You’re not going to believe what I just read!

According to a new study by the not-for-profit National Women’s Health Resource Center (NWHRC), the nation’s leading source for women’s health information, women who are dissatisfied with their overall physical appearance are significantly less likely to be up to date with preventive screenings, such as mammography and breast self-exam.

Oh goodness … this worries me so much. Just another reason to believe that developing a positive body image is key to a woman’s health and wellness.

So this seems this is a good time to ask yourself a few questions, questions posed by a few blogging colleagues of mine in the past, that I thought I’d revisit here:

1. Do you feel good in your own skin?

2. Does the thought of seeing yourself nude strike fear in your heart?
3. Need a confidence boost?

Please love your body enough to go for preventative screenings and conduct breast self-exams. Please.

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: Blisstree

How your body image and breast health are related

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 I’d experience vaginal dryness when I went through menopause, nobody told me what it would feel like.

Nobody told me that my vagina would literally feel so dry it would ache … sometimes hurt.

I used to have a slight sensation of dryness on the last day of my period, as the estrogen level in my body dropped I suppose, and inserting/removing a tampon became terribly uncomfortable. Well, vaginal dryness is that same feeling … magnified.

Vaginal dryness can cause discomfort, itching, burning, soreness, even chronic pain.

Have you experienced vaginal dryness as a result of your cancer treatment? Let me know (so I know I’m not alone!)

Anyway, onto the giveaway … knowing that vaginal dryness is a common problem for women under going cancer treatment, the folks at Replens want to help me give samples away to Pink Ribbon Review readers!

Replens Vaginal Moisturizer is NOT a lubricant; a lubricant provides temporary assistance for intercourse. I’ll get to that next week. (And have I got a product for you!)

Replens offers immediate relief from vaginal dryness that lasts up to 3 days. In addition:

• It’s hormone free (you KNOW that is important to us)
• It comes in a pre-filled applicator ready to be inserted (much like a tampon)
• It’s available over-the-counter (almost anywhere personal care products are sold)

To enter the giveaway … simply leave a comment on this post and I’ll randomly choose 25 people to send samples to. I might mail a coupon to the rest of my readers as a consolation prize … probably depends on how many people I get in the competition.

I reserve the right to delete any comment that I feel is inappropriate (if my SPAM filter doesn’t do that for me). You have until midnight on August 31st to enter. Good luck!

(Image: Replens)

Post from: Blisstree

Pink Ribbon Giveaway: Win 1 of 25 Boxes of Replens

(Source: Komen)

Post from: Blisstree

A Breast Cancer Statistic

(Source: Komen)

Post from: Blisstree

A Breast Cancer Statistic

Who here has a pocket folder full of information and notes that you put together when you were first diagnosed with breast cancer? A 3-ring binder? A manilla folder hanging in a Pendaflex file?

Well, take a look at this …

A Survivor’s Guide for the Breast Cancer Journey, by Kim Regenhard, was released in April 2008.

The journal, from RiverStone Journals, and in collaboration with Day-Timer, is specifically intended to help women newly diagnosed with breast cancer understand, organize, plan and record their journey from diagnosis through recovery.

Kim herself was diagnosed in 1998, treated with a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Upon her recovery, she took it upon herself to develop a tool that will help others navigate the physical and emotional course of cancer.

“I felt compelled to create a handbook that would make the battle with cancer less burdensome for those diagnosed,” said Kim.

This beautiful hard cover (faux suede, by the way; feels awesome to someone who is tactile like myself), spiral bound book — 86 pages in total — also features beautifully photographed survivors. Kim worked with The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation as well, to include information pertinent to survivors — including terminology and medical explanations of pathology and treatment options.

It’s available online for $39.95. (A portion of the proceeds from A Survivor’s Guide for the Breast Cancer Journey sales will be donated to breast cancer research, education and advocacy.) This would make a great gift for anyone newly diagnosed. Yup, wish I had one when I was first told I had cancer. Absolutely, indeed!

Here are a few of the journal’s special features:

• Calendar to plan and manage your schedule

• Directory to organize important contacts
• Compartments to collect critical information
• Questions to ask your medical providers
• Tips and advice from survivors
• Ample space to reflect on your experience
• Inspiring pictures and quotes
• Resources and breast cancer-related organizations
• Special section for caregivers

This journal is a gift from Kim to you … a gift from someone who has walked and survived to someone taking her first steps.

Literally, it’s a gift. I’m giving one Pink Ribbon Review reader a copy of A Survivor’s Guide for the Breast Cancer Journey.

All you have to do to qualify to win is leave a comment here explaining your diagnosis and including the date you were diagnosed — I’ll choose one commenter on Sunday, August 3rd, and post the winner for all to see and celebrate.

Thanks Kim, for bringing this journal to our attention.

(Image: RiverStone Journals)

Post from: Blisstree

Who Wouldn’t Want A Survivor’s Guide for the Breast Cancer Journey?

From the press release I received today:

Breastcancer.org, the world’s most-trafficked website for breast cancer news and information and one of the world’s leading online communities for breast cancer patients, announced today a major re-launch of its website and brand.

Isn’t the redesign out of this world? What a resource and what a great new look!

BREASTCANCER.ORG, for those of you who don’t know, is a fantastic site with an emphasis on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and side effects — a haven for researchers like myself — and a humungous online discussion group system. The site has more than 4,000 pages of original medical content — and they serve more than 8 million visitors each year.

So let me ask … do you like it?

(Image: breastcancer.org)

Post from: Blisstree

Extreme Makeover: Website Edition

Check it out!

Post from: Blisstree

Women’s Health Newsflash at Lively Women

US researchers have acknowledged that poorer women have a greater chance of dying from breast cancer than those who are financially better off.

A study was conducted with 14,000 breast, prostate and colorectal patients — and clearly indicated that socioeconomic status affects a person’s chances of survival. Here’s a quote from a Washington Post article on the subject:

“The study found that cancer patients with low socioeconomic status had more advanced cancers at time of diagnosis, received less aggressive treatment, and had a higher risk of dying within five years of diagnosis.”

The link between race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status is well known — for instance, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in poorer areas of this country than whites. Now that is directly translating to cancer survival.

Pink Ribbon Readers, survival starts with screening — regular breast self-exams, mammography, visits to a medical professional. Early detection is the key to living long beyond this diagnosis.

Unfortunately, lower income individuals are less apt to implement these screening measures and are therefore suffering the consequences. But why … are they uneducated? Do they have lower quality medical care? Are they in denial?

What do you think? Why are poorer individuals screening less and dying more often?

Post from: Blisstree

Poorer Individuals Less Likely to Survive

Did you know that African Americans have the highest death rate from breast cancer of any racial/ethnic group in the U.S.? So while 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, African American women are more likely to die from the disease. This seems to warrant some special attention.

Susan G. Komen is on the job!

Komen for the Cure’s Circle of Promise campaign is designed to engage African American women to help end breast cancer forever by fostering increased awareness, support, empowerment and action.”

Today it was announced that leading African-American actresses, Gabrielle Union has agreed to partner with Circle of Promise and serve as an ambassador to the African American community:

“The fight against breast cancer is very personal for me. I have been touched by this disease as I watched girlfriends deal with their breast health concerns,” said Union. “Being part of their fight inspired me to raise my voice and become an ambassador to help other women. Black women face unique issues when it comes to breast cancer — it’s important to know the facts. We’re our own best health advocates.”

Union is joining some other national ambassadors, like Synthia SAINT JAMES and Lalah Hathaway.

This program launched in October 2007 — they are working to recruit 100,000 African American women to join the Circle … if you are interested in joining this initiative and doing your part in the African American community, click here.

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: Blisstree

Gabrielle Union Joins the Circle of Promise

You probably heard about the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, maybe even skimmed a recent news story about it. But maybe, like me, you didn’t quite understand what it was all about?

I mean, here’s what crowded my brain: Hasn’t this been around for a while? Haven’t they implemented this yet? Hasn’t it been years since this first hit the scene?

The answers? Yes. No. Yes. Let me explain:

The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act was first introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT — pictured on right) in 1996, after she met with Dr. Kristen Zarfos, a Connecticut surgeon who found herself constantly battling with insurance companies to keep her breast cancer patients in the hospital following mastectomy surgery.

The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act would:

• Guarantee a minimum hospital stay of 48 hours for a woman having a mastectomy or lumpectomy, and 24 hours for a woman undergoing a lymph node removal;
• Require health plans to include notice of these benefits in their monthly mailing and yearly information packet sent to plan participants;
• Require plans to provide full coverage of second opinions should the patient seek one.

The bill does not mandate a 48 hour hospital stay; nor does it set 48 hours as a maximum amount of time a woman can stay in the hospital. It simply ensures that any decision in favor of a shorter or longer hospital stay will be made by the patient and her doctor. This bipartisan bill is modeled after the carefully crafted and widely-supported legislation that ended “drive-through” deliveries.

So this began twelve years ago and DeLauro has introduced the legislation in every meeting of Congress since that time. Congress meets every year. I think DeLauro gives tenacity a new name. Good for her.

Okay, up to the latest news: last week, there was an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing and they listened to testimony from DeLauro and others on the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act.

Alright, it made the news, but we need to realize, this was just another committee hearing. Right now, this is just a bill, this isn’t a law (yet). Remember School House Rock?

“I’m just a bill, yes I’m only a bill, and I’m sitting here on Capital Hill.”

Congress has to debate this bill, the House of Representatives has to debate this bill, the Senate … the President. So we’ve got a ways to go with this one.

DeLauro is working her butt off to get this particular bill a step closer to the White House. What can we do to help her mission? Well …

More than 11 million Americans have signed a petition organized by Lifetime Television calling for passage of this legislation.

You can view (and sign) that petition here at myLifetime.com.

Or, better yet, do what I just did and contact your congressional representative and tell him or her you want to see this bill become a law!

(Source: Reuters)

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: Blisstree

Understanding the Breast Cancer Protection Act