Birth control vaginal ring launched in India

November 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The world's first vaginal birth control ring, NuvaRing, was launched in India on Wednesday. The introduction of a product is expected to augment the contraception options currently available to Indian women.

November 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A new genetically engineered treatment for hemophilia, a dreaded disease where blood doesn't clot, was launched here Wednesday by a private pharmaceutical company. Unlike other procedures, this treatment won't require donor blood for transfusion.

November 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Tuesday said imposing a ban on tobacco cannot check the increasing number of users in the country, and called for providing alternative job opportunities to tobacco growers so that the production comes down. "I am strictly against any kind of ban on tobacco," Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi said while addressing a workshop on tobacco control here.

November 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that robotic surgery for vaginal prolapse dramatically reduces patient hospital stay and recovery time. Vaginal prolapse is a condition in which structures such as the uterus, rectum, bladder, urethra, small bowel, or the vagina itself may begin to prolapse, or fall, from their normal positions.

November 4th, 2009 NEW YORK - India is falling behind other nations in improving obstetric care as it does not adequately monitor deaths and injuries in the critical period following childbirth and fix gaps in its health system and programmes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday. Health experts say that the key to progress in maternal health is ensuring that women with pregnancy complications are able to get appropriate care during childbirth.

November 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India is falling drastically behind other countries in meeting international commitments to improve obstetric care as it has failed to adequately monitor deaths following childbirth, an NGO working on human rights said Wednesday. In the backdrop of a global meet of health experts that concluded late last month, the NGO Human Rights Watch said the key to progress in maternal health is ensuring that women with pregnancy complications are able to get appropriate care during childbirth.

November 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India is falling behind other nations in meeting international commitments to improve obstetric care as it does not adequately monitor deaths and injuries in the critical period following childbirth, an NGO working on human rights said Wednesday. In the backdrop of a global meet of health experts that concluded late last month, the NGO Human Rights Watch said the key to progress in maternal health is ensuring that women with pregnancy complications are able to get appropriate care during childbirth.

November 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has revealed that penicillin and several other antibacterial medications commonly taken by pregnant women are not associated with many birth defects. However, the study also showed that other antibiotics, such as sulfonamides and nitrofurantoins, may be linked to several severe birth defects and require additional scrutiny.

October 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Birth control pills can nearly double the risk of stroke in women, says a new study. According to a review article in MedLink Neurology by three Loyola University Health System neurologists, women who take birth control pills and also smoke, have high blood pressure or have a history of migraine headaches, significantly increase their risk of stroke.

October 27th, 2009 NEW YORK - A 30-year-old woman's speech suddenly slurred, her left hand developed clumsiness while eating. She was experiencing the classic symptoms of a stroke at a relatively young age, which may have been triggered by the intake of birth control pills.

October 25th, 2009 more images more imagesTips on hormone use, coping with menopauseWhat to do if menopause makes you miserable? Start with a visit to your doctor. If you don't have one you really trust, fix that problem before you try to tackle the rest, women's health experts recommend.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study suggests that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may worsen incontinence in postmenopausal women. "Our main finding, which comes in particular from one huge trial, is that one type of HRT - systemic conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) - may make urinary incontinence worse," said June Cody, a methodologist at the Cochrane Incontinence Review Group at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

October 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - More than 400,000 children die within 24 hours of their birth in India every year - the highest anywhere in the world, a study by an international charity said. While globally this figure stands at two million babies dying within a day of their birth, the shocking and tragic fact is that the reason for these deaths are diseases and infections that are easily treatable, and therefore the deaths are preventable.

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As swine flu cases continue to surge in the country, a pharma company Friday announced that it has pushed 1.25 million capsules of the drug to chemists across the country to combat the virus and it would be ready with 10 million such drugs by mid-October. We have launched Natflu capsules (generic version of Tamiflu - Oseltamivir), the first cure for swine flu to be available against medical prescription at designated chemists across India, said V.C.

September 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Three drugs that reduce a woman's chance of getting breast cancer have also been shown to cause adverse effects, according to a new report. The report is based on a study led by Heidi D.