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07/07/2015 There is an extremely interesting article on the front page of today’s New York Times entitled, “Colorado Finds Startling Success in Effort to Curb Teenage Births.” The article talks about a private grant that allowed free IUDs or subdermal implants to prevent pregnancy that was a six-year experiment in Colorado. During this period of time, the birth rate among teenagers plunged 40% and the rate of abortions fell by 42%. Apparently, this was most evident in unmarried women unde...
03/24/2015 I am writing to you from Orlando where the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) is having its annual meeting. I am the current president of this 10,000-member society and as most of you know I wrote the second book ever on transvaginal ultrasound and the first book on gynecological ultrasound. Today's news about Angelina Jolie's decision to remove her ovaries necessitates that once again I send you, my patients, an email blast. Some important facts; first Angelina Jo...
03/18/2015 Once again, there is an article on the front page of the NY Times, which I feel mandates some commentary by me. And once again, I have gone back to the original article, which appears in the current issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) rather than just the NY Times rendition and summary of it. The article is entitled “Diagnostic Concordance Among Pathologists Interpreting Breast Biopsy Specimens.” In the first place, you should all feel very comfortable an...
2/17/2015 In today’s NY Times a story on the front page has the headline “Up To 14 Years of Hot Flashes Found in Menopause Study”. I agree totally. In my years of practice I have had many patients, some who resist therapy, and some unable to get off Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) who have symptoms even longer than that! I went to the original article published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This is still another report from a study called SWAN (Stu...
3/13/2014 Some of you may have seen an article on the front page of the business section of the New York Times today entitled “FDA Panel Recommends Replacement for the Pap Test.” Understand that this is simply an Advisory Committee to the FDA and this recommendation may or may not be adopted by the FDA itself. Furthermore, as pointed out in the article, this does not mean that various societies like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will automatically change their guid...
2/12/2014 In today’s New York Times on the front page there is an article about a long-term Canadian study involving mammographic screening for breast cancer. It looked at over 90,000 women randomized to get mammographic screening vs. those who only had a breast exam by a nurse without mammography. It lasted 25 years. It was published in the British Medical Journal. It found that there was no difference in deaths from breast cancer in either group (about 1 death per 90 women enrolled over the...
9/16/2013 Lately it seems that I have had a large number of patients with daughters “coming of age”. As a result I am recycling something I wrote a while back but may be even more pertinent today. When should your daughter first visit the gynecologist? I love to be a teenager’s first gynecologist. It does not have to be a traumatic experience. A positive first visit will ensure that she is not “ruined” as a gynecologic patient. Even if her next several doctors in a row are rou...
7/30/2013 The lead story in today’s New York Times, on the right hand column of Page One, is entitled “Scientists Urge Narrower Rules to Define Cancer”. The main thesis of the article, which chronicles a study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is something I have been saying to many of you for quite some number of years. Perhaps the following anecdote will underscore the issue: Several years ago a patient came to me for a routine visit. When I asked...
05/01/2013 An article appeared in yesterday's NY Times Science section about the lack of benefit and even potential harm of the routine bimanual pelvic examination in gynecology. It is so inaccurate and one sided that I have sent a letter to the Times which I have reproduced for you. (I am not optimistic that they will choose to run it.) This is such important information you may want to share it with friends, colleagues and family... All reporters and most readers appreciate there are two sid...
04/16/2013 In today’s New York Times (Tuesday April 16, 2013) there’s an article by Denise Grady which reports recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) who published a draft form of their recommendations for public comment concerning the drugs raloxifene (Evista) and tamoxifen (Nolvadex). As many of you are aware, I have published extensively on these drugs and participated in studies for both. Tamoxifen has been used for several decades, initially for ...