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Update in Women's Health
- Nancy C. Dolan, MD;
- Karen Freund, MD, MPH; and
- Judith Walsh, MD, MPH
- From Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois; Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts; and University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
2001-2002 Series: Update Sessions from ACP–ASIM's 2001 Annual Session
Margaret Ring Gillock, Editor/David A. Cramer, MD, Co-Editor/Paul T. Kefalides, MD, Co-Editor
In selecting the articles for this Update, we systematically reviewed the literature and consulted our colleagues to identify important papers on women's health published in 2000. We critically examined the content and methods of the studies identified and selected 10 articles that had potential to affect clinical practice and reflected a broad range of topics pertinent to women's health. These articles cover six areas: issues affecting women of reproductive age, breast cancer treatment, hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis, cancer screening, and sexual dysfunction.
Issues Affecting Women of Reproductive Age
Important articles of significance for women of reproductive age included an examination of the significance of asymptomatic bacteriuria in young sexually active women, an analysis of factors involved in delayed access to HIV care, and an assessment of the association between oral contraceptive use and breast cancer risk in patients with a family history of breast cancer.
More Than 90% of Cases of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria Resolve without Developing into an Infection
Although asymptomatic bacteriuria is common in young women, little is known about its pathogenesis, natural history, risk factors, and temporal association with symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs). To evaluate these factors, Hooton and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study of nonpregnant women 18 to 40 years of age. The 796 participants were patients at a university student health center or a health maintenance organization (HMO) in Seattle, Washington, from 1989 to 1994 and were about to start or had just started a new method of contraception.
Baseline evaluation included a standardized interview, testing of a midstream urine specimen to evaluate pyuria and bacteriuria, and testing of blood and saliva samples to determine ABO-blood group secretor status. Women kept diaries to record the days on which the following occurred: sexual intercourse, use and type of contraception, vaginal and urinary symptoms, and …
