Women's Health

Women have the unique ability to bear children, which requires a highly sophisticated reproductive system complete with unique sexual hormones and organs. Hormones have a major role to play in a woman’s body, directing puberty, the development of eggs and menstruation, and later, to menopause. At each step of a woman’s life, hormones change and, in some sense, define the stage of life in which the woman finds herself. Due to the complex interplay between the reproductive system and the rest of the body, many women must undergo some form of hormone monitoring and adjustment to ensure proper body function. Treatments aid in the achievement of total balance in a woman’s body.

Contraception

Women today have many options available to them when it comes to birth control. Many of these options involve hormones and can be oral (the “pill”), implanted (either in the uterus or under the skin), injected or absorbed (from vaginal devices or patches worn on the skin). Most hormone contraceptives are combinations of estrogen and progesterone and work in two ways: they prevent the monthly release of an egg from the ovaries and they thicken the mucous in the cervix and vagina, making it difficult for sperm to get through in case an egg is accidentally released. All of these options are reversible - if a woman decides she wants to become pregnant, she can simply stop using whatever method of contraception she has chosen.

Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common medical condition characterized by growth beyond or outside the uterus of tissue resembling endometrium, the tissue that normally lines the uterus. In endometriosis, the endometrium is found to be growing outside the uterus, most commonly in the pelvis. Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases, affecting more than 5.5 million women in North America. An estimated 2 percent to 10 percent of women of reproductive age have endometriosis.

Infertility

Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a man or a woman to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects about 6.1 million people in the U.S., equivalent to ten percent of the reproductive age population. Female infertility accounts for one third of infertility cases, male infertility for another third, combined male and female infertility for another 15 percent and the remainder of cases are "unexplained."