vieira, who was introduced as “the warmest, most down-to-earth anchorperson in broadcast news,” moderated a star-studded panel. It included Anne-Marie Slaughter, Ph.D., who resumed her named professorship at Princeton university after doing a stint in Washington D.C. as director of Policy Planning in the U.S. Department of State; Amy Robach, the Saturday Today anchor and national correspondent for NBC Nightly News who lives in Hightstown, NJ; Andrew Shue, the actor who is married to Robach; Stephanie Byerly, M.D., a professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Dr. Kate Thomsen, M.D., who after a distinguished medical career started an innovative private practice in integrative health care for women in Pennington, NJ.

The panel discussed how busy women could find balance in their lives. Slaughter went so far to say that “women can’t have it all.” She recommended that they make choices and compromises, even giving up a dream job, as she has recently done, and redefining a career to accommodate family responsibilities.

Robach and Shue cautioned that “you don’t have to be your kids’ best friend.” (They became the poster couple for “blended families” after marrying; her two daughters and his three sons now live under one roof.) Their point was that hovering over children and trying to have them love you all the time puts undue pressure on adult parents. Shue went so far as to say “a parent’s job is to love a child, not necessarily the reverse.” They plan their lives so they have two kid-free days a week.

Dr. Byerly said that women have to learn to ask for help as well as give it and added that “most people don’t find themselves until they are 30.” Dr. Thomsen talked about her theory that change happens “in a spiral pattern: you make improvements and then fall back only to spiral up again.”

An audience member asked Vieira and the panelists how they defined success. The answers included such thoughts as “love and knowing that you are loved, making a difference to others, raising empathetic children, keeping your sense of humor, and making breakfast for my kids, every day.”

New funding law is easy to sidestep

Planned Parenthood cried foul after the Indiana General Assembly adopted a law that blocked funds to agencies that provide abortion services.

The matter is headed to court, but in the meantime, federal health officials have said Indiana can’t deny Medicaid funds to clinics because the agencies provide abortions.

State officials aren’t so sure and are preparing for court.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Planned Parenthood is not fighting this law to protect its women’s health clinics. They’re fighting to defend a woman’s right to receive an abortion. At least state lawmakers are honest enough to admit the fight is over abortion, not women’s health.

Planned Parenthood’s abortion services are funded privately, not through taxpayer money.

Medicaid funds pay for health screenings, contraceptives and reproductive health services to low-income clients.

The new state law pulled Medicaid funds from clinics that provide abortion services.

This fight over funding is avoidable and easily resolved without impeding women’s health or abortion services.

Planned Parenthood has argued that its health services — excluding abortion services — are vital to low-income clients, and we believe that to be true. But Planned Parenthood, which has been receiving private donations to continue its services since the law took effect last month, could easily continue to receive public funding for low-income clients if it ended abortion services.

It’s likely a relatively easy separation without a real distinction.

Much as religious-affiliated hospitals refer patients to specific clinics for services that contradicts their faith, Planned Parenthood could sever its abortion services. This would mean the abortion services would operate under a different name and different board members. Since funding for abortions is private, money would simply be donated to a different organization or clinic.

But Americans with a cause love a good fight.

Regardless of where one stands on the abortion issue, Planned Parenthood’s health screenings and clinics provide a valuable service that should be continued.

But rather than sidestep the new Indiana law for the greater good of providing health care to low-income women, the two sides are prepared to slug it out in court.

The body-image war

A survey done by Women’s Health Magazine found that the No. 1 priority among women isn’t to live long. It isn’t to have a successful marriage, either.

It’s being thin.

It seems as if it’s a never ending body-image war with women. An alarming 97 percent of women experience “I hate my body” thoughts daily, according to a Glamour Magazine poll.

Why?

Many times people blame celebrities, but they can’t shoulder all the blame, can they? At some point, experts say, individuals must take the responsibility upon themselves.

Good Day welcomed psychologist Dr. Lavinia Rodriguez, author of “Mind Over Fat matters,” to discuss the issue.

Quarter of new HIV patients are women

One in four new HIV infections in Ontario are among women, a new survey shows.

Even though there have been significant advances in HIV care, 25% of new HIV infections from 2006 to 2008 were in women, according to a health study by researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and St. Michael’s Hospital.

Marvelous Muchenje is one of the 4,700 women in Ontario living with HIV, most of whom contracted the disease through sexual contact.

“For women in some communities, it can be difficult to negotiate safe sex,” said Muchenje, 38, who is originally from Zimbabwe.

Women who emigrated from a country plagued by HIV make up more than half of the new infections in Ontario.

“HIV still has a stigma and some people don’t disclose to their sexual partner,” Muchenje said.

The findings, from Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER), say targeted prevention and intervention efforts are necessary to eliminate gaps and inequities in care for HIV patients.

“We have made real progress in preventing HIV infection and in treating people living with HIV, but we also identified several groups for whom important disparities persist, including older women, Aboriginal women, and women who have immigrated from countries where HIV is endemic,” Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, said. “We also identified differences related to poverty, injection drug use, and geography. Our findings suggest that addressing such factors will be important for delivering universal, high-quality HIV care in Ontario.”

The POWER Study is the first in Ontario to provide a overview of women’s health in relation to income, education, ethnicity and geography.

“The POWER Study HIV Infection chapter reveals important gaps in prevention, access and clinical care,” said Pat Campbell, CEO of Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario.

“Findings support the need for strategies to promote HIV prevention and testing directed at hard to reach groups,” she said. “We also need to improve access to care for women aged 55 and older to ensure earlier diagnosis and or earlier entry to care. At the same time, findings are helping to track improvements in care, evident in the high prenatal HIV screening rate (of 95%).”

High rates of prenatal HIV screening show a targeted program can achieve measurable improvements in care, said Dr. Arlene Bierman, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and principal investigator of the study.

“We need to develop programs that ensure that all women who are at risk are screened and when tests are positive that they receive HIV care in a timely manner. Routine monitoring of quality indicators will allow us to evaluate these programs,” said Dr. Bierman.

One in four new HIV infections in Ontario are among women, a new survey shows.

Even though there have been significant advances in HIV care, 25% of new HIV infections from 2006 to 2008 were in women, according to a health study by researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and St. Michael’s Hospital.

Marvelous Muchenje is one of the 4,700 women in Ontario living with HIV, most of whom contracted the disease through sexual contact.

“For women in some communities, it can be difficult to negotiate safe sex,” said Muchenje, 38, who is originally from Zimbabwe.

Women who emigrated from a country plagued by HIV make up more than half of the new infections in Ontario.

“HIV still has a stigma and some people don’t disclose to their sexual partner,” Muchenje said.

The findings, from Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER), say targeted prevention and intervention efforts are necessary to eliminate gaps and inequities in care for HIV patients.

“We have made real progress in preventing HIV infection and in treating people living with HIV, but we also identified several groups for whom important disparities persist, including older women, Aboriginal women, and women who have immigrated from countries where HIV is endemic,” Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, said. “We also identified differences related to poverty, injection drug use, and geography. Our findings suggest that addressing such factors will be important for delivering universal, high-quality HIV care in Ontario.”

The POWER Study is the first in Ontario to provide a overview of women’s health in relation to income, education, ethnicity and geography.

“The POWER Study HIV Infection chapter reveals important gaps in prevention, access and clinical care,” said Pat Campbell, CEO of Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario.

“Findings support the need for strategies to promote HIV prevention and testing directed at hard to reach groups,” she said. “We also need to improve access to care for women aged 55 and older to ensure earlier diagnosis and or earlier entry to care. At the same time, findings are helping to track improvements in care, evident in the high prenatal HIV screening rate (of 95%).”

High rates of prenatal HIV screening show a targeted program can achieve measurable improvements in care, said Dr. Arlene Bierman, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and principal investigator of the study.

“We need to develop programs that ensure that all women who are at risk are screened and when tests are positive that they receive HIV care in a timely manner. Routine monitoring of quality indicators will allow us to evaluate these programs,” said Dr. Bierman.

One in four new HIV infections in Ontario are among women, a new survey shows.

Even though there have been significant advances in HIV care, 25% of new HIV infections from 2006 to 2008 were in women, according to a health study by researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and St. Michael’s Hospital.

Marvelous Muchenje is one of the 4,700 women in Ontario living with HIV, most of whom contracted the disease through sexual contact.

“For women in some communities, it can be difficult to negotiate safe sex,” said Muchenje, 38, who is originally from Zimbabwe.
Women who emigrated from a country plagued by HIV make up more than half of the new infections in Ontario.

“HIV still has a stigma and some people don’t disclose to their sexual partner,” Muchenje said.

The findings, from Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER), say targeted prevention and intervention efforts are necessary to eliminate gaps and inequities in care for HIV patients.

“We have made real progress in preventing HIV infection and in treating people living with HIV, but we also identified several groups for whom important disparities persist, including older women, Aboriginal women, and women who have immigrated from countries where HIV is endemic,” Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, said. “We also identified differences related to poverty, injection drug use, and geography. Our findings suggest that addressing such factors will be important for delivering universal, high-quality HIV care in Ontario.”

The POWER Study is the first in Ontario to provide a overview of women’s health in relation to income, education, ethnicity and geography.

“The POWER Study HIV Infection chapter reveals important gaps in prevention, access and clinical care,” said Pat Campbell, CEO of Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario.

“Findings support the need for strategies to promote HIV prevention and testing directed at hard to reach groups,” she said. “We also need to improve access to care for women aged 55 and older to ensure earlier diagnosis and or earlier entry to care. At the same time, findings are helping to track improvements in care, evident in the high prenatal HIV screening rate (of 95%).”

High rates of prenatal HIV screening show a targeted program can achieve measurable improvements in care, said Dr. Arlene Bierman, a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and principal investigator of the study.

“We need to develop programs that ensure that all women who are at risk are screened and when tests are positive that they receive HIV care in a timely manner. Routine monitoring of quality indicators will allow us to evaluate these programs,” said Dr. Bierman.

Blumenthal Voices Support for Veterans and Women’s Health Care

Wednesday afternoon, Senator Richard Blumenthal attended a luncheon for the New Canaan League of Women Voters. The luncheon, which took place in a dining room at the Country Club of New Canaan, was without an unfilled seat.

Blumenthal began his discussion with his thoughts on women’s health, offering a short and concise idea of where he stands on this issue.

“Part of what I have been doing is stopping bad things from happening. It makes no sense to defund Planned Parenthood,” he said.

A good part of the room applauded, agreeing with the Senator’s statement.

“First of all, on the issue of abortion, only a small part of the work Planned Parenthood is doing is abortions. They provide cancer screenings and prenatal care,” he said.

With hospitals, Medicaid and Medicare on the minds of many, Blumenthal brought up the efforts of all three.

“We ought to be very proud of the hospitals in Connecticut,” he stated. “Medicaid is working to ease up on pressure in emergency rooms; I think that it will be a continuing effort in this area.”

With one-fourth of births in Connecticut funded by Medicaid, Blumenthal said government needs to make more of an effort to make both the experience of patients and hospitals easier. One of the hindrances he sees in making healthcare more accessible comes from the Consumer Financial Product Commission.

“Essentially, for opponents of Consumer Protection, coming forward is to rob and reduce funding,” Blumenthal said.

Senator Blumenthal on Veterans

Blumenthal spoke passionately on the state of United States military veterans.

“This country is failing its veterans,” he stated. “Tonight about 100,000 United States veterans will be homeless. One in four veterans in their twenties are unemployed, that’s double the rate of their peers. You are double as likely to be unemployed if you serve this country.”

Blumenthal, who is on the Armed Services Committee, has proposed a bill called Honoring All Veterans.

“This bill, I think, is really important,” Blumenthal said. “This is a bi-partisan issue that this country has an obligation to keep.”

Questions and Answers

After his prepared remarks, the League of Women Voters provided a list of questions for the Senator to answer. One question pertained to Blumenthal’s efforts to interact with other members of government and the way he goes about it.

“There’s no sort of set procedure,” he stated. “We talk frequently; I will see all of our congress men and women each weekend because we all come home. There is a school of thought that government worked better when people in my position couldn’t go home on the weekends. [Government officials and representatives] used to be captives in Washington,” he joked. “There’s nothing like a social relationship to soften the edges.”

Last Tuesday’s debt ceiling outcome was on the list next.

“I believe we do need to raise the debt ceiling, but also cut spending,” Blumenthal said. “We need to do it together. I believe there will be tough negotiations. We need to cut healthcare costs, we need to go after wasteful and unnecessary spending. There are millions, even billions of dollars that we have failed to recover. “

With Medicare stating it would not be able to satisfy its obligations by 2024, Blumenthal said action needs to be taken immediately.

“Reducing healthcare costs has to be done,” he told the group. “We need to eliminate waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

Other efforts that Blumenthal thinks would be beneficial to Connecticut are the continued manufacturing of submarines in Connecticut, continued fuel cell usage due to the fact that Connecticut is the fuel cell capital of the United States, and a potential energy policy put in place by the government.

Health Effects for Single Moms

Unmarried mothers face poorer health at midlife than do women who have children after marriage, according to a new study.

This is the first U.S. study, led by Kristi Williams, associate professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University, to document long-term negative health effects for unwed mothers.

About 40 percent of all U.S. births are to unmarried women, compared to fewer than 10 percent in 1960, Williams said. This suggests there will soon be a population boom of single mothers suffering middle-aged health problems.

“We are soon going to have a large population of single mothers who are entering midlife, when many health problems just begin to emerge,” Williams was quoted as saying. “This is a looming public health crisis that has been pretty much ignored by the public and by policymakers.”

In addition, the study suggests that later marriage doesn’t usually help reverse the negative health consequences of having a first birth outside of marriage. This calls into question that government’s effort to promote marriage among low-income, single mothers, at least in terms of the consequences for these women’s health.

In one analysis, the researchers used data on 3,391 and a second analysis involved data on 1,150 women. By 2008, the researchers had data on marriages and other unions for a 29 year period.

Most notably, the results shows Hispanic women who had a first child outside a marriage didn’t have the same negative health effects at 40 that white and black women did. Researchers believe this is because Hispanic women may have children out of wedlock, but it’s usually in a long-lasting cohabitation that mocks marriage.

“Research has clearly shown the toll that long-term stress takes on health, and we know that single mothers have a great deal of stress in their lives,” Williams said. “Their economic problems only add to the problem.”

“Marriage tends to help by providing women with economic and social support, but black women are disadvantaged in marriage in both of those respects,” Williams said.