Fact Sheets
Abortion and Breast Cancer
The Problem
Opponents of reproductive choice have been attempting to frighten women in recent years by touting a medically unsupported link between abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. Despite evidence to the contrary and lack of support for the claim from research scientists and breast cancer activists, anti-choice organizations have been trying to disseminate the message to women through advertising campaigns, so-called informed consent laws, and even through the National Cancer Institute.
Research Findings
Cervical Cancer and Pap Smears
See also our fact sheet on Vaccines for HPV and Cervical Cancer
If every woman in the world received adequate health care, almost no one would die of cervical cancer. Unless a woman's immune system is compromised, cervical cancer progresses very slowly and can be detected long before it is even potentially life-threatening. Effective treatments exist for pre-cancerous conditions and cervical cancer diagnosed at an early stage. And yet cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in the third world. In the United States 12,900 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and 4,400 women die of it. It is nearly twice as common in African American women as in white women(1).
Depo Provera and Bone Mineral Density
Depo Provera & Bone Mineral Density
By Susan K. Flinn, MA
For decades, women’s health advocates have been concerned about the safety of Depo-Provera, the progesterone-based contraceptive shot (the shot). Some of the earliest concerns sparked by findings from animal studies have been laid to rest by carefully conducted clinical research, like studies showing that Depo does not increase women’s risk of breast cancer.i The findings about Depo’s effect on women’s bone mineral density, however, continue to raise troubling questions about the safety of this drug.
Fast Facts on Generic Drugs
This factsheet was written in collaboration with PharmedOUT, an independent, publicly funded project that empowers physicians to identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices.
Fibroids
What are fibroids?
Common name: Uterine Fibroids
Medical name: Uterine Leiomyomata (pronounced you-ter-in lie-oh-my-oh-mah-tah)
Uterine fibroids are tumors or lumps made of muscle cells and other tissue that grow within the walls of the uterus. Fibroids may grow as a single tumor or in clusters. A single fibroid can be less than one inch in size or can grow to eight inches across or more. A bunch or cluster of fibroids can all vary in size. Uterine fibroids are the most common, non-cancerous tumors in women of childbearing age.
Herbs and Phytoestrogens
Many women, concerned about the health risks of synthetic hormones in conventional hormone therapy, are looking for natural alternatives. It's very important to know that products are not necessarily safe just because they're natural. The same questions we ask about drugs need to be answered for alternative therapies too: what is the specific reason to take it? Are there studies showing that it's effective for the recommended purpose? What are the risks associated with it?
Hot Flashes
Hot flashes are arguably the single symptom of menopause that aggravates women the most. And treating hot flashes is the only use of hormones that does not have a well-proven alternative.
Some women never have hot flashes. Others have mild or infrequent flashes. The worst sufferers experience dozens of hot flashes each day. Severe hot flashes can make it difficult to get a full night's sleep which in turn can affect mood, concentration, and cause other physical problems.
Hysterectomy
Hysterectomy in the United States: Facts and Figures
The United States has the highest rate of hysterectomy in the industrialized world, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hysterectomy is the second most frequently performed surgical procedure (after cesarean section) for U.S. women. Approximately 600,000 hysterectomies are performed annually in the United States, and approximately 20 million American women have had a hysterectomy [3]. Studies show that anywhere from 10 to 90 percent of hysterectomies performed in the United States are not medically necessary, evidenced by the fact that today, approximately 90 percent of hysterectomies are performed electively [2]. The National Women's Health Network (NWHN) believes that unnecessary hysterectomies have put women at risk needlessly, and that health care providers should recognize the value of a woman's reproductive organs beyond their reproductive capacity and search for hysterectomy alternatives before resorting to life-changing operations.
Mammography
By Cynthia Pearson, NWHN Executive Director
Sometimes the work of women's health activists is easy. We discover that a new procedure or service can help improve women's health; we advocate for all women to have access to it; we do everything we can to ensure that it is provided in a high-quality way; and then we celebrate the gains made. Sometimes it's more complicated, though, and the case of mammography screening for breast cancer is a painful example of a complicated women's health issue.
Menopause Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer
Estrogen/progestin combination hormone therapy causes breast cancer
On July 9, 2002, officials from the National Institutes of Health announced that one form of hormone therapy (HT), Prempro, had been found to cause breast cancer in previously healthy women. These women were volunteer participants in the Women's Health Initiative, the largest and longest ever trial of estrogen therapy (ET) and HT. Volunteers had knowingly accepted a possible increased risk of breast cancer in an effort to finally determine, more than fifty years after ET was first approved by the FDA, whether long-term use was beneficial. Just over 16,000 women participated in this section of the trial; half were given an estrogen/progestin combination in the form of Prempro, and the other half was given a look-alike placebo with no active ingredients.
