Calls for Submissions and Participation

A discussion of a Canadian case-control study

Tuesday January 8, 2013 at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern*

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment is hosting this educational teleconference on occupational exposures of women to chemicals and endocrine disruptors -- and therefore on links between occupational exposures and breast cancer specifically.

In November 2012, a landmark paper titled “Breast cancer risk in relation to occupations with exposure to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors: a Canadian case-control study” was published in the journal Environmental Health. In this groundbreaking study the authors showed that across all sectors, women in jobs with potentially high exposures to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors had elevated breast cancer risk and that premenopausal breast cancer risk was highest for automotive plastics and food canning workers.

The two key authors of this study, James Brophy, PhD and Margaret Keith, PhD will join Jeanne Rizzo, RN, President and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund and Charlotte Brody, RN, Associate Director, Health Initiatives, BlueGreen Alliance to discuss this study and its implications for the safety of workers and others and on occupational health policy on Tuesday January 8, 2013 at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern.

Find out more and register on CHE’s website.

Read more about this study and related information on CWHN's website, Women, Plastics and Breast Cancer

Registration is now open for National Eating Disorder Information Centre's special event to mark Eating Disorder Awareness Week.  

Monday, February 4th, 7:00pm-9:00pm

FREE ADMISSION

St. Clement's School, 21 St. Clement's Avenue, Toronto ON

Green P and street parking available on Castlefield Avenue

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Attitudes: Nourishing Self-Esteem in Adolescent Girls is geared toward parents and educators, and aims to help answer questions about how to help foster positive body-image in the young women in our lives. Our five-person panel will tell their stories and take questions from the audience in a roundtable discussion format. We hope that you come prepared with a question of your own, or a piece of wisdom to share with our community.

NEDIC will present the following panelists:

Jackie Grandy, Outreach & Education Coordinator, NEDIC

Sera de Reubis, recovered from an eating disorder

Lisa LaBorde, Lawyer & Mediator, parent

Karin Jasper, Clinical Mental Health Specialist, Eating Disorder Program, Southlake Regional Health Centre

They will also be joined by an educator to round out the panel. Merryl Bear, NEDIC's Director, will moderate. 

Please RSVP to nedic@uhn.ca to guarantee your seat at this unique community event and professional development opportunity.

The British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health is looking for an Administrative Assistant to join their team.  This position is flexible, part-time.

January 25, 2013

The Institute of Gender and Health’s Travel Awards competition is launched three times per year (April 2012, August 2012 and December 2012) through the Institute Community Support (ICS) Program. Through the travel awards program, IGH provides funding for trainees (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) to present their own research at national or international meetings, conferences or symposia. 

The application deadline for the winter competition is January 25th, 2013.  For further details on application deadlines, eligibility requirements and how to apply please visit their website. 

IGH’s research foci, eligibility requirements and funding levels are outlined in the “Partner Description” section of the travel awards funding opportunity.

On January 8 (1 pm EST) the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) is hosting a webinar featuring researchers James Brophy and Margaret Keith talking about their research into the relationship between plastics and breast cancer. 

Brophy and Keith were featured recently in Endocrine Disruptors in the Workplace: The Case of Women and Automotive Plastics Manufacturing, a webinar CWHN presented with the National Network on Environments and Women's Health (NNEWH). Brophy and Keith have been working for the past two years with NNEWH exploring breast cancer risks for women employed in plastics manufacturing.

To find out more about the upcoming CHE webinar and to register, please visit their website.

A new study is being conducted into factors associated with the wellbeing of people with fibromyalgia.

Chronic pain research has begun to show that processes such as acceptance, mindfulness and living according to personal values are associated with better outcomes for patients;  however, less is known about how these factors relate to fibromyalgia specifically. Participation in the study is open to anyone aged 18 and over with fibromyalgia and involves completing an anonymous online questionnaire, which takes about 20 minutes.   

For further information and the questionnaire, click here.

Principal Investigator:  Dr. Jerilynn Prior, UBC Professor of Medicine

The Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR), University of British Columbia (UBC), and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) are conducting a Progesterone Study for Women (35 – 58y) with hot flushes and night sweats.  Women living anywhere in Canada are invited to join.  You will keep a daily record of hot flushes.  You can participate in-person or from home.  You will receive study medication (progesterone or placebo) for 3 months. 

To participate you have:

§  Menstruated within the past 12 months

§  Moderate-severe hot flushes (4/day) or night sweats (waking 2/week)

§  Not taken estrogen, progesterone or birth control pills within the past 6 months

For more information please contact the research coordinator:

Andrea Cameron, RN BScN (604) 875-5960; Andrea.Cameron@vch.ca

Or visit: www.cemcor.ubc.ca

for a research study of an online support group for  women diagnosed with gynecologic cancer.

Are you a woman who has been treated for gynecologic cancer and do you struggle with any of the following? 
• Concerns about your body image
• Sexual issues or concerns
• Coping with the effects of gynecologic cancer on your self-esteem
• Navigating intimate relationships 
• Finding it difficult to talk about these personal issues with people in your life

Would you like to…  
• Connect with other women who have been treated for gynecologic cancer?
• Have a safe space to talk about the impact on your body image and sexuality?
• Learn new ways of coping?
• Learn how to enhance your relationships with friends and family?
• Build more self-awareness and self-understanding?

About the support group  
This is a 12-week, professionally-moderated group. The aim of this online support group is to provide a safe space for women to explore the impact of gynecologic cancer on their body image, sexuality and intimate relationships. The researchers hope that by increasing awareness of the ways being treated for gynecologic cancer may be affecting your life, you can begin to identify what would be helpful to support you in your journey towards health and well-being. 

You may be eligible to participate if you…
• Currently reside in Ontario
• Are a woman 18 years or older
• Received surgical, radiation, or chemotherapy treatment for any gynecologic cancer
• Are not currently receiving treatment
• Have been disease-free for at least 3 months
• Are no more than 5 years post-diagnosis
• Are experiencing concerns about the impact of cancer on your relationships, sexuality, and body image

The LGBTTQI Home Care Access Project is seeking 100 LGBTTQI people across Ontario to complete a web-based survey.

A significant number of LGBTTQI people are receiving health care in their home provided by personal support workers, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, etc. However, much is not known about their experiences, such as, do they feel comfortable enough to disclose their sexual orientation and/or their gender identity to their home care service providers, and if so, has disclosure impacted the quality of service received?

Andrea Daley and Judy MacDonnell at York University in Toronto have partnered with Rainbow Health Ontario and the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre to explore LGBTTQI people's experiences of using home care services across Ontario. The research team also includes academic partners from McMaster, McGill, and California State Universities. In addition, they are working with two community-based advisory committees.

Through an anonymous web-based survey they have begun exploring the experiences of LGBTTQI people who are 18 years or older, live in Ontario, and have used or are using home care services, through formal and/or informal means of support.

Interested participants can complete the survey online by clicking here.

Participation is confidential and anonymous.

Participants are offered a $20 honorarium.

The project team also offers paper copies of the survey, with pre-paid postage. To request paper copies of the survey, please contact them: lgbthome@yorku.ca or 647-236-1100

They are happy to assist in the completion of the survey. Please contact them to set up a time that works for you: lgbthome@yorku.ca or 647-236-1100

A "Concept Incubator" for Experimental Scientists

Deadline: 15 November 2012.

Meeting to be held in Toronto ON from 13-15 March 2013. 

Approximately 25 participants will be selected from among the applicants to attend the colloquium (as funding permits). 

This meeting is being organized by the CIHR Team in Gender, Environment & Health, and funded by the CIHR Institute of Gender & Health.

They are seeking applications from researchers working in any field of basic experimental biomedical research in Canada who want to participate in a conversation about how to appropriately account for sex and gender when undertaking laboratory-based research. 

For more information, please see the attached flyer, visit their website (www.sgcolloquium.ca) to download an application form, or email the organizers at sgcolloquium@nosm.ca.