Women's health and well-being

Female anatomy, reproduction, the breast and heart, cancers, mental health, menopause and aging, and the checkups that keep women well.

Featured HealthJournal

Women's Health

Women have unique health challenges such as pregnancy, menopause, and more. In addition, health issues that affect both men and women often affect women differently. Learn how sex/gender and social factors can affect your risk for disease, your response to medications, and how often you seek medical care.

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Featured story

Ladies First: Heart Attack Warning Signs Differ in Men and Women

Atypical symptoms in women mean that there can be delays in identifying heart attacks, with potentially deadly consequences. Read up on how a heart attack does not always look or feel the same in women compared to men.

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Featured story

The Bone-ified Truth: Why Every Woman Should Care About Bone Health

You might think fragile bones are a concern for your future, older self. But bones can start to deteriorate at an early age in women. Find out why women need to pay attention to their bones earlier to keep them healthy and strong.

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Female anatomy

Female anatomy includes internal reproductive organs like the ovaries and uterus, as well as external genitals like the vulva, and accessory organs like the breasts. These body parts work together to perform a variety of functions like menstruation, reproduction, and having sex.

Women's checkups and tests

Checkups and screening tests can catch health problems in women early, including cancers. They include the women's health checkup, cervical cancer screening and cervical dysplasia, mammography, breast changes and breast biopsy, and endometrial cancer screening.

Women's wellness and behavior

Wellness in women rests on everyday habits and their effect on long-term health. It covers healthy eating, vitamins and minerals, exercise, sleep and insomnia, stress, oral health, weight and being underweight, and the risks of smoking, alcohol and substance use.

Women's healthy aging

Healthy aging for women takes in the body's changes from menopause onward. It covers hormone replacement therapy, skin aging, heart and brain health, vision, hearing and balance, oral health, vitamins and healthy eating, vaccines, and sexuality and loneliness in later life.

Women's breast health

Breast health in women begins with breast anatomy and the mammary glands that make milk. It covers breastfeeding and mastitis, breast cysts and other breast changes, breast density, screening and biopsy, breast cancer and its prevention, and breast reduction, implants and reconstruction.

Women's mental health

Women's mental health is shaped in part by hormones, pregnancy and life events. It covers depression in women, perinatal and postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, body image and body dysmorphic disorder, eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, and intimate partner violence.

Women's heart health

Heart and cardiovascular health in women takes in heart disease, heart attack and stroke as they affect women, and the heart through pregnancy and aging. It includes risk factors and prevention, heart-healthy eating, bleeding disorders, high blood pressure in pregnancy, preeclampsia and blood clots.

Women's reproductive health

Women's reproductive health spans the menstrual cycle, contraception, pregnancy and birth. It covers periods, PMS and heavy bleeding, birth control methods, healthy pregnancy, labor and cesarean section, postpartum care, and complications such as endometriosis, ectopic pregnancy and preeclampsia.

Overview

Contraception

Menstruation

Problems and Complications

Birth/Labor

Women's sexual health

Sexual health in women spans how sex works, consent and well-being at every stage of life. It covers sexual problems in women and their solutions, teen sexuality, safer sex, sexual health after cancer and with diabetes, menopause and sexuality, and female circumcision.

Women's cancers

Cancers in women include breast cancer and the gynecologic cancers of the reproductive organs. They range from breast cancer, with its screening, prevention and hereditary forms, to cervical, ovarian, uterine, endometrial, vaginal and vulvar cancers, as well as thyroid cancer.

Assault and trauma in women

Sexual violence against women takes many forms, and trauma can follow. It covers sexual assault and rape, sexual coercion, date rape drugs, sexual consent, stalking, harassment and human trafficking, and coping with traumatic events.

Women's diseases and disorders

Diseases and disorders in women include conditions of the female organs and others that affect women in particular ways. They range from endometriosis, uterine fibroids and urinary incontinence to thyroid and autoimmune diseases, migraine and fibromyalgia, and infections such as UTIs, yeast infections and STIs.

Diseases & Disorders

Infections

Menopause

A woman is considered to be in menopause when she has not had a period for 12 consecutive months; this natural and vital process, usually occurring between the ages of 45 and 55, signifies the end of estrogen and progesterone production by the ovaries, and is the end of a women's reproductive years. Learn more about the changes that happen during menopause.

Maternal health disparities

Maternal health disparities are differences in pregnancy and birth outcomes between groups of women, and health equity is the work of closing them. Topics include maternal morbidity and mortality, the social determinants of health behind these gaps and breast cancer in Black women.

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