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For women who struggle with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), getting pregnant could be a challenge. However, a healthy diet and exercise can improve the fertility in women who have PCOS, a new study says.
According to Womenshealth.gov, PCOS is the most common cause of infertility among women due to absence of ovulation. Among the underlying problem with PCOS is hormonal imbalance, where the ovaries produce more androgens than normal, which can lead to acne, excessive hair growth, weight problems and problems with ovulation. PCOS affect a woman’s menstrual cycle.
Normally, the ovaries where a woman’s eggs are produced have tiny fluid-filled sacs called follicles or crysts. As the egg grows the follicle builds up fluid, when the egg matures, the follicle breaks open and release the egg. The egg then travels to the fallopian tube for fertilization, otherwise known as ovulation.
For women with PCOS, the ovary doesn’t produce all the hormones it needs for an egg to fully mature, ovulation does not occur. However, here’s a good news, every woman can do something to raise her chance of fertility.
“The findings confirm what we have long suspected – that exercise and a healthy diet can improve fertility in women who have PCOS,” says study co-author Dr. Richard S. Legro, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. Several other studies also associate a better lifestyle such as diet and exercise to increase chances of fertility, Herald Current reports.
The study involved 149 obese and overweight women who were between 18 to 40 years old and were diagnosed with PCOS. Aside from being obese and overweight, those women have no other major medical conditions. They were randomly assigned to take birth controls, change their lifestyle, and a combination of both. After the interventions, the participants were given medication to induce ovulation, HNGN reports.
After the follow-up period, five (10 percent) of those who took birth control pills got pregnant, 13 (26 percent) of those who changed their lifestyle through diet and exercise, and 12 (24 percent) did both. The study also discovered that combining birth control pills with lifestyle medication improves ovulation.
“The research indicates preconception weight loss and exercise improve women’s reproductive and metabolic health,” Legro said in a press release. “In contrast, using oral contraceptives alone may worsen the metabolic profile without improving ovulation. Lifestyle change is an important part of any fertility treatment approach for women with PCOS who are overweight or obese.”
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolilsm for its Sept. 24 issue.
This week’s biggest news in health has been over a controversial little pink pill designed to increase the libidos of women who struggle with chronically low sex drives.
The pill, called Addyi, is for women with chronically low sex drives. It sends chemicals to the brain to stimulate sexual desire and is taken daily, and it has some pretty serious side effects when it interacts with alcohol.
Sprout Pharmaceuticals – the company behind the pill since 2011 and got it FDA approved last week – was acquired by the drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals on Thursday for $1 billion.
Business Insider spoke with Sprout’s CEO Cindy Whitehead over the phone about the big news, and what she thinks of the first drug approved for women’s sexual health.
Business Insider: Was the Valeant deal something you guys had hoped for in the long run for Sprout?
CW: I think we were so mission-driven just to get to finish line of completing all the science and getting to an approval of a drug. I think what this affords us is to do that in a way that we as a 34-person company wouldn’t have otherwise been able to, and I think that means … affordable access for more women.Things like copay assistance programs and those that we’ll be able to be more generous with than we would have been able to be at Sprout alone.
And ultimately having now opened this door for women in the United States, we can go into other markets in which women also don’t have a medical treatment for this condition, even if the prevalence data looks exactly the same.
[Acquisition talk] has been very recent, I think. After the [FDA] advisory committee meeting, companies saw the possibility that we were going to get to this first for women. They were interested, and that’s really when discussions started happening.
But it became clear for us I think very quickly that Valeant was the right partner because our entire team stays, and we will run this, and we will continue to do this in a way that we see is right for women.
BI: Will the acquisition effect the October 17 entry date to market or the target price range of about 400 per month?
For the women. I’ve actually been in the field of sexual medicine for some time. I saw this spectacular science that was going to be abandoned, and I thought it was going to be abandoned frankly because of a society unwilling to have a frank discussion about the biology of sex for women. And the need was just too great.
I understood not only from the clinicians who see these patients every day in their office, what an important need this was but really from just women themselves, I think my greatest privilege in all of this is how many women have shared their very personal stories with me and the pain I think they have dealt with this condition.
The hallmark characteristic, the only reason you’d be considered to be treated for this is if it is causing you distress. And for many of these women it’s profound distress. It’s breaking up their marriages, it’s really having them feel lesser, and so I think the possibility of providing women access to a treatment really meant a lot to me.
BI: Most of your pipeline relies on Addyi. Are there any other drugs now that this has been approved? What’s next?
CW: First things first, we’re just going to launch this the right way. I think we’re going to get out there, we’re going to educate prescribers and pharmacies through a certification program.
We’ll stay singular in our focus for the near term, but ultimately who knows what the possibility would be? I’m deeply passionate about women’s health, and a segment that I think has been stagnant for too long.
I’d love to see this usher in a new era of interest in terms of investment and research for conditions like HSDD that uniquely impact women.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The first pill for low libido in women will go on sale in the U.S. after regulators decided that despite its modest benefit and serious side effects, the drug was worthwhile to address an affliction with no other approved treatments.
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that doctors will have to take a training course to be certified to prescribe Sprout Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s flibanserin, branded Addyi, which will be available as soon as Oct. 17. And patients must sign a form acknowledging risks that include fainting and extreme sleepiness.
Those precautions apply to a drug that has shown in clinical trials to improve sexual desire in patients only slightly. That means closely held Sprout still will have to persuade doctors to prescribe Addyi and insurers to cover the pill, which must be taken daily and will cost about US$350 to US$400 a month before insurance coverage. Sprout expects insurers to put the drug in tier 2 or 3 on their formularies with a US$30 to US$75 copay.
“With any kind of medication you always have to balance the benefit with the risk,” said Holly Thacker, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Specialized Women’s Health. “Yes, there are side effects. They’re not life-threatening and they’re not outside the norm of medications in a similar class,” such as neurotransmitters for conditions like depression.
In clinical trials, women who took Addyi recorded a median increase of 0.5 to one more satisfying sexual events each month than those who got a placebo. Women began the trials experiencing two to three satisfying sexual events a month. Some women experienced as many as six to eight more satisfying sexual events each month, Sprout Chief Executive Officer Cindy Whitehead said in a phone interview.
More than 1,300 Canadian women have been involved in tests of flibanserin.
A spokeswoman for Sprout said in June that the company had not yet submitted an application for approval of the drug to Health Canada.
The drug was rejected by the FDA in 2010, and again in 2013, over concerns the less-than-overwhelming benefit — about one extra “sexually satisfying event” per month, compared to placebo — was outweighed by side effects such as dizziness, nausea and sleepiness.
The FDA faced a backlash from some doctors and researchers who claimed the agency was being sexist. Drugs to treat male sexual dysfunction have become ubiquitous since Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra was approved in 1998. Viagra generated US$1.69 billion in sales last year.
Unlike Viagra, which helps men who want to have sex get an erection by increasing blood flow to the penis, Addyi is designed to alter the brain chemistry of women so they find sex more desirable. The drug targets neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine that the brain uses to transmit information and can affect mood. Antidepressant drugs use similar mechanisms.
Addyi, also called flibanserin, is approved for women diagnosed with a condition called hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which is low libido that causes stress. Whitehead said doctors will be able to get certified to prescribe the drug by watching an online video.
They have gotten a drug that is barely better than placebo with serious side effects approved
Before the FDA ruling on Addyi, some women’s health experts had argued that the drug’s associated risks of fainting and extreme sleepiness outweighed any benefit. Studies found the risks are exacerbated by alcohol and birth-control medicine.
Sprout backed a lobbying campaign called Even the Score to help pressure regulators to approve Addyi, winning the endorsement of groups such as the National Organization for Women and the American Sexual
“They have gotten a drug that is barely better than placebo with serious side effects approved,” said Adriane Fugh- Berman, the director of PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center group that calls for thoughtful use of drugs and looks at industry marketing. “I think that we can expect all kind of creative attacks on the FDA to pressure them to approve bad drugs since that tactic appeared to work.”
Addyi’s label will advise women to stop taking the pill if they don’t respond after eight weeks, Whitehead said.
“This is a transformational moment, hopefully across all of women’s health care, certainly in women’s sexual health,” Whitehead said. “Our breaking through, I hope, opens the door for a variety of treatments to come forward.”
In June, FDA advisers recommended in an 18-6 vote that the FDA approve the drug. While advisers said the pill’s effect isn’t as strong as they’d like, they said they voted in favor to get the first female sexual desire drug on the market and boost awareness to get better treatments on pharmacy shelves in the future.
About 2 million women are currently seeking treatment for the disorder and more are expected to come forward once Addyi is on the market, said Carl Spana, CEO of Palatin Technologies Inc., which is developing its own female sex-drive treatment.
The company is in the final stages of testing its drug bremelanotide for use as needed, like Viagra, while Addyi is taken every night before bed. Palatin estimates the market for low female sexual desire treatments could total US$1.3 billion a year, based on the 2 million women known to be affected.
Palatin shares jumped 28 percent to US$1.20 in late trading after Sprout’s approval was announced.
Palatin could bring bremelanotide to market in early 2018, Spana said. The company has had talks with larger drugmakers, which he declined to name, that would likely license bremelanotide for sale.
With files from The Canadian Press and Postmedia News
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(TRFW News) According to researchers in Finland, men who use saunas are less likely to die from heart disease and can even lower their risk when they use saunas on a regular basis! (1) Men who spend several days a week using saunas were less likely to die of heart problems compared to those who only visited the sauna once a week. (2)
At least 2,000 middle-aged men, between the ages of 42 and 60, in eastern Finland have taken part in this study for more than 20 years and it was discovered that when men use saunas and the longer they stayed, they lower their risk for sudden cardiac death, fatal coronary heart disease, and fatal cardiovascular disease. (1)
Men who visited the saunas 2 to 3 times per week had a 24 percent lower risk of death and those who went 4 to 7 times per week had a 40 percent reduction. In addition, the amount of time spent in the sauna also made a difference. When compared to men who spent less than 11 minutes in the sauna, the risk of sudden cardiac death was 7 percent lower for sauna sessions of 11 to 19 minutes, and 52 percent less for sessions lasting more than 19 minutes. (1,2)
It’s not completely clear why men’s health have increased benefits for those who have taken up the sauna habit, but it could be a combination of factors. Sauna causes your heart rate to go up, your heart muscle to squeeze more vigorously, and your body temperature to increase. (1) Saunas are so relaxing and has been known to reduce stress and increase leisure time while engaging with other people can provide the ‘perfect recipe’ to decrease cardiovascular disease. (1,2)
Previous research has suggested that saunas improve blood vessel function, exercise capacity, and lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension. (2) This new study has found that long, hot sauna baths tallied fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes, various heart-related conditions and other causes. (3)
Sauna bathing is a common habit in Finland, which aren’t considered a luxury item. That explains why almost everyone has access to a sauna, even in people’s private homes. (1,2,3)
Even though researchers feel similar results could take place for women who use saunas, further studies are needed to show the effects of sauna among women and the different age groups. (3)
Sources for this article include:
(1) www.washingtonpost.com
(3) www.huffingtonpost.com
Image source: flic.kr
