Women's Health

Upset stomach - Common complaints - Women's Health

What are the symptoms? Symptoms can include occasional heartburn, a taste of bile in the mouth and pains in the stomach. The symptoms of an upset stomach include occasional heartburn, a taste of bile in the mouth and pains in the stoma...

Got a bad back? - Common complaints - Women's Health

With no definitive treatment for back pain, many people turn to complementary therapies such as yoga. It can happen walking up a hill, lifting a suitcase or even watching TV. There is a feeling of something going 'click' in the lower part...

Vaginal cones and SUI - Common complaints - Women's Health

Vaginal cones are small weights that can be placed in your vagina to help you train your pelvic floor muscles. They were first used by Peattie, Plevnik and Stanton, whose study showed that you can be trained to use your pelvic floor muscles b...

Electronic devices and UI - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Electronic devices are used to re-educate and strengthen weak urinary muscles. They produce an electrically stimulated contraction in your pelvic floor and external urethral sphincter. There are different names for the treatment: NMES - neuromuscu...

Biofeedback and UI - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Biofeedback is a technique that gives information about functions that are usually regulated automatically by the body, such as your heart rate or muscle contractions. A therapist then teaches you how to use this information to control the 'involunta...

Behavioural therapy and UI - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Behavioural therapy is basically bladder retraining. It's used when you’ve fallen into the habit of going to the toilet 'just in case', so your bladder gets used to holding less urine and becomes even more overactive, sending the 'full' signal ...

Surgery for UI - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

If other treatments for urinary incontinence have failed, surgery may be considered. Before surgery You should have a chance to talk to your surgeon before the procedure. This is your chance to make sure you understand: what the surgeon i...

Medicines for UI - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Medicines can help many of the symptoms of urinary incontinence and night-time leaking. Anticholinergics are used to treat urge urinary incontinence (UUI), and they are often used in conjunction with bladder retraining. They can al...

SUI: what can you do to help yourself? - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

There are lots of things you can do to help yourself manage stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and urge urinary incontinence (UUI). Good advice Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. Drink 2L water a day. Don't ...

Impact of SUI on lifestyle - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

UI can cause problems in many areas of your life. Urinary incontinence (UI) can have a huge effect on all aspects of your life – on your social life, your working life, your sex life and your mental wellbeing. Despite its impact,...

Urodynamic investigations - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Urodynamic investigations are tests that assess the function of your bladder and the bladder outflow tract (urethra). During the tests, your bladder is filled and then emptied while pressure readings are taken from the bladder and the abdomen...

How is SUI diagnosed? - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Urinary incontinence (UI) is diagnosed in a number of stages, starting with discussion and examination by your doctor, and then referrals for further tests if your doctor needs to rule out other medical conditions. Discussion of symptoms Y...

Discussing SUI with your doctor - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Bladder problems: distressing, embarrassing, and common. Yet one US study found 60 per cent of women with urinary incontinence (UI) had never talked to their doctor about the problem. UI can be treated, so don’t put up with feeling miserable or...

What causes UI? - Urinary incontinence - Women's Health

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) It's thought SUI is due to weakness in: the pelvic floor muscles that support the organs in your pelvis and abdomen the sphincter muscle that keeps the bladder outlet closed. If they are...

Lower abdominal pain - Periods - Women's Health

What causes lower abdominal or pelvic pain? Taking note of certain symptoms will help you and your doctor accurately diagnose the problem, although this can be difficult. All women will experience pain in the lower abdomen from...

How do I know if I'm pregnant? - Periods - Women's Health

What are the first signs of pregnancy? A woman can take a pregnancy test just a few days after her missed period. For most women, the first sign of pregnancy is when their ...

Your options after breast removal - Periods - Women's Health

Coping with breast cancer can be traumatic. For women who have undergone surgery to remove a breast, they also face the decision of what to do next. Breast reconstruction surgery involves another major operation, while wearing a prosthesis may not be...

Vaginal discharge - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is vaginal discharge? Vaginal discharge is the result of secretions produced from small glands in the lining of the vagina and the cervix. All women have a little discharge starting a year or two before puberty and ending after the...

Thrush - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is thrush? Most women get a yeast infection at some point in their lives. Vaginal thrush is a common condition caused by a yeast infection in the vagina and surrounding area. The infection is usually Candida albicans, but is also known ...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is polycystic ovary syndrome? Polycystic (literally, many cysts) ovary syndrome (PCOS or PCO) is a complex condition that affects the ovaries (the organs in a woman's body that produce eggs). It's complex because there are some very...

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is pelvic inflammatory disease? Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is an infection that passes from the vagina through neck of the womb (cervix), the womb (uterus) and up to the Fallopian tubes. The ovaries are sometimes also involved. ...

Pelvic examination - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is a pelvic examination? Once the reasons for performing the examination have been explained, the doctor, nurse or midwife will usually want to examine the cervix first. This is performed by passing a speculum into the vagina. The ...

Ovarian cancer: what every woman should know - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

Each year around 6,800 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The good news about ovarian cancer, which affects 6,800 women every year in the UK, is that it's easily treatable – as long as the disease is caught...

Ovarian cysts - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What are ovarian cysts? Most ovarian cysts produce no symptoms and women are unaware of their presence. A woman's ovaries contain numerous immature eggs some of which mature and develop over the course of a woman's life until the m...

Mammography - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is mammography? Mammography is basically an X-ray of the breast. Mamma is Latin for breast and mammography is a type of breast X-ray that uses only a limited amount of radiation. It can identify breast cancer in its ...

Infertility - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

Is it common to have difficulties becoming pregnant? Many couples believe that it is easy to have a child and are often surprised when the woman does not fall pregnant as soon as they start trying for a baby. The chance of getting pregn...

Hormones - from the cradle to the grave - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

Our hormones undoubtedly have a huge influence on our lives. One stereotyped view of women portrays us all as creatures at the mercy of our hormones. 'Balls (or should it be ovaries?) to that!' I say. Our hormones undoubtedly have a...

Haemorrhoids (piles) - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What are haemorrhoids? Haemorrhoids are small, blood-filled swellings caused by dilated varicose veins. Initially, they are located just inside the anus (internal haemorrhoids) but can sometimes protrude (external haemorrhoids). Haemorrhoid...

Fibroids - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

Fibroids are connective tissue growths that develop from the muscular wall of the uterus or cervix. They may be found in the wall itself, under the external lining of the wall, or they can bulge into the cavity of the uterus. Fibroids are ...

Endometriosis - Fundamentally female - Women's Health

What is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a condition in which the tissue (endometrium) normally lining the womb (or uterus) grows on different organs outside the uterus. If the endometrium grows within the muscular layer of the womb it ...