Canadian Women's Health Network (CWHN)

Drug assessment specialist Dr. Barbara Mintzes looks at the ways women’s sexual difficulties are being repackaged as symptoms of a disorder called “female sexual dysfunction” in order to feed a marketing machine that promises to “cure” it. Dr. Mintzes and Ray Moynihan co-authored the book, Sex, Lies, and Pharmaceuticals.

Stongly questions the messages of the Make Death Wait campaign of The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada that branded menopause as a killer of women.

Reviews the book Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams. Breasts examines how our breasts and our environment are intricately related because breasts are made up of fat and glandular tissue and more easily absorb chemical toxins from the environment than do many other parts of our body.

Reviews the book The UNhysterectomy: Solving Your Painful, Heavy Bleeding Without Major Surgery by Holly Bridges. Bridges argues for a rethinking of gynecologists’ aggressive approaches to treating women’s gynaecological problems, in particular heavy menstrual bleeding. Using her personal story as well as other case studies, Bridges shows that heavy menstrual bleeding can be successfully treated through minimally invasive surgery. Compared to hysterectomy, the recovery time is much quicker and there are many fewer short and long-term side effects.

Discusses the history, philosophy and operations of Likhaan, one of the Philippine’s leading women’s health organizations. Likhaan works in three basic areas: delivery of primary healthcare through clinics for women by trained community health workers, support for grassroots organizing with women and youth groups, and research-based advocacy on national issues.

Network article that discusses the results of the study The Food Insecurity-Obesity Paradox as a Vicious Cycle for Women: A Qualitative Study by the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health. The study investigated the links between moderate food insecurity, overweight/obesity and chronic disease for women in Atlantic Canada, especially those in marginalized and vulnerable populations. 

Alcohol is a favourite drug for many people, and women may be having more problems with alcohol than many of us would like to think. Journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston spent a year talking with women, and learned that there is a global rise in women's drinking-what one eminent researcher calls a "global epidemic." For Canadian women, rates of risky drinking rose significantly for in recent years. (Risky drinking is defined as four drinks or more on at least one occasion in the past week.) Women drink to ease ease anxiety, deal with trauma, and much more. Risky drinking leads to a wide variety of short and long-term health challenges. Is this a new problem, or are we just becoming aware of it? What's the role of alcohol marketing? How can we help women define the blurry line between social drinking and alcohol addiction? 

In this webinar, CWHN Executive Director Anne Rochon Ford interviewed Dowsett Johnston about her research, including questions and comments from viewers.

Discusses the work of researchers Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith who have studied the links between cancer risk and occupation in the automovie plastics industry in Sarnia, Ontario. Much of the material used in this article is drawn from the chapter entitled “Plastics Industry Workers and Breast Cancer Risk: Are We Heeding the Warnings?” in the book Consuming Chemicals: Law, Science and Policy for Women's Health, edited by D.N. Scott and written by Brophy, Keith, and fellow researchers Robert DeMatteo, Michael Gilbertson, Andrew Watterson and Matthias Beck. 

Discusses the emotional and physical health effects of alcohol for women. Examines how alcohol is specifically marketed to women, and the consequences for women of the high social acceptance of drinking in our culture. Written by journalist Ann Dowsett Johnson who researched woman and alcohol as a recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy.

Explains the current issues with mammography scrrening and summarizes the evidence about it. Discusses the recent controversies about the guideline on screening for breast cancer for average-risk women (aged 40 to 79) that was released in late 2011 by The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. This guideline updated screening recommendations made by the Task Force’s predecessor, the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination, in 2001. The focus of the guideline is on mammography screening, but the guideline authors also recommended against clinical breast examination (by physicians) and breast self-examination by patients.