Circulating branched-chain amino acids and long-term risk of obesity-related cancers in women.

Obesity is a risk factor for > 13 cancer sites, although it is unknown whether there is a common mechanism across sites. Evidence suggests a role for impaired branched-chain amino acid (BCAAs; isoleucine, leucine, valine) metabolism in obesity, insulin resistance, and immunity; thus, we hypothesized circulating BCAAs may be associated with incident obesity-related cancers. We analyzed participants in the prospective Women's Health Study without a history of cancer at baseline blood collection (N = 26,711, mean age = 54.

COVID-19 Threatens Progress Toward Gender Equity Within Academic Medicine.

Women remain underrepresented within academic medicine despite past and present efforts to promote gender equity. The authors discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic could stymie progress toward gender parity within the biomedical workforce and limit the retention and advancement of women in science and medicine. Women faculty face distinct challenges as they navigate the impact of shelter-in-place and social distancing on work and home life.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Exposure, Gestational Weight Gain, and Postpartum Weight Changes in Project Viva.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the extent to which pregnancy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concentrations were associated with gestational weight gain and postpartum weight changes.

Methods: This study was composed of 1,614 women recruited between 1999 and 2002 via the Project Viva cohort with pregnancy plasma concentrations of six PFAS, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and 2-(N-ethyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido) acetic acid. Gestational weight gain was defined as the difference between last pregnancy weight and prepregnancy weight, 1-year postpartum weight retention as the difference between 1-year postpartum weight and prepregnancy weight, and 3-year postpartum weight change as the difference between 3-year postpartum weight and prepregnancy weight.

Health risks and outcomes that disproportionately affect women during the Covid-19 pandemic: A review.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic is straining healthcare systems in the US and globally, which has wide-reaching implications for health. Women experience unique health risks and outcomes influenced by their gender, and this narrative review aims to outline how these differences are exacerbated in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Observations: It has been well described that men suffer from greater morbidity and mortality once infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Prepregnancy handling of antineoplastic drugs and risk of miscarriage in female nurses.

Purpose: To examine the association betweenantineoplastic drug (AD) handling and risk of miscarriage.

Methods: Nurses' Health Study-3 participants self-reported AD administration and engineering controls (ECs) and personal protective equipment (PPE) use at baseline. We estimated the hazard ratio (HR) of miscarriage in relation to baseline AD handling using multivariable Cox proportional regression.

Training Nonradiologist Clinicians in Diagnostic Breast Ultrasound in Rural Rwanda: Impact on Knowledge and Skills.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of diagnostic breast ultrasound training provided for general practitioners and nurses in Rwanda via intensive in-person and subsequent online supervision and mentorship.

Methods: Four breast radiologists from Brigham and Women's Hospital trained two general practitioner physicians and five nurses in Rwanda over 9 total weeks of in-person training and 20 months of remote mentorship using electronic image review with emailed feedback. Independently recorded assessments were compared to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of trainee assessments, with radiologist assessments as the gold standard.

Dietary Inflammatory and Insulinemic Potential and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Results From Three Prospective U.S. Cohort Studies.

Objective: To examine whether proinflammatory and hyperinsulinemic diets are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: We prospectively followed 74,767 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1984-2016), 90,786 women from the Nurses' Health Study II (1989-2017), and 39,442 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2016). Using repeated measures of food-frequency questionnaires, we calculated empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) and empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia (EDIH) scores, which are food-based indices that characterize dietary inflammatory or insulinemic potential based on circulating biomarkers of inflammation or C-peptide.

Multidimensional sleep health is not cross-sectionally or longitudinally associated with adiposity in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objectives: The association between sleep and adiposity (indexed by body mass index or waist-to-hip ratio) has typically been evaluated using a single dimension of self-reported sleep. However, other dimensions and behavioral measures of sleep may also be associated with adiposity. This study evaluated whether multidimensional sleep health calculated from actigraphy and self-report was longitudinally associated with adiposity in a sample of midlife women who have a high prevalence of sleep disturbances and adiposity.

Pregnancy Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Concentrations and Postpartum Health in Project Viva: A Prospective Cohort.

Context: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are environmental chemicals linked to weight gain and type 2 diabetes.

Objective: We examined the extent to which PFAS plasma concentrations during pregnancy were associated with postpartum anthropometry and biomarkers.

Design, Patients, And Measures: We studied women recruited between 1999 and 2002 in the Project Viva prospective cohort with pregnancy plasma concentrations of PFAS, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and 2-(N-ethyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamide) acetic acid (EtFOSAA).

NAMS 2019 Pre-Meeting Symposium, September 2019, Chicago Illinois: The Perimenopause.

The North American Menopause Society held the 2019 Pre-Meeting Symposium on September 25, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois, to review the current state of the science related to the physiology of the perimenopause and to address management of the most prevalent and pressing clinical issues. The perimenopause, as defined by the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop + 10, encompasses the menopause transition as well as the first year following menopause, the final menstrual period. This phase in the continuum of women's reproductive lives had been one of the least well understood.

The Mediterranean diet, plasma metabolome, and cardiovascular disease risk.

Aims: To investigate whether metabolic signature composed of multiple plasma metabolites can be used to characterize adherence and metabolic response to the Mediterranean diet and whether such a metabolic signature is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Methods And Results: Our primary study cohort included 1859 participants from the Spanish PREDIMED trial, and validation cohorts included 6868 participants from the US Nurses' Health Studies I and II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study (NHS/HPFS). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using a validated Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), and plasma metabolome was profiled by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Sex and Gender Differences in Health: What the COVID-19 Pandemic Can Teach Us.

The authors of this commentary call for sex- and gender-specific and differentiating factors to be urgently included in the research, prevention, and therapeutics implementation response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Maternal experiences of racial discrimination and offspring sleep in the first 2 years of life: Project Viva cohort, Massachusetts, USA (1999-2002).

Objective: To examine the association of maternal lifetime experiences of racial discrimination with infant sleep duration over the first 2 years of life.

Design: Prebirth cohort study.

Setting: Massachusetts, USA (baseline: 1999-2002).

Association of Birth by Cesarean Delivery With Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Among Adult Women.

Importance: Cesarean delivery is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity in offspring. However, whether this increased risk also includes obesity-associated conditions remains unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the association of birth by cesarean delivery with offspring's risks of obesity and type 2 diabetes in adulthood.

Effects of NT-814, a dual neurokinin 1 and 3 receptor antagonist, on vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal women: a placebo-controlled, randomized trial.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of NT-814, a dual neurokinin 1,3 antagonist, in postmenopausal women with vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes).

Methods: We completed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in three US clinical research units in 76 postmenopausal women with moderate/severe hot flashes. Participants were randomized to 14 days of once-daily NT-814 or placebo within each of four sequential dose cohorts; 50, 100, 150, and 300 mg.

Clinical Advances in Sex- and Gender-Informed Medicine to Improve the Health of All: A Review.

Importance: Biological sex and sociocultural gender represent major sources of diversity among patients, and recent research has shown the association of sex and gender with health. A growing body of literature describes widespread associations of sex and gender with cells, organs, and the manner in which individual patients interact with health care systems. Sex- and gender-informed medicine is a young paradigm of clinical practice and medical research founded on this literature that considers the association of sex and gender with each element of the disease process from risk, to presentation, to response to therapy.

Antimullerian Hormone and Impending Menopause in Late Reproductive Age: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Background: A test that helps predict the time to the final menstrual period (FMP) has been sought for many years.

Objective: To assess the ability of antimullerian hormone (AMH) measurements to predictions the time to FMP.

Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study.

Trajectory analysis of sleep maintenance problems in midlife women before and after surgical menopause: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objective: Investigate temporal patterns of sleep maintenance problems in women who became surgically menopausal (hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy) before their final menstrual period and examine whether presurgery trajectories of sleep maintenance problems are related to problems staying asleep postsurgery.

Methods: Longitudinal analysis of sleep self-reports collected every 1 to 2 years from 1996 to 2013 from 176 surgically menopausal women in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, a seven-site community-based, multiethnic/multiracial, cohort study. Median follow-up was 15.

Impact of Estradiol Variability and Progesterone on Mood in Perimenopausal Women With Depressive Symptoms.

Context: Women are at increased risk for depressive symptoms during the menopause transition. Changes in estradiol secretion and presence of vasomotor symptoms (VMS) contribute to perimenopausal depressive symptoms, but links with progesterone have not been investigated.

Objective: To determine whether estradiol variability, ovulatory levels of progesterone, and VMS burden are independently associated with perimenopausal depressive symptomatology.

Does midlife aging impact women's sleep duration, continuity, and timing?: A longitudinal analysis from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Our study objectives were to evaluate the age-related changes in actigraphy measures of sleep duration, continuity, and timing across 12 years in midlife women as they traversed the menopause, and to take into account factors affecting women's sleep that also change with age. Black, white, and Chinese women were recruited from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) to participate in an ancillary sleep study on two occasions over 3 years apart and a third assessment 12 years after the first (N = 300, mean ages, 52, 55, and 64 at the three assessments). Women had at least four consecutive nights of actigraphy (95% with 7 nights) and sleep diaries, and self-reported sleep complaints measured at each time point.

Air pollution exposure and risk of spontaneous abortion in the Nurses' Health Study II.

Study Question: Is there an association between air pollution exposures and the risk of spontaneous abortion (SAB)?

Summary Answer: Higher exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution above and beyond a woman's average exposure may be associated with greater risk of SAB, particularly among women experiencing at least one SAB during follow-up.

What Is Known Already: There is sufficient biologic plausibility to suggest that air pollution adversely affects early pregnancy outcomes, particularly pregnancy loss; however, the evidence is limited.

Study Design, Size, Duration: Our prospective cohort study included 19 309 women in the Nurses' Health Study II who contributed a total of 35 025 pregnancies between 1990 and 2008.

Administration of antineoplastic drugs and fecundity in female nurses.

Background: We examined the association between the administration of antineoplastic drugs (AD) and fecundity among female nurses.

Methods: AD administration and use of exposure controls (EC) such as gloves, gowns, and needleless systems were self-reported at baseline among 2649 participants of the Nurses' Health Study 3, who were actively attempting pregnancy. Every 6 months thereafter, the nurses reported the current duration of their pregnancy attempt.

Prenatal Maternal Depression and Neonatal Immune Responses.

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the association of lifetime maternal depression with regulation of immune responses in the infant, measured by cytokine levels and lymphocyte proliferation (LP) in cord blood mononuclear cells collected at delivery.

Methods: We studied women recruited in early pregnancy into the Project Viva longitudinal cohort who had cord blood assayed after delivery (N = 463). Women reported about depressive symptoms in midpregnancy (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and depression history by questionnaire.