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Study: With Tech, Low Risk Pregnancies Equal Less OB Visits

Posted on April 2, 2018

The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is giving low-risk pregnant women the option of fewer checkups by providing equipment that allows them to monitor their blood pressure, fetal heart rate and other medical conditions at home.

Women involved in the OB Nest program have eight clinic visits, Minnesota Public Radio reported . The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the standard pregnancy visit schedule entails more than a dozen appointments.

Women enrolled in the program can contact a nurse online or by phone if they see abnormal results or have questions or concerns. The program began in 2016.

The program gives doctors and midwives more time to tend to patients with high-risk pregnancies, said Dr. Yvonne Butler Tobah, a Mayo obstetrician and health sciences researcher.

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Study: Pain Pill During Pregnancy Linked to Behavior Problems in Kids

Posted on August 15, 2016

Women who take the common pain reliever acetaminophen during pregnancy may be more likely to have children with behavior problems than those who don’t use the drug, a British study suggests.

Researchers analyzed survey data from about 7,800 mothers and found more than half of them took acetaminophen at some point during pregnancy.

Overall, about 5 percent of their children had behavior problems by age 7. The odds of hyperactivity, conduct issues and emotional problems were all higher among the offspring of women who reported using acetaminophen while pregnant, the study found.

This doesn’t necessarily mean pregnant women should avoid taking acetaminophen, however, said lead study author Evie Stergiakouli of the University of Bristol in the U.K.

“It is still appropriate to use acetaminophen during pregnancy because there is a risk of not treating fever or pain during pregnancy,” Stergiakouli said by email. “Other pain medications are not considered safe to use during pregnancy.”

The study doesn’t prove acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol, directly causes developmental issues in children, noted Dr. Hal Lawrence, executive vice president and chief executive of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

“Behavioral disorders are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause,” Lawrence, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “The brain does not stop developing until at least 15 months of age, which leaves room for children to be exposed to a number of factors that could potentially lead to behavioral issues.”

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STUDY: Doctors No Longer Have to Remove Ovaries During a Hysterectomy

Posted on January 25, 2016

A relatively new study has found that women do not have to lose their ovaries during non-cancerous surgeries involving removal of a woman’s reproductive system.

Traditionally, during hysterectomies to treat benign conditions, doctors remove the Fallopian tubes and the ovaries in order to reduce the patient’s ovarian cancer risk. Doing this maneuver actually induces early menopause and lowers a woman’s libido.

However, according to Yale School of Medicine research, ovarian cancer often originates in the Fallopian tube and not the ovaries, and thus removal of the ovaries may not be necessary.

This could mean a woman can possibly produce an offspring from her eggs (using the magic of modern medicine) even after having a hysterectomy. This is good news for younger women who’ve had to have the procedure done.

Assistant professor in Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine Xiao Xu published the results of the study in the February issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

In fact, her team’s findings were backed by American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which issued a statement in 2015 suggesting bilateral salpingectomy with ovarian conservation — surgical removal of both Fallopian tubes while retaining the ovaries — may be a better option for ovarian cancer prevention in women at low risk for ovarian cancer.

Using data from the 2012 National Inpatient Sample, Xu and her co-author, Vrunda Bhavsar Desai, M.D. studied 20,635 adult women undergoing hysterectomy for benign conditions who were at low risk for ovarian cancer or future ovarian surgery.

“We found that among women undergoing inpatient hysterectomies in 2012 who were at low risk for ovarian cancer, very few of them received bilateral salpingectomy with preservation of the ovaries,” Xu said. “The rate of bilateral salpingectomy with ovarian conservation was 5.9% in this population.

Not enough doctors are providing this option to their patients but this study could help establish a baseline.

Xu added that the rate of bilateral salpingectomy with ovarian conservation varied widely among 744 hospitals across the country, ranging from 0% to 72.2%.

“The wide variation in hospital practice may result in differential access to prophylactic procedures depending on where patients access care,” said Xu. “This can have longer-term health implications given the benefits of ovarian conservation.”

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