Janine O'Leary Cobb | |
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Born | June 20, 1933 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Occupation | Author, health activist |
Genre | Women's Health |
Notable works | Understanding Menopause and A Friend Indeed |
Janine O'Leary Cobb is a women's health activist and educator, and the author of one of the first popular books on menopause intended for a mainstream audience, Understanding Menopause (first published in 1988, now in its 6th edition, published 2005). [1] Cobb is recognized widely as a pioneer in the women's health movement in North America and has won critical recognition for her work in the field. [2] [3] [4] [5]
In 1984 she founded the popular health newsletter, A Friend Indeed, dedicated to highlighting the increasing medicalization of menopause, and to breaking the taboo of silence that still hung over many important women's health issues, such as menstruation, menopause and breast cancer. [6] The publication continued to be released bi-monthly under the stewardship of other editors until 2006. [7]
Cobb was previously a professor with Vanier College, Montreal and is currently a board member with Breast Cancer Action Montreal. [8] She is also a contributor to Our Bodies, Ourselves, the groundbreaking women's health collective. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Estrone (E1), also spelled oestrone, is a steroid, a weak estrogen, and a minor female sex hormone. It is one of three major endogenous estrogens, the others being estradiol and estriol. Estrone, as well as the other estrogens, are synthesized from cholesterol and secreted mainly from the gonads, though they can also be formed from adrenal androgens in adipose tissue. Relative to estradiol, both estrone and estriol have far weaker activity as estrogens. Estrone can be converted into estradiol, and serves mainly as a precursor or metabolic intermediate of estradiol. It is both a precursor and metabolite of estradiol.
Hot flashes are a form of flushing, often caused by the changing hormone levels that are characteristic of menopause. They are typically experienced as a feeling of intense heat with sweating and rapid heartbeat, and may typically last from two to 30 minutes for each occurrence.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was a series of clinical studies initiated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1991, to address major health issues causing morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women. It consisted of three clinical trials (CT) and an observational study (OS). In particular, randomized controlled trials were designed and funded that addressed cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), also known as bioidentical hormone therapy (BHT) or natural hormone therapy, is the use of hormones that are identical on a molecular level with endogenous hormones in hormone replacement therapy. It may also be combined with blood and saliva testing of hormone levels, and the use of pharmacy compounding to obtain hormones in an effort to reach a targeted level of hormones in the body. A number of claims by some proponents of BHT have not been confirmed through scientific testing. Specific hormones used in BHT include estrone, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and estriol.
Tibolone, sold under the brand name Livial among others, is a medication which is used in menopausal hormone therapy and in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis and endometriosis. The medication is available alone and is not formulated or used in combination with other medications. It is taken by mouth.
Barbara Seaman was an American author, feminist activist, and journalist, and a principal founder of the women's health movement.
The National Women's Health Network (NWHN) is a non-profit women's health advocacy organization located in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1975 by Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, Mary Howell, and Phyllis Chesler. The stated mission of the organization is to give women a greater voice within the healthcare system. The NWHN researches and lobbies federal agencies on such issues as AIDS, reproductive rights, breast cancer, older women's health, and new contraceptive technologies. The Women's Health Voice, the NWHN's health information program, provides independent research on a variety of women's health topics.
Marla Shapiro CM, is a Canadian medical doctor, best known as a health journalist for CTV News Channel and formerlyThe Globe and Mail. Her reports on health and medical issues have also aired on Canada AM and on CTV's daytime talk show Balance: Television for Living Well. She is seen regularly on CTV News Channel.
Dressed to Kill is a 1995 book by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer that proposes a link between bras and breast cancer. According to the authors, the restrictive nature of a brassiere inhibits the lymphatic system, leading to an increased risk of breast cancer. The book's claims are considered unfounded by the scientific community, and researchers have criticized the authors' methodology as faulty. Major medical organizations including the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society have found no evidence that bra-wearing increases breast-cancer risk.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause. Effects of menopause can include symptoms such as hot flashes, accelerated skin aging, vaginal dryness, decreased muscle mass, and complications such as osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction, and vaginal atrophy. They are mostly caused by low levels of female sex hormones that occur during menopause.
Vervegirl was a Canadian teen magazine published by Youth Culture, based in Toronto, for young women aged 13–24. The magazine engages young women through lifestyle, global causes, fashion, entertainment, career, health and beauty.
Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg is a Canadian educator and film consultant. She researches, writes and speaks on environmental health, equality, social justice, economic justice, environmental justice, peace, and energy issues.
Kathleen O'Grady is a Canadian author and academic. She has published two children's books, but is more widely known as a feminist scholar who investigates women's health issues through a cultural lens and whose work addresses the under-researched intersection between feminism and the study of religion. She is also a past Editor of Network, the national, bilingual health magazine for Canadian women, and has published several books addressing feminist theory and methodology.
JoAnn Elisabeth Manson is an American physician and professor known for her pioneering research, public leadership, and advocacy in the fields of epidemiology and women's health.
Madelon Lubin Finkel is a retired Professor of Population Health Sciences and Inaugural Director Office of Global Health Education (2004-2021) at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. She holds a doctorate in epidemiology and health services research from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of New York University. Finkel was a visiting professor at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney (Australia) in 2004, and at Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine in Bangkok Thailand in 2016. In 2008, she was named a Fulbright Senior Specialist.
Christobel Mary Saunders is a British-Australian oncologist and breast cancer specialist, who holds the position of Winthrop Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Western Australia.
Conjugated estrogens (CEs), or conjugated equine estrogens (CEEs), sold under the brand name Premarin among others, is an estrogen medication which is used in menopausal hormone therapy and for various other indications. It is a mixture of the sodium salts of estrogen conjugates found in horses, such as estrone sulfate and equilin sulfate. CEEs are available in the form of both natural preparations manufactured from the urine of pregnant mares and fully synthetic replications of the natural preparations. They are formulated both alone and in combination with progestins such as medroxyprogesterone acetate. CEEs are usually taken by mouth, but can also be given by application to the skin or vagina as a cream or by injection into a blood vessel or muscle.
Kathleen I. Pritchard, is the head of oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, specializing in breast cancer therapies, and leading the clinical trials division of the centre. She has authored numerous studies on women's health, breast cancer, hormone replacement therapy, public health, and research methodology. According to Thomson Reuters, Pritchard was one of the most cited researchers in the world in 2014 and 2015.
Sylvia B. Seaman was an American women's suffrage activist who worked to promote public awareness of breast cancer and women's health. In 1995 Seaman died of breast cancer, however, her legacy lies within her novels, and efforts to increase public awareness of breast cancer and women's health.
Christiane Northrup is a former obstetrics and gynaecology physician and author who promotes pseudoscientific alternative medicine and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. She has a history of opposing vaccination and has embraced QAnon ideology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Northrup reaches a significant audience through popular books and multiple social media platforms and spreads misinformation, notably about COVID-19.