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.