When we have a break from the holiday rush in December, many of us reflect on the year that just passed. Some stories may have gotten lots of attention while others were overshadowed. I chose 12 of the most important (or intriguing) women’s health topics of 2009. Click on the links for the full stories.
With the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, it was a scary time for all pregnant women who naturally have weakened immune responses. They were urged to get vaccines for H1N1.

Mammograms got quite a bit of attention late this year when the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended …read more

Depression affects much more than your mood. New research has shown there’s a very strong relationship between depression and bone loss in young women. The link is especially strong in those women who’ve been diagnosed with clinical depression by a psychiatrist.
Bone loss is dangerous since it may lead to osteoporosis, which increases the risk for fractures. Osteoporosis affects one in three women over 50, making it the most widespread degenerative disease in the developed world.

Since there haven’t been many large studies on the association between depression and osteoporosis, the US National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization haven’t …read more