Around 10 million women at high risk of breast cancer are eligible to take a drug called tamoxifen to prevent the cancer. Yet, very few women choose to take the drug for prevention.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center recently studied women at high risk of breast cancer who were eligible for the drug. They developed custom decision aids explaining the risks and benefits of tamoxifen for each woman in the study.

Despite the availability of information about tamoxifen, most women in the study elected not to take the cancer-preventing drug. Of the 632 women in the study, 80% …read more

Do you have a sexual health-related issue? Have you ever had one at some point? According to a new study, the majority of women in the U.S. (70%) have, at least once in their life. Of those, “22 percent felt very or extremely concerned about it.”

Now the question becomes, what exactly creates a sexual health issue? It can be a wide range of things, including:
“…lack of desire for sexual activity, inability to become sexually aroused, inability to have an orgasm, pain during intercourse, vaginal dryness, or excessive desire for sexual activity.”
Obviously, these issues affected other …read more

Today is the last day to throw your name into the hat to win 1 or 25 boxes of Replens Vaginal Moisturizer.
Reader response to this contest has been fantastic — 79 entries as of today (and we still have one more day to go). If you peruse the comment thread and you’ll see how important the issue of vaginal dryness is and why winning a product sample set would be such a score!
Here’s the original contest page. Just leave a comment on that post as your official entry. Good luck!

(Image: Replens)

On May 12 (geesh, time flies) I gave you all A Menopause Primer and promised you I’d have some resources for the women reading this blog battling menopausal symptoms as a result of your breast cancer treatment.
First, let’s review the symptoms of menopause, whether natural, chemical or induced:

Hot flashes and night sweats
Vaginal discharge or spotting
Vaginal dryness
Diminished sex drive and/or pain during intercourse
Urinary incontinence, UTIs or burning on urination
Insomnia
Mood swings (irritability, depression, anxiety)
Breast changes (shape, texture)

As I typed those I started to feel sorry for us all over again. In particular, those of us dealing with vaginal dryness.
Although I was told …read more