Gender // Current

A Day Without A Gay

In the light of recent events that have taken place in the state of California, many people have decided that it’s time to... more

donkeyfly69
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Ovary storage as a way to delay motherhood?

Egg freezing has been heralded as the solution for women who refuse to make the choice between having a high-powered career and... more

tracyclarkflory
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Yemen Ranks Last in Gender Equality

Among 130 countries, Yemen has come the last for the third consecutive year in gender equality, according to the World Economic... more

middle_east
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female to male transgender 6 weeks on hormones

This is what I look and sound like 6 weeks on testostrone. I talk about changes that have happened to my body and some things that... more

JaceTurnerFilm
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Men now earn 17.1% more than women after shock increase in gender pay gap

The pay gap between men and women working full-time has slightly risen, official figures revealed today. However, women who... more

AndreaKnoll
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ABC News: Searching for a Breast Cancer Vaccine

Ingrid Eikineas, of South Hingham, Mass., was only 35 years old when doctors told her last year that she had breast cancer. The... more

pokesmot
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Make Me a Real Man

What makes a man? How do we come of age in the 21st century? In a world where you can still be a boy at thirty, One young-ish... more

stuxwing
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Hundreds of thousands of South Africans dead

A new study estimates that more than 330,000 HIV-positive South Africans lost their lives between 2000 and 2005 as a direct... more

PlusNews
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"Remember the chikcen" they said

Peer educators in South Africa say the darndest things sometimes but who said the truth was pretty, especially if you having sex... more

PlusNews
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Thirteen year old stoned in Somalia

Recently in the news, Somali militants stoned a 23-year-old woman to death for adultury. Then word came that the woman was... more

tracyclarkflory
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"Where my money at" Global Fund to Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's AIDS organisations have condemned the government for failing to account for more than US$7 million provided by the... more

PlusNews
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Small town, BIG grant

There are no roads, no major industry and no historical landmarks in Otjivero, a village about 150km east of Windhoek, the... more

PlusNews
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Aggressive campaign to protect mums and babies in Rwanda

While neighbouring countries struggle to get pregnant women to visit antenatal centres, women in Rwanda seem to be flocking to... more

PlusNews
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Political Train Ride

A train travelling across the southwest acts as a microcosm of our political landscape. Mandy Moran captures the current mood of... more

mandymoran27
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HAITI: Sex for survival puts women at risk

After her aunt turned her out onto the chaotic streets of Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, eight months ago, Marie Jessy*, 16,... more

PlusNews
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UK couples choose baby gender at clinics abroad

A growing number of British couples are choosing the sex of their babies at clinics overseas, the BBC has learned. A BBC... more

saverio
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My First Pony

An irreverent look at gender and sexuality through people's stories about their experiences with strap-ons. "Strap-Ons... more

Meredyth
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Stop Raping our Greatest Resource - Power to Women and Girls of DRC - Introduction

Your move.

pokesmot
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The biggest breast cancer risk factor that no one is talking about

While the media sound alarms about breast cancer's links to lifestyle choices and genetics, a much more likely risk factor is going undiscussed.
During October, women are bombarded with media telling us what we can do to stop breast cancer. Article after article after television human interest segment informs us about personal risk factors such as smoking and being overweight (although 70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have none of these factors) and about genetic risks (which only account for 10 percent of breast cancers.) We are bombarded with stories about the importance of getting mammograms and other tests. Then there are the survivor stories (usually about women much younger, whiter and cover-girl prettier than the average breast cancer survivor) that pull at our heartstrings. But there is very little mention of environmental factors such as auto exhaust, and chemicals like parabens and phthalates that we are exposed to every day.

The most deafening silence, however, is about radiation, which is a 100 percent known cause of cancer. We are exposed to radiation in a variety of ways, through X-rays, CT scans and mammograms, but also by living near a nuclear power plant or having been exposed to weaponry that uses depleted uranium.

Leuren Moret is geoscientist who has been working for a number of years to raise awareness about the dangers of radiation, an issue she became concerned about after hearing Native American women who live near areas where nuclear weapons have been tested talk about cancer and other health problems they are experiencing and by a visit to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. In this interview, she talks about what we know about the relationship between radiation and breast cancer.

Lucinda Marshall: In your recent article published in Namaste magazine, "Populations Exposed to Environmental Uranium: Increased Risk of Infertility and Reproductive Cancers," you wrote about a scientific study that found that "radiation is the only known cause of breast cancer in mice" and about findings that show that Navajo women who live near uranium mining operations have very high rates of breast cancer. What does that tell us about the connection between uranium and radiation and cancer?
more@linkWhile the media sound alarms about breast cancer's links to lifestyle choices and genetics, a much more likely risk factor is... more