Women's Health Commons^™

Involuntary Sterilization Among Hiv-Positive Garifuna Women From Honduras Seeking Asylum In The United States: Two Case Reports, Holly G. Atkinson, Deborah Ottenheimer

Publications and Research

Voluntary sterilization is one of the most widely used forms of contraception by women worldwide; however, involuntary sterilization is considered a violation of multiple human rights and grounds for asylum in the United States. Women have been disproportionately affected by this practice. We report two cases of involuntary sterilization in HIV-positive Garifuna women from Honduras who sought asylum in America and were medically evaluated at the request of their attorneys. Key lessons can be drawn from these cases with regard to the importance of medical evaluations in establishing persecution. These include the need for a detailed account of the events …

Resveratrol And Pterostilbene Exhibit Anticancer Properties Involving The Downregulation Of Hpv Oncoprotein E6 In Cervical Cancer Cells, Kaushiki Chatterjee, Dina Alsharif, Christina Mazza, Palwasha Syar, Mohamed Al Sharif, Jimmie E. Fata

Publications and Research

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women living in developing countries. Due to a lack of affordable effective therapy, research into alternative anticancer compounds with low toxicity such as dietary polyphenols has continued. Our aim is to determine whether two structurally similar plant polyphenols, resveratrol and pterostilbene, exhibit anticancer and anti-HPV (Human papillomavirus) activity against cervical cancer cells. To determine anticancer activity, extensive in vitro analyses were performed. Anti-HPV activity, through measuring E6 protein levels, subsequent downstream p53 effects, and caspase-3 activation, were studied to understand a possible mechanism of action. Both polyphenols are effective agents …

Trends In Hpv Vaccine Initiation And Completion Among Girls In Texas: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data, 2008–2010, Tatjana Gazibara, Haomiao Jia, Erica I. Lubetkin

Publications and Research

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the trend of HPV vaccine initiation and completion among girls in Texas from 2008 to 2010.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) over 3 years (2008–2010). The information regarding HPV vaccination was gathered from the parents of 9- to 17-year-old daughters (choosing only 1 per household) in randomly selected households in the sample area.

Results: The highest prevalence of vaccine initiation and completion were detected in 2010 (20.9% and 9.7%, respectively). Over the study period, HPV vaccine initiation statistically significantly increased (2008, 14.9%; 2009, 20.7%; …

Maternal Age Of Menarche And Blood Pressure In Adolescence: Evidence From Hong Kong’S “Children Of 1997” Birth Cohort, Tsz Chun Lai, Gabriel Matthew Leung, C Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

Background Age of puberty has declined substantially in developed settings and is now declining in the rest of the world with economic development. Early age of puberty is associated with noncommunicable diseases in adulthood, and may be a long-term driver of population health with effects over generations. In a non-Western setting, we examined the association of maternal age of menarche with blood pressure in late childhood/adolescence.

Methods We used generalised estimating equations to estimate the adjusted association of maternal age of menarche with age-, sex- and height-adjusted blood pressure z-score from 10 to 16 years in Hong Kong’s population-representative birth …

Tricurin, A Novel Formulation Of Curcumin, Epicatechin Gallate, And Resveratrol, Inhibits The Tumorigenicity Of Human Papillomaviruspositive Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Longzhu Piao, Sumit Mukherjee, Qing Chang, Xiujie Xie, Hong Li, Mario R. Castellanos, Probal Banerjee, Hassan Iqbal, Ryan Ivancic, Xueqian Wang, Theodoros N. Teknos, Quintin Pan

Publications and Research

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most prevalent cancer worldwide with about 600,000 new cases diagnosed in the last year. The incidence of human papillomavirus-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-positive HNSCC) has rapidly increased over the past 30 years prompting the suggestion that an epidemic may be on the horizon. Therefore, there is a clinical need to develop alternate therapeutic strategies to manage the growing number of HPV-positive HNSCC patients. TriCurin is a composition of three food-derived polyphenols in unique stoichiometric proportions consisting of curcumin from the spice turmeric, resveratrol from red grapes, and …

Severity And Clustering Of Menopausal Symptoms Among Obese And Nonobese Postmenopausal Women In India, E. S. Sharanya Shre, Kate Trout, Sonia Pant Singh, Awnish Kumar Singh, Surapaneni Krishna Mohan, Ashish Joshi

Publications and Research

Background: The symptoms of menopause have a negative impact on quality of life, especially in women transitioning to menopause and earlier transitions. This study was conducted with the objective of assessing the effect of obesity on the severity of menopausal symptoms and the clustering of symptoms in postmenopausal women in India.

Methodology: The Menopausal Rating Scale (MRS) was used to assess the severity of menopausal symptoms of postmenopausal women of Chennai, visiting Saveetha Medical College, Chennai, India. This cross‑sectional study was conducted from August to November 2013 in Chennai, India. Sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, blood pressure level, menopausal history, personal …