Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

H. Irene Su, MD, MSCE, an associate professor in the Department of Reproductive Medicine and Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, has been awarded a Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) grant from the Doris A Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research to support her efforts to improve reproductive health needs of young female cancer survivors. The CEI award from the Howell Foundation provides up to $15,000 in funding for pilot research projects which support health promotion and disease prevention among under-served women within the greater San Diego region. The grant is unique in partnering academic researchers with community organizations. For more information about the Howell Foundation, go to: www.howellfoundation.org. Su is the first researcher from UC San Diego to receive the award, which is now in its third year.  She hopes to develop and pilot test a web-based survivorship care plan to improve reproductive health issues such as fertility and pregnancy f...

Women’s health starts with research and ends with education – education as in awareness to become our own best health care advocate.   So to those who ask why women’s health research… did you know that there is currently no screening test that can detect ovarian cancer at its early stage? Some statistics might help highlight the importance of women’s health research as it pertains to ovarian cancer:   (1) About 21,290 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2015. About 14,180 women will die from ovarian cancer in 2015. Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.  A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 75.  This cancer mainly develops in older women. About half of the women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 63 years or older. It is more common in Caucasian women than African-American women. Even though...