Social Icons:
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)�...
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…)...
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...