WOMEN'S CORNER : REASONS WOMEN DELAY THE TREATMENT OF UTERINE FIBRIOD

A recent survey published in the Journal of Women’s Health indicates that women often delay treatment for uterine fibroids, sometimes for years. According to the survey, 42 percent of black women delay seeking treatment for fibroids more than four years, as do 29 percent of white women.
Uterine fibroids are benign tumours in the uterus that affect approximately three out of every four women over their lifetime. They can have significant negative effects on a woman’s quality of life. Symptoms include unusually heavy menstrual bleeding, excessive pain, cramping, and even fatigue. These symptoms can affect women’s productivity at work, cause them to miss out on recreational activities with friends and family, and even confine them to bed for days each month. Why, then, do so many women wait to seek treatment for their uterine fibroids?
They think the symptoms are normal
I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids earlier this year. I had been suffering from all of the above symptoms, but in talking with other women I’d come to believe that heavier bleeding and more painful cramping were normal as one approached menopause. Having passed age 40, I just assumed my symptoms were typical and that I should tough them out until menopause arrived.
It wasn’t until my doctor gave me a questionnaire that I even mentioned my symptoms, and even then it wasn’t to complain. I just circled the appropriate responses to indicate, for example, how heavy my bleeding was and how severe my cramps were on a scale of one to 10. After looking over my answers, my doctor suggested I come back to be checked for uterine fibroids.
They can’t get a diagnosis
I was lucky. I never had to go from doctor to doctor searching for a diagnosis. As soon as I mentioned my symptoms, my doctor was proactive in getting me checked for uterine fibroids. According to the survey above, 41 percent of women had to see two or more doctors to get a diagnosis, and five percent had to see at least five doctors.
They want to preserve their fertility
The most-common treatments for uterine fibroids are hormone-blocking drugs, birth control pills, or a hysterectomy. All of these options render a woman infertile, either temporarily or permanently. A woman who is trying to conceive would not likely choose any of these options to address her uterine fibroids. Unfortunately, fibroids can sometimes negatively impact fertility or even cause miscarriage, but women with fibroids are usually still able to conceive and carry a child. The desire to build a family often trumps the need to deal with a non-life-threatening but painful condition like uterine fibroids.
They are afraid of surgery
Uterine fibroids are the leading reason hysterectomies are performed in the United States. In fact, that is the option I chose to treat my own fibroids, and I have been happy with the results. After my recovery, my quality of life has been much better without the pain and heavy monthly bleeding the uterine fibroids caused.
But going under the knife is a big decision. It is expensive, it typically requires general anesthesia and at least one overnight stay in the hospital, and even done laparoscopically, the procedure does require several weeks to fully heal. With few proven alternatives to a hysterectomy, many women who want to avoid surgery simply don’t seek treatment at all.
 Hope for the future
Various other means of treating uterine fibroids are being studied, including embolisation, laser or radio frequency treatments, freezing, surgical removal of just the fibroids, and focused ultrasound. Recurrence of fibroids is a possibility with all treatments other than hysterectomy. But the results could be promising for women who hope to preserve their uterus.
 Talk to your doctor
If you have unusual menstrual symptoms, speak with your doctor. Uterine fibroids are treatable, and the symptoms can be relieved. Also, the symptoms associated with uterine fibroids can have other causes, such as gynecologic cancers, which should be ruled out. Do not ignore unusually heavy bleeding or significant pelvic and abdominal pain, thinking they are just a normal part of aging.
Source DI

SHOCKING : FIFTH CYCLIST KILLED ON LONDON ROADS IN JUST NINE DAYS:

cyclist has died while travelling on a London road this morning becoming the fifth person to die in just nine days and the second to be killed in a cycling accident in the last 24 hours.

The unnamed man died in hospital at around  04:00 GMT this morning after the collision with a bus at the junction of Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road in Aldgate, east London, at around 11.30pm last night.
The man was treated on the roadside by the London Ambulance Service but died in hospital at around 4am today, Scotland Yard said. The male driver of the bus was treated for shock at the scene.
The accident brings the total number of deaths this year on the capital's roads to 13, compared with 14 in 2012.
The death followed that of a woman in her mid-20s who was killed in the morning rush-hour yesterday on the Bow roundabout in east London. Police were called to the scene following reports of a lorry in a collision with a cyclist.
The cyclist was believed to have been travelling in the same direction as the lorry - travelling west along the A11, entering the roundabout to turn south towards the Blackwall Tunnel - when the collision occurred.
Police added that the male driver of the lorry stopped at the scene and there had been no arrests.
Following the deaths London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said: "The mayor's (Boris Johnson) failure to make roads safer for cycling in the last six years is the reason we are having so many tragedies now.
"In the past decade, the number of cyclists in the capital has almost trebled and it is absolutely vital that we continue to invest huge sums of money into improving cycling infrastructure and making it as safe as possible."

GROSS LIABILTY MINDSET: Oduah admits approving purchase of N564m cars

Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah yesterday admitted approving the purchase of 54 cars for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which is outside what was approved by the National Assembly in the 2013 budget.

Oduah who testified on the third day of the investigative hearing by the House of Representatives committee on aviation into the purchase of armoured cars worth N255 million said due process was followed in the procurement.
Oduah arrived venue of the hearing at exactly 11:37.am against the 10.am directed by the committee on Wednesday. She had cause to leave the venue for about ten minutes barely two minutes after her arrival.
She said the vehicles were provided for in the NCAA 2013 appropriation approved by the National Assembly and that the cars were not bought for her but for operations of the agency.
But the lawmakers insisted yesterday that they only approved N240 million for 25 vehicles in the NCAA’s 2013 budget. In the NCAA 2013 budget approval document of the National Assembly obtained by Daily Trust, the provisions for operational vehicles were Toyota pick-up Hilux, five units; Toyota Corolla, 10 units; Toyota Landcruiser, five units; Toyota Hiace bus, three units; security inspection vehicle, two units for safety/security purposes and inspection of perimeter fences, all at the sum of N240 million.
Oduah who took more than 30 minutes to present her position said: “In the last few weeks, I have received all sorts of bashings in the media. Many persons have also arisen to my defence. Many have abused me, some out of genuine sense of outrage that I allegedly spent the sum of USD1.6 million of government funds to purchase for myself 2 bullet-proof BMW for my personal use.
“There was nothing in the approved docu-ments reflecting my name, when the budget was being made. At no time did I ever request for any vehicle from the NCAA. It was the agency that had the need and made the request to the federal ministry of aviation.
“After the purchase on a 3 year lease financing arrangement, the vehicles were never delivered to me. The vehicles were also not registered in my name but that of the agency. All I did was to approve the request of the agency doing the needful as evidenced by my minutes on the letter dated 15th April,” she said.
Oduah added that, “on the procedure for the lease arrangement for the acquisition of the vehicles, let me reiterate that from the records available to me, it would appear that the NCAA followed the due process required. I have been made to understand that there exist no guidelines issued by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) on lease financing.”
But the BPP in its submission to the committee last week said due process was not followed in the procurement process as the transaction did not come to its notice.
First Bank Plc also told the committee on Wednesday that the agreement it entered with NCAA was an auto loan arrangement and not lease financing.
When members of the committee inquired to know why Oduah approved more than the N100 million threshold by a minister, she said her directive was simply “Kindly do the needful.”
Rep Zakari Mohammed (PDP, Kwara) fur-ther asked her to explain what she meant by “Kindly do the needful,” saying she breached the law. But Oduah replied by saying “I’m sorry but your interpretation is wrong. What it meant was that they should do the necessary due diligence.”
Mohammed also told the minister that First Bank Plc had submitted that it was a loan agreement it entered with NCAA, but Oduah explained that both lease financing and loan agreement are the same. She said the agreement was a standard template used by First Bank, insisting that the amount to be paid by NCAA by year end would still be within the appropriated sum by the National Assembly.
At a point when the lawmakers asked the minister if armoured cars could be used for inspecting perimeter fencing, Oduah replied saying “I’m at a loss. Security cars are armoured cars and armoured cars are security cars.”
The committee asked Joyce Nkemakolom who was the acting DG of NCAA at the time of the contract to explain what they did when the minister approved and said they should do “the needful.”
In his explanation, Nkemakolom said because they had “a mindset that the National Assembly approved purchase of the cars,” they thought she meant they should go ahead and follow due process in acquisition. But a member of the committee Rep Jerry Mamwe (PDP, Taraba) accused him of misleading the minister by originating the request when he knew that NASS only approved 25 vehicles at the cost of N240 million.
Oduah also accused some individuals of causing her woes saying “The second category of commentators are the entrenched interests in the aviation sector, who for over 38 years have held the sector to the jugular and refused to allow any meaningful development and change to take place.”
Mamwe however said: “I disagree with the minister that the cars were approved by NASS. I don’t also agree with her that it was a lease financing agreement when First Bank told us yesterday (Wednesday) that it was an auto loan agreement. It’s either NCAA misled you or prepared the text for you to read.”
According to the lawmaker, there was a contradiction between the N100 million Oduah said NCAA would have paid to First Bank by December 31 when the bank itself said it is N116 million.
The lawmakers also observed that the amount said to have been approved by the minister in the NCAA request letter was about N564 million but the agency said the total sum for the transaction was N643 million.
The ex-acting DG Nkemakolom however said it was as a result of non-conclusion of the whole agreement at the beginning. The committee therefore accused him of misleading the minister. Chairperson of the committee Rep Nkiruka Onyejeocha (PDP, Abia) said at the end of the hearing that the committee had given fair hearing to all concerned and that they would consider all the submissions made in line with extant laws and financial regulations. The committee is expected to submit its report to the House on Tuesday next week.