Your well-being is strongly influenced by what you eat and drink. Healthy eating should not be bland or restrictive, but enjoyable and satisfying, important features of healthy eating include low levels of fat and sugar, and plenty of water, fresh fruit and vegetables. To reduce the fat content of your meals you should: • remove [...]

What is a Miscarriage? The medical term for miscarriage is ‘spontaneous abortion’ and it occurs before week 24 of pregnancy. After 24 weeks, the delivery of a baby which has died is called a stillbirth. Many women do not like the term ‘spontaneous abortion’ as it reminds them of ‘induced abortion’ which is the deliberate [...]

  All of the feelings and emotions of living with endometriosis are complex and difficult, but it is important to remember that you have to be the one to make and accept your decisions. Sue’s story I’m out and about and then I get the standard question: ‘How are you?’. I give my usual answer: [...]

Endometriosis is one of the conditions women can get when the apparatus plays up. The degree of the problem varies from absolutely no symptoms, or mild discomfort, to severe chronic pain and infertility. What is it? The problem is that bits of stuff which are usually only found in the lining of the uterus have [...]

Birth centres. The philosophy behind most birth centres is to provide low intervention, more individual obstetric care. They try to provide a safe environment where a woman can feel she has more input into and control over her birthing experience. The physical environment is usually less clinical, and more like a home or hotel room, [...]

Bartholin’s gland cysts. There are a couple of glands which make lubricating fluid for the vagina, with two little outlets in the vaginal walls, one on each side, not far from the entrance to the vagina. Sometimes these outlets get blocked. The fluid cannot get out, and forms a swelling in the wall of the [...]

The description of the symptoms and the fairly typical appearance of the affected area is usually enough to make a diagnosis. A swab can be taken to confirm this, and this is often done in cases which are recurrent, or not typical, or to exclude other bugs. Treatment. The routine, traditional treatment of thrush is [...]

The actual cause of PMS is not yet fully understood, but as in most medical mystery stories there are plenty of theories about whodunit. Perhaps it is the higher levels of oestrogen, not enough or too much progesterone, or imbalances of other chemical messengers, like prostaglandins, thyroid hormone, serotonin, prolactin; the list of suspects is [...]