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 a...
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 s...
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 wo...
03/05/2013 This past week there has been a lot of news emanating from the FDA that concerns menopausal and perimenopausal women. I would like to share some of this with you. A week ago the FDA, without using an Advisory Panel of outside experts, approved Ophena (generic name Ospemifene) for “treatment of moderate to severe dyspareunia (medical term for painful intercourse) a symptom of vulvar and vaginal atrophy due to menopause (the vaginal changes seen with no more estrogen production)...
Many of you may have seen the article in the New York Times and other news media outlets relative to the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. As many of you know, I was involved in the STAR trial which compared tamoxifen and raloxifene for breast cancer prevention. Much of my academic work has been involved in the ultrasound appearance of the uterus in patients receiving tamoxifen therapy. I've had a long standing interest in the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and selective...
An article on the front page of the New York Times was entitled “FDA is Wary of Lengthy Use of Bone Drugs”. Many of my patients or else members of their family may be taking medication to help reduce osteoporotic fracture. Some of these women are on drugs mentioned in this article and other women are not. Such information may be confusing and frightening to many patients and so I believe it is worthy of discussion in this space. (more…)...
There was an article in the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope entitled “The annual appointment loses some relevance”. It was about the highly publicized, but not so very different, pap smear guidelines by the USPSTF (United States Preventative Services Task Force). The guidelines had already been changed several years ago making the recommendation for less screening in some women. At that time, as a member of the Editorial Board of Contemporary ObGyn, I wrote a piece entitled “If it...
Recently, there has been a lot of medical attention vis-a-vis calcium, and to a lesser extent, Vitamin D. Many patients are confused, hence this post. Make no mistake – calcium and vitamin D are crucial for healthy bone. The current recommendation is for 1000mg of elemental Calcium for women up to age 50 and 1200 mg for women above age 50. I have been telling my patients for years that you are best off getting your calcium from diet. Some evidence suggest that calcium supplements may...
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