NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In adult patients with traumatic brain injury, treatment with the pregnancy-supporting hormone progesterone may improve outcomes — especially in cases of moderate injury — according to a report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Wright from the School of Medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues conducted a trial to assess the safety and potential benefit of administering intravenous progesterone to 100 patients with brain injury. Progesterone patients remained in coma longer than placebo patients, the report indicates, but just 13 percent of progesterone-treated patients died within 30 days of injury compared with 30. On the other hand, at 30 days, survivors of severe brain injury who had received placebo were slightly less disabled than those who had received progesterone, the report indicates. Patients with moderate traumatic brain injury who had received progesterone were significantly less disabled than those who had received placebo. read more

Some women’s feet grow during pregnancy, anything from half a shoe size to a full shoe size bigger with each baby. As women get heavier, added body weight flattens their arches, making their feet spread to a larger size. They’re not really new, but pregnant women may notice a third breast or nipple grow and darken near their arm pits, rib cage or stomach. Pregnant women may notice new polyps of skin growing on their bodies, especially in areas where skin rubs together or against clothing. Blood volume also increases in pregnant women, so more blood flows to the nose, explaining the more frequent bleeding. Many pregnant women complain of “pregnancy amnesia” or absentmindedness — forgetting appointments, for instance, or failing to recall certain words. read more

At similar pregnancy resource centers in small towns and big cities nationwide, volunteers who believe abortion is murder advise women that the procedure has been linked to breast cancer and infertility. Some states, like Oregon and New York, are trying to increase oversight of the crisis pregnancy centers out of concern that the information they provide about abortion may be biased or simply wrong. Abortion rights groups have received cool receptions in states where they have pressed for legislation to monitor crisis pregnancy centers, regulate the information they provide, and require tighter oversight and disclosure from centers that offer free ultrasounds. The proposed Oregon legislation would require the state Health Department to collect data on any state funding going to crisis pregnancy centers, whether the centers observe medical privacy rules and if “intentionally misleading or medically and factually inaccurate information is given to clients at alternative-to-abortion organizations. read more

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