Babies abroad

France is revisiting its limits on in vitro fertilization, or IVF, in the wake of stories about a 59-year-old woman who sidestepped national regulations by going to Vietnam for the treatment.

She is expecting triplets.

IVF in France is only available to women 43 years old and younger. Unwilling to accept that, the woman went to Vietnam for the treatment. She is now being treated under France's medicare system at Cochin Hospital in Paris.

French bioethicists condemned the woman's actions.

"Certainly we are seeing a change in society where the age to get pregnant naturally is rising but everyone must understand that you cannot have a child at any age," said Sadek Beloucif, president of the ethics board of the l'Agence de la Biomédecine.

Floxin

Floxin

Generic Name: ofloxacin (oh FLOX a sin)

Brand Names: Floxin

What is Floxin?

Floxin is in a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. This group of antibiotics is used to fight bacteria in the body.

Floxin is used to treat bacterial infections that cause bronchitis, pneumonia, chlamydia, gonorrhea, skin infections, urinary tract infections, and infections of the prostate.

Floxin may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Important information about Floxin

You should not use Floxin if you are allergic to ofloxacin or similar antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), norfloxacin (Noroxin), lomefloxacin (Maxaquin), and others.

Ottawa signs deals to supply pandemic flu vaccine

The federal government has announced a new 10-year pandemic flu vaccine contract with GlaxoSmithKline, valued at more than $425 million, as well as a deal with a backup supplier, Sanofi Pasteur.

The contracts are intended to ensure a secure supply of vaccine for Canadians in the event of a future influenza pandemic and to reduce the possibility of delays in delivery and distribution.

Vaccine production is fickle,” said Dr. John Spika, director general of the centre for immunization and respiratory infectious diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

You never know when something could happen, so just from a supply standpoint it’s always nice to know that you have another supply to turn to if problems should arise.

Tetracyclic Compounds - An Antedepressant Agent

Type of Drug:

Antidepressant; mood-elevating agent.

How the Drug Works:

The exact mechanism of action is not known. It is believed that tetracyclic antidepressants adjust or balance how the brain and nervous system produce and respond to natural chemicals (neurotransmitters) that elevate mood.

Uses:

Maprotiline: To treat depressive illness in patients with depressive neurosis (dysthymic disorder) and manic-depressive illness (major depressive episode).

Mirtazapine: To treat depression.

Unlabeled Uses: Maprotiline is also effective for the relief of anxiety associated with depression.

Precautions:

Do not use in the following situations:

Treatments for Arthritis: Which are Fact or Folklore?

For the millions of Americans who suffer from arthritis, managing joint and muscle pain can be a daily struggle. There are several methods of treating arthritis, from lifestyle changes to prescription medications to herbal supplements. Choosing the best treatment plan depends on separating fact from fiction. The following guide outlines some of the most common treatments for arthritis.

Analgesics

The Claim: Analgesics are some of the most common treatments for arthritis related pain. Analgesics, like acetaminophen, inhibit the body's pain receptors and reduce the experience of arthritis-related pain.

Young people most at risk for radiation cancer

Thyroid cancer for sure. Leukemia, probably. Too much radiation can raise the risk of developing cancer years down the road, scientists agree, and the young are most vulnerable. But just how much or how long an exposure is risky is not clear.

Those are among the unknowns scientists are contemplating as the crisis unfolds at Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant.

In Japan, the Science Ministry said radiation levels about 30 kilometres northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant rose at one point Friday to 0.15 millisieverts per hour, about the amount absorbed in a chest X-ray. But levels have been fluctuating, and radiation at most sites that distance from the facility have been far below that.

Seniors Largely Spared of Swine Flu

MIAMI -- Seniors who for years have made flu shots a fall ritual are being sent to the end of the line for the swine flu vaccine. And the reason -- their age group seems to have a bit of immunity -- appears to have warded off most potential grumbling.

"I don't worry about getting it," said 89-year-old Robert Goodman, a Boca Raton retiree. "At this age, who the hell cares? You take it as it comes."

Across Florida, a retirement dreamland that is home to about 3.2 million people 65 and older, seniors who are typically plagued by nearly any spreadable illness are just happy they appear to have been given a reprieve from the new flu virus that has run rampant through schools, colleges and campsites.

Warning: You Could be Pre-Pregnant

What ethical complications arise when physicians imagine all women of reproductive age to be potential moms, whether or not these women ever want or plan to become pregnant?

That’s what worries University of South Florida philosophy and internal medicine professor Rebecca Kukla. She says that the “preconception care movement”–the recent push by organizations such as the March of Dimes, the Office of Minority Health and the American Pregnancy Association, along with health initiatives like Every Woman California, to offer prenatal care to all women has troubling implications, particularly for the low-income, minority women who are the movement’s target.

No Surprise: Abortion Does NOT Cause Mental-Health Problems

A list of good things that come from Denmark: Vikings, butter cookies and Legos. As of today, add one more thing: a study that says that abortion definitively does not lead to mental-health problems.

As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, Danish scientists studied 365,550 teenagers and women in the country who had an abortion or first-time delivery between 1995 and 2007. By tracking their mental-health counseling both before and after abortion or delivery, researchers were able to assess the psychological impact of each choice. They found that only about 15 per 1,000 women needed psychiatric counseling within a year after an abortion–similar to the rate seeking help nine months before having an abortion.

Midwives Fight for The Right to Deliver

As if politicians weren’t busy enough attacking abortion rights and access to contraception, there’s another reproductive choice that’s under threat from conservative lawmakers: the right to choose where your baby is born and with whose help.

Though it may sometimes be eclipsed by the public fixation on the abortion debate, a movement to improve women’s access to midwife and home birth services has been steadily gaining ground in recent years.

Having long championed home and out-of-hospital birth as a less stressful, potentially healthier birthing method, midwives have weighed in on the healthcare reform debate by advocating for a more holistic system of maternity care based on personal “hands-on” help throughout pregnancy and after delivery. The Big Push for Midwives campaign has also advocated for state legislation that enables birth under the care of licensed Certified Professional Midwives, which is currently unavailable in 23 states as of August 2010.

Where Mammograms Fail

At the recent TEDwomen conference in Washington D.C., one of the presenters was Dr. Deborah Rhodes, an internist who has become a leader in assessing breast cancer risk. Rhodes became immersed in the challenge of how to effectively detect breast tumors in women with dense breast tissue when one of her pregnant patients, in her 40s and with a family history of breast cancer, asked her for an honest appraisal of the odds of finding a tumor in its early stages.

Rhodes understood that for women with dense breast tissue, “the mammogram doesn’t work well at all.” In fact, as she wrote to me via e-mail,

What Abusers and “Pro-Family” Conservatives Have in Common

Birth control sabotage has been revealed to be a common form of partner abuse. In a report released earlier this week by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 25 percent of women callers to the hot line, who voluntarily answered questions about birth control and pressure to get pregnant in their relationships, reported some form of reproductive coercion.

The callers said their partners hid birth control pills or flushed them down the toilet. Some refused to wear condoms or poked holes in them. One woman’s partner became furious when she recently got her period.

The study’s authors state firmly that reproductive coercion is a form of abuse. Family Violence Prevention Fund president Esta Soler says, “While there is a cultural assumption that some women use pregnancy as a way to trap their partner in a relationship, this survey shows that men who are abusive will sabotage their partner’s birth control and pressure them to become pregnant as a way to trap or control their partner.”

Women CAN Handle the Truth–About Cancer OR Alzheimer’s

The BRCA genes were discovered in 1994 and 1995, but when you visited your doctor anytime from 1995 through the early 2000s, chances are that she or he did not recommend that you test for a mutation on the genes that would indicate an increased chance of developing ovarian or breast cancers. Why not? Because the paternalistic feeling of much of the medical community was that women who might be carriers of mutations couldn’t handle knowing their risk.

In fact, in 1998, an esteemed panel of experts convened a conference at Stanford University to decide what to do with the newfound ability to test for these genes. Their conclusion? Genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2: