9 Warning Signs of Cervical Cancer You Shouldn't Ignore

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The good news is that regular screening and follow-up care can prevent most deaths from cervical cancer. Even better, you can get screened at no cost to you. The health care reform act covers cervical cancer screenings, part of a “well-woman visit.”

What’s equally important is for you to be aware of the warning signs of cervical cancer, which may not cause any symptoms at first (when they are pre-cancers or early cancers), but later on, may affect you with pelvic pain or vaginal bleeding.

Here are the signs of cervical cancer:

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Bleeding after intercourse

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Bleeding after menopause

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Bleeding between periods

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Bleeding after douching

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Bleeding following a pelvic exam

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Having heavier menstrual periods than usual or ones that last longer than usual

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Unusual vaginal discharge

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Pain during sex

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Pelvic pain

Of course, just because you have any of these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you have cervical cancer. The symptoms could be caused by other conditions, like an infection. But it’s wise to schedule an appointment with your health care professional to get checked and, if appropriate, get treated.

The screening guidelines for cervical cancer can be confusing. Most major medical organizations no longer recommend routine yearly screening, but it is important to know what’s appropriate for your age, personal history and risk factors. You can read all about the new guidelines here.

#cervicalcancer #check #OBGYN #womenhealth

How do you solve an almost unsolveable problem- Opioid addiction/epidemic

Announcing: New multi-disciplinary collaboration facilitating unique response to address complexity of the opioid epidemic in New York *clk the below image for the complete article

I am delighted that the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University School of Social Work is leading this important HEALing Communities Initiative. There is a critical need to develop innovative approaches and real world solutions for this epidemic that is plaguing U.S. communities large and small, beginning with the crisis in New York State.

–Dr. El-Bassel

The expertise includes addiction medicine, pharmacotherapy, implementation science, system science, biostatistics, epidemiology, system modeling, the use of social media in research, data management, research operations, and led by administrators with extensive experience in NIH funded studies. Among the participants are Health commissioners of counties in New York state, SAMHSA, OASIS and other key governmental officials and community collaborations from primary care, emergency rooms, criminal justice and more.

The mission of the collaboration — HEALing Communities — is to identify, develop, and test innovative community-based solutions to address the opioid epidemic and advance research and methodologies that are driven by multidisciplinary thinking and science.

Having been involved on substance abuse research for more than two decades, I am delighted to lead the launch of this exciting collaboration with Dr. El-Bassel and other outstanding scholars from Columbia and other Universities to tackle the opioid epidemic through our shared knowledge.

–Dr. Lisa Rosen-Metsch, Dean, School of General Studies; Professor, Sociomedical Sciences

The opioid epidemic is complex in its clinical and social dimensions. I welcome the opportunity for the Data Science Institute to participate in this multidisciplinary, multi-organizational effort. Through the analytical power of data science, I hope we can better understand the factors underlying the epidemic and devise a rapid response to curb its devastation on individuals, families, and whole communities.

—Jeannette M. Wing, Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute and Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University

I am very excited about this new collaboration. We know from many other areas of public health that a complex problem such as the opioid crisis does not have a silver bullet solution. We need to take a systems approach that is multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary, and coordinated. Our strategies need to be mutually reinforcing and focused on disrupting the pathways that drive the problem and enabling those that reinforce the solution.

–Terry TK Huang, PhD, MPH, MBA, Professor of Community Health, Director, Center for Systems and Community Design, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

The role of implementation science is critical to the success of this multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral project, since it is focused on rapidly expanding, and sustaining, the reach of proven interventions to reduce overdose and overdose deaths to vulnerable and marginalized populations who may not otherwise learn about or access them until it is too late. Implementation science approaches can identify the major patterns of missed opportunities for overdose prevention, and increase the uptake of evidence-based strategies among those most in need of them, thereby helping to maximize the impact on reducing overdose and deaths from overdose.

–Denis Nash, PhD, MPH, City University of New York (CUNY), Executive Director, CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH), Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology, CUNY School of Public Health

I am excited to collaborate with a great group of researchers! This research opportunity will be a landmark initiative to address the opioid epidemic on a large scale, involving many important sectors of society across New York State.

–Chinazo Cunningham, MD, MS, Associate Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center

It takes jail l administrators, correctional medical care leadership, county program leadership and community-based services with commitment to address the Opioid Crisis in correctional settings

We see in the HEALing Communities Initiative a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the Nation’s response to the epidemic of opioid use disorder. We will bring to bear decades of research on medication and behavioral treatments for opioid use disorder and implementation science, as well as our long experience in national collaborations including the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN), and SAMHSA; and the Prescribers Clinical Support System for Medication Assisted Treatment (PCSSMAT.org).

–Dr. Edward Nunes, Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center

Collaborators from the Division on Substance Use Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry include psychiatrists Edward Nunes MD and Frances Levin MD, treatment implementation expert Aimee Campbell PhD, and Jennifer Lima MPH.

In my role as medical director of the Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative, I’ve learned that community engagement, data driven strategies and cross stakeholder collaboration including county government and consumer voice are integral for effective delivery system transformation. I see an amazing opportunity to leverage the infrastructure, experience and partnerships we’ve developed. We are bringing together an exceptional group of researchers, from Columbia, Montefiore and Einstein SOM to guide and evaluate systems change strategies that can save lives, and are committed to applying co-design principles to ensure that we are designing systems that will work for the patients they will serve. My team and I look forward to our collaboration with the team at Columbia’s Social Intervention Group and so many other disciplines and institutions across New York State.

–Dr. Damara Gutnick, Medical Director, Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative

#community #collaboration #newyork #multidisciplinary #opoids #women039shealth

Violence Against Women Is Overlooked in Its Role in Opioid Epidemic

Women’s Health – “In my research with men on partner violence and drug use and HIV, a man reported pushing his partner to the floor and forcing her to have sex. He did not consider this violent, since she reportedly gave him a “signal.”

*We need each other to get out of violent homes –clk on the image for the complete article

In another study with women who use drugs, a woman said that her husband hit her and forced her to have sex: “I didn’t know I was raped because he was my husband.”

Treatment must address the need for escape that these women seek. As another woman said, “When I was sober I didn’t dare have sex with him. I had to be high to be able … to make love to him.”

One night, a woman I’ll call Tonya got a compliment from a guy when she was out with her boyfriend. Tonya’s boyfriend cursed her because another man had complimented her. He said: “You give it to everybody, I want it too.” In anticipation of his physical abuse, she reasoned, “I could go off to Wonder World.” She then injected heroin, to be “in her own world,” she later told me.

Tonya is only one of the hundreds of women I’ve interviewed for my research with similar stories in the span of my nearly 30-year career studying the links between intimate partner violence, sexual coercion, substance use disorders and HIV.

Many women in controlling and violent relationships like Tonya’s “self-medicate” – or use drugs that are not prescribed to them to help with their medical condition – to mitigate the trauma of physical and sexual assault. As a result, their bodies crave an ever-increasing steady supply of substances to get high in order to feel “better.” Today, the drugs of choice are usually opioids.

Research has repeatedly indicated that drug use is associated with partner violence, specifically against women, who may be particularly susceptible to such violence when under the influence of opioids. Living with substance use disorders puts these women into a number of contexts that expose them to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases that jeopardize their survival in many ways. “

#abuse #domesticabuse #opioid #womenhealth #drugaddiction #help #womenandviolence #ciolence #resources #safety