Category: News

What All Women Should Know About Toxic Shock Syndrome

What all women should know about toxic shock syndrome is that it’s serious, and you can easily be infected without knowing what to do, or not to do. Young women, especially those in the early years of menstruation, should pay particular attention. Toxic shock syndrome, or TSS, is a real risk if you aren’t careful to use feminine products safely.

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Prioritizing Breast Health: Your Guide to Breast Exams

Breast exams are performed to check for any unusual changes to your breast tissue. These checks are an important way to be proactive with your breast health—early detection is the best protection. Do you know how to do a monthly breast self exam? Prioritizing breast health: your guide to breast exams.

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Uterine Polyps vs Fibroids: What’s The Difference?

Women who have either uterine polyps or fibroids can be asymptomatic, meaning they have no symptoms. They can go through life oblivious to these conditions unless they begin to have certain symptoms, and that is usually when there is a diagnosis. Uterine polyps vs fibroids: what’s the difference?

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What Are the Reasons for a Hysterectomy?

Each year almost 600K hysterectomies are performed. It is a surgery to remove the uterus. Afterward patients won’t be able to become pregnant, and they will no longer have their period. Depending on the reason for the surgery, your surgeon may also remove the fallopian tubes and the ovaries. That’s a lot of surgeries, so for what reasons is a hysterectomy performed?

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COVID-19 Update

Thank you for being patient with the staff and providers at VWHA during this very difficult time in global healthcare. We’ve been actively updating our policies based on recommendations from the CDC who as you know are increasing restrictions regarding social distancing particularly in medical environments that increase risk for exposure. In that light, we are modifying our policy for the office regarding visitors to the following:

1. Only allowing the patient in the office.
We are doing our best to prescreen every patient for risk factors prior to coming into the office. We cannot effectively screen every support person as well, so we are trying to minimize patient and provider risk by limiting numbers. Please be cognizant of any risk factors your partner may have for the virus including flu like illness and help us by keeping them home if any risk is present.

2. No children in the office.
We realize your children are home from school, but we ask that you participate with our telemedicine option to avoid finding childcare in lieu of bringing them with you to your visits. Again, we are doing this for the safety of your kids, you as a patient, our other patients and our providers.

3. Telemedicine Appointments

We’re pleased to offer telemedicine appointments during this time. If you have an appointment that is non-emergent such as a well woman exam, our office will convert this visit into a telehealth consult and this will allow authorization for renewal of medication(s). Please schedule your well woman appointment in three months. For example, if you would like to discuss family planning options, painful periods, irregular periods, preparing for pregnancy, fertility questions, biopsy, ultrasound, bone density, mammogram, and lab results. Please call our office to schedule a telemedicine appointment with one of our physicians.

4. Urgent Appointments

If you have an urgent issue, please call our office and we will make exceptions on a case by case basis only.

Again, thank you for your patience. Please be kind to our administrative staff who are attempting to reinforce all these policies while attempting to keep you and your family safe and healthy.

5. Non-Critical Appointments
We strongly recommend that you schedule a telemedicine appointment to address any health questions or concerns. If you’re coming in for a simple well woman exam, we can easily reschedule your visit in one or two months when the risk of Coronavirus will hopefully have diminished.

3 Types of Cervical Cancer and What You Should Know About Them

Cervical cancer was once one of the most common cancers affecting women. In past years, medical researchers have reported a significant decrease in incidences of cervical cancer, which has been attributed to increase in regular Pap tests being performed. Pap tests are a crucial part of preventing cervical cancer since they can detect precancerous lesions and abnormal cell growth before cancer develops.

Most cervical cancer cases are related to the human papillomavirus (HPV). This sexually transmitted infection can influence the development of cervical cancer as it aids in the abnormal growth of cervical cells.

These cells do not always develop in the same way, which is why there are 3 discernible types of cervical cancer.

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