News and Issues

Ann Silversides has won an award for her excellent article on the pros and cons of mammography that she wrote CWHN’s Network in 2012.

Mammography screening: Weighing the pros and cons for women’s health has been awarded “Best Online Story” in 2012 by The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO).

Our congratulations to author Ann Silversides!

A recent study has found that there are widespread problems in how ovarian cancer is treated in the U.S. The U.S. based study found that most women with ovarian cancer there receive inadequate care.

Read the story in the New York Times, Widespread Flaws Found in Ovarian Cancer Treatment

The CWHN asked Kelly Grover of Ovarian Cancer Canada to comment about whether this study also reflects the state of ovarian cancer treatment in Canada. Grover noted that “similar issues around treatment persist in Canada, although we don't know the extent of it without research comparable to this study being done here.”

The Canadian Medical Association Journal recently quoted CWHN's Executive Director Anne Rochon Ford in an article discussing the dangers of Diane-35. This prescription drug, manufactured by Bayer, is a hormonal treatment prescribed to treat acne and is commonly prescribed "off label" as an oral contraceptive.

At the end of January 2013 the National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products (ANSM) in France stopped sales of the drug Diane-35 due to safety concerns, including the deaths of four women from blood clots. At the same time, Health Canada announced that it will review the safety of Diane-35 in Canada in light of the decision in France. 

Read Scrutiny of Diane-35 due to potential dangers of off-label prescribing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), February 19, 2013.

Read about the French decision in the Telegraph and about Health Canada's announcement on the CBC website.

And read about the work of CWHN's partner Women and Health Protection in 2004 related to the safety concerns about Diane-35.

A recent article in HealthNewsReview (a site that examines the accuracy of health news reports) shines a light on misleading stats that are being used to promote mammography.

CWHN has covered this issue recently. Learn more about the controversies about breast screening here:

Mammography screening: Weighing the pros and cons for women’s health

Breast self-examination: What it means and why the thinking about it has changed

Read more about breast health and breast cancer on our website:

Women, Plastics and Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Prevention

Not a flower shop: Exploring breast cancer risk and gender bias

Book Review - Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams

Being proactive about your breast health

A short video by Operation Maple explains clearly some of the recent ground-breaking research in Canada linking women who work in plastics manufacturing with higher rates of breast cancer.

Featured are Robert DeMatteo and James Brophy who, with Margaret Keith, partnered with The National Network on Environments and Women's Health (NNEWH) to study health risks of women working in the automotive plastics workers in the Windsor, Ontario region.

Watch the video on YouTube.

Read more about the NNEWH research on our website: Women, Plastics and Breast Cancer.

 “For years, women have been told we are responsible for our own orgasms; no one can hand it to us on a silver platter. And most of us can manage to get there very nicely on our own, thank you…”

Intrigued?

In her latest blog on our website, sex health educator Lyba Spring is thinking – and writing –  about orgasms.

Read what Lyba's been thinking about.

The ground-breaking work of the National Network on Environments and Women's Health (NNEWH) on endocrine-disrupting chemicals has been making the news lately.

Their recent research on how these chemicals affect our health was featured in a recent issue of NOW magazine.

Read What’s being done about hormone-disrupting chemicals?

To learn more about chemicals and women's health, check out NNEWH's website.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported February 8 that a law firm representing more than 300 Canadian women who have suffered painful complications due to transvaginal mesh implants will file a class-action lawsuit in a Winnipeg court this week.

Manufacturers of the mesh face several recent lawsuits both in Canada and the United States, due to claims of complications from the mesh, including perforation of the vaginal walls, pain, urinary problems, bleeding and the recurrence of prolapse and/or incontinence.

The transvaginal mesh is implanted to correct pelvic organ prolapse, a condition in which pelvic organs bulge (prolapse) into the vagina, and to treat stress urinary incontinence.

Read the story in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Read more about the transvaginal mesh on Our Bodies, Our Blog.

FGM is affecting about 140 million girls and women, and more than 3 million girls are at risk every year. A special focus for the World Health Organization this year is the troubling trend of health-care providers increasingly being the ones performing female genital mutilation, and thereby contributing to legitimize and maintain the practice.

Read more about it.

On January 30, 2013 the National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products (ANSM) in France stopped sales of the drug Diane-35 due to safety concerns, including the deaths of four women from blood clots. Diane-35 manufactured by Bayer is a hormonal treatment prescribed to treat acne and commonly prescribed "off label" as an oral contraceptive.

Health Canada announced the same day that it will review the safety of Diane-35 in Canada in light of the decision in France. 

Read about the French decision in the Telegraph and about Health Canada's announcement on the CBC website.

And read about the work of Women and Health Protection in Canada back in 2004 related to the safety concerns about Diane-35.

On February 19 the Canadian Medical Association Journal quoted CWHN's Executive Director Anne Rochon Ford on Diane-35.

Read Scrutiny of Diane-35 due to potential dangers of off-label prescribing (Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), February 19, 2013)