Chronic Constipation
Chronic constipation is a common disorder that affects approximately 20% of the population and significantly impacts an individual’s quality of life. The diagnosis can be made using standard criteria, and…
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Female Patients
Irritable bowel syndrome is probably the most common functional gastrointestinal disorder and is characterized by abdominal pain along with altered bowel function. It is a disorder of female predominance. This…
Women’s Gastrointestinal Health in 2016: An Introduction to an Expanding Field in Gastroenterology
Laurel R. Fisher, MD, Editor Several years ago, the Gastroenterology Clinics of North America released a publication devoted to Women’s Issues, reflecting an early awareness of potential differences in women’s…
View from the Top: Perspectives on Women in Gastroenterology from Society Leaders
Women are making great strides at all levels of medicine, including gastroenterology. The proportion of women members in gastroenterology societies has increased nearly 2-fold and the percent of women trainees…
Hepatitis B in the Female Population
Chronic hepatitis B infection in the female population has implications not just for the individual but for her children as well. This article discusses the natural history of hepatitis B…
Women with Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is less frequent in women than in men, in large part due to the lower prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and alcohol use in women. The most common…
Metabolic Bone Disease in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a liver-specific autoimmune disease that primarily affects women (female-to-male ratio, 10:1) between 40 and 60 years of age. Metabolic bone disease is a common complication of…
Obesity in Women
Approximately 36% of adult women in the United States are obese. Although obesity affects women similarly to men in terms of prevalence, there seem to be gender-specific differences in the…
Caring for Women with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease are chronic inflammatory diseases with typical onset in early adulthood. These diseases, therefore, can affect a woman throughout the many stages of her life, including…
Pregnancy and the Patient with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
For many women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the illness coincides with their childbearing years. IBD increases the risk of pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The multidisciplinary care team…
