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Too much testosterone can kill brain cells, researchers said on Tuesday in a finding that may help explain why steroid abuse can cause behavior changes like aggressiveness and suicidal tendencies. Tests on brain cells in lab dishes showed that while a little of the male hormone is good, too much of it causes cells to self-destruct in a process similar to that seen in brain illnesses such as Alzheimer's. "Too little testosterone is bad, too much is bad but the right amount is perfect," said Barbara Ehrlich of Yale University in Connecticut, who led the study. Testosterone is key to...

Correction Appended Everything you thought you knew about migraine headaches — except that they are among the worst nonfatal afflictions of humankind — may be wrong. At least that’s what headache researchers now maintain. From long-maligned dietary triggers to the underlying cause of the headaches themselves, longstanding beliefs have been brought into question by recent studies. As if that were not enough dogma to overturn, there is growing evidence that almost all so-called sinus headaches are really migraines. No wonder then that the plethora of sinus remedies on the market and the endless prescriptions for antibiotics have yielded so little...

Two fuzzy heartbeats—our doctor pointed to the black-and-white monitor of the ultrasound machine, and we both squinted and pretended to see what he was talking about. A lima bean, we thought, with a smaller lima bean next to it? Sensing that we weren’t getting it, he punched a few keys and suddenly the small exam room at Cornell’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility filled with a rapid-fire thump-thump-thump-thump: our embryos on speakerphone. So wait, it had worked? Twice? When we still didn’t say anything, our other doctor piped up: “This is good news, you guys.” How did we feel?...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

For young women with a world of choices, even that monthly curse, the menstrual period, is optional. Thanks to birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives, a growing number of women are taking the path chosen by 22-year-old Stephanie Sardinha. She hasn't had a period since she was 17. "It's really one of the best things I've ever done,'' she says. A college student and retail worker in Lisbon Falls, Maine, Sardinha uses Nuvaring, a vaginal contraceptive ring. After the hormones run out in three weeks, she replaces the ring right away instead of following instructions to leave the ring...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Thousands of women who rely on custom-made hormone drugs for relief from menopause symptoms have flooded the government with letters opposing a drug company's effort to get health officials to crack down on pharmacies that sell them. The drug company Wyeth wants the Food and Drug Administration to rein in the market for bio-identical hormone replacement therapy drugs. The hormones are custom mixed or compounded by specialized pharmacies according to a doctor's prescription. Compounding pharmacists can alter the dosages of a medicine, prepare it in creams or liquids that are easier to take than pills or...

PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE COMPOUNDED BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONE MEDICATIONS THE FACTS: Recently, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, maker of Premarin & Prempro, (drugs derived from Pregnant Mares Urine – yes, horses pee) filed a Citizen’s Petition with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) asking the FDA to impose harmful restrictions on the compounding and dispensing of Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). (Bio-identical hormones are manufactured to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body.) This petition would eliminate the availability of compounded bio-identical hormones, which are prescribed by healthcare providers and prepared by pharmacists, to meet the unique...

DEAR ABBY: I think my grandson lives next door to me, but I'm not sure. I can't sleep at night wondering and worrying. About two years ago, my neighbor kept inviting my then-18-year-old son over to help her do odd jobs while her husband was at work. He seemed happy to help out, and she always gave him some money for the jobs. A few months later, she and her husband announced they were expecting. I work with this man's ex-wife, and she confided to me once that she never had children because he couldn't give her any. To...

Candace Talmadge was determined to get through menopause without using hormones, and she tried just about every alternative treatment she could find, like soy tablets, herbs and acupuncture, a chiropractor and even an anti-anxiety medication. Two months ago, Ms. Talmadge's doctor suggested that she consider hormone therapy, and she relented. "There are always risks to any medication you take, whether it's traditional or nontraditional," said Ms. Talmadge, 51, an author from Lancaster, Tex. "But I've been going through hell. I think my doctor's attitude was, 'Do the benefits for you, right now, outweigh the risks?' " Three and a half...

In a breathtaking act of bravado, Wyeth is trying to take away your right to access bioidentical hormones and compounding pharmacies by enlisting so-called women’s and physician groups like The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG which is funded in part by Wyeth), North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA also a 'partner' of Wyeth) which have become nothing more than covert "fronts" for the pharmaceutical industry. In October 2005 Wyeth filed a citizen petition with the FDA essentially asking for elimination of the compounding of bioidentical hormone option for women of all ages....

When the parents of 14 year-old Alycia Brown of La Crosse Wisconsin found out their daughter was sexually active, they did what the modern culture told them was the right thing to do; they put her on birth control, choosing the popular hormonal patch instead of the Pill. When on May 7, 2004, Alycia died suddenly of blood clots in her lower pelvis Michael and Lorie Brown decided to sue the deadly drug's manufacturer in the hopes of having it taken off the market.  The patch, which releases a dose of contraceptive hormones into a woman's blood stream through the...

Hormone levels predict attractiveness of women   Gaia Vince   These are the computer-generated composite face of the 10 women with highest and lowest levels of oestrogen - which do you find more attractive? Answers at the end of the story (Image: Miriam Law Smith) Feminine beauty, the subject of philosophical and artistic musings for millennia, can be predicted by something as basic as hormones – in women, but not men. Researchers at the University of St Andrews in Fife, UK, have found that women’s facial attractiveness is directly related to their oestrogen levels.Miriam Law Smith and colleagues photographed...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Problem drinking may dampen both a man's sex life and his chances of having children, according to a new study. Researchers in India found that men being treated for alcoholism had lower testosterone levels and more sperm abnormalities than non-drinkers did. They also had a far higher rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) - 71 percent, versus 7 percent of abstainers. Some past studies have suggested that heavy drinking can take a toll on men's reproductive health. One recent study found that couples had a higher miscarriage risk if the man had consumed 10 or more...

Menopause Doc Fudged Data BURLINGTON, Vt., June 21, 2005 Millions of women have taken hormone therapy, only to learn in recent years that its health benefits were never proved and there were risks involved instead. Now it turns out a key researcher who touted the benefits of hormone replacement is facing a five year jail term, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Dr. Eric Poehlman was renowned for his groundbreaking research on women and menopause. He theorized that menopause makes women lose muscle and gain fat, and causes health problems hormones could help fix. His work was considered so significant...

BIRDS do it, bees do it. But not necessarily all of them. Among bees the sisters of queens do not engage in sex. And in certain species of birds - Florida scrub jays, for one - some individuals, known as helpers, do not breed but only help the breeders raise their offspring. But could indifference to sex extend to humans, too? An increasing number of people say yes and offer themselves as proof. They describe themselves as asexual, and they call their condition normal, not the result of confused sexual orientation, a fear of intimacy or a temporary lapse of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new report adds weight to the idea that recurring breast cancer may be related to which hormones are used in therapy for women after menopause. One trial, called HABITS, was halted in 2003, after women receiving the hormones estrogen and progestogen showed an increased risk of breast cancer recurring, compared to women not receiving hormones. But a second study, the Stockholm trial, using a different therapy concentrating on estrogen, had no increase in breast cancers, according to a paper appearing in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Both studies, done in Sweden,...

REALLY? THE FACTS - In 1997, when a large study found that girls were starting puberty sooner than usual, many Americans began to cast a suspicious eye on milk. Could artificial growth hormones that had been widely used on cows since 1993 be speeding development in children? Sales of organic dairy products took off rapidly, but newer studies have found no link. Instead, if girls are maturing sooner, a notion some scientists still dispute, it may have more to do with obesity than milk. The early puberty theory came from a study suggesting that many girls were developing breasts and...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - How long a man's second finger is relative to his fourth finger appears to predict whether he is prone to be physically aggressive toward others, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. But it's not finger length that causes aggression, study author Allison A. Bailey warned in an interview. She explained that the important factor is the male hormone testosterone. Fetuses are exposed to various levels of this hormone in the womb, and research shows that men who were exposed to higher levels tend to have shorter second...

Pollution Suspected Cause of Anomaly in River's South Branch MOOREFIELD, W.Va. -- The South Branch of the Potomac River is as clear as bottled water here, where it rolls over a bed of smooth stones about 230 miles upstream from Washington. But there is a mystery beneath this glassy surface. Many of the river's male bass are producing eggs. Scientists believe this inversion of nature is being caused by pollution in the water. But they say the exact culprit is still unknown: It might be chicken estrogen left over in poultry manure, or perhaps human hormones dumped in the river...

When Eileen Haraminac, 53, of St. Clair Shores, Mich., began experiencing symptoms of menopause - intense hot flashes, as many as 15 a day, waking in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and fitful sleep - she knew she needed help. But she was also aware that there were problems with hormone therapy, the standard treatment for menopause symptoms. Studies have linked it to a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer. This concern, combined with Mrs. Haraminac's general philosophy about medications - avoid them if possible - persuaded her to try a more...