Blog Archive
Having regular medical care during your pregnancy – known as prenatal care – is important because it gives your provider an opportunity to look after you and your pregnancy, and to catch any complications early, when they're easiest to treat. That care should continue after your baby is born. Both...
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that affects your liver. If you have hepatitis B during pregnancy, you can pass the virus along to your baby during delivery, which can put your baby's long-term health in jeopardy. Receiving care to prevent or treat hepatitis B is an important part of...
Decades ago, cervical cancer was among the most common causes of cancer death for women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. However, developments in cervical cancer screening, including the Pap test, HPV testing, and HPV vaccination, have dramatically decreased cervical cancer cases and deaths. Almost all...
Do you have irregular periods? The answer to that question may be "yes" if your periods occur more or less often than average, if the length of your menstrual cycle varies from one month to the next, or if you experience an unusual amount of bleeding. Many women have irregular...
Your pelvic floor is a collection of ligaments and muscles that support the structures and organs in your pelvic region. Imagine your pelvic floor as a hammock that cradles your uterus, cervix, vagina, bladder, intestines, and rectum. The muscles of the pelvic floor play an important role in many functions...
If you’re having trouble getting pregnant, you’re not alone. Infertility is heartbreakingly common, affecting 1 in 8 couples, according to RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association. Infertility can have a variety of causes. Fortunately, however, many of the conditions that interfere with pregnancy can be successfully treated. Here at Albany Obstetrics...
During your pregnancy, you should have frequent checkups. The medical care you receive during pregnancy is known as prenatal care, and it’s important for your baby as well as yourself. Prenatal care has three main goals: To provide you with the information you need to make the best health decisions...
One of the best ways to safeguard your health is to have a gynecological exam every year. This exam, which is also known as a well-woman exam, is important because it gives your provider time to answer your questions, educate you about preventive care, and find health problems early, when...
If you have pelvic pain, you’re not alone. By some estimates, pelvic pain affects about 15% of women of childbearing age in the United States. Pelvic pain can be more than just an inconvenience. In addition to interfering with your quality of life, it can cause you to miss days...
Taking good care of yourself while you’re pregnant is one of the best things you can do for your baby. By following a few simple guidelines, you can increase your chances of having a safe, complication-free pregnancy. At Albany Obstetrics & Gynecology, our care providers believe in the importance of...
These days, women have more birth control choices than ever before. But that doesn’t mean every contraceptive option is right for every woman. Different birth control methods offer different advantages, and understanding those options can help you choose the method that is best for you. Here at Albany Obstetrics &...
One of the best ways to have a healthy pregnancy and a safe delivery is to receive high-quality obstetric care. You can get that care from an OB/GYN physician, a licensed midwife, or a combination of providers on a team that includes both. Here at Albany Obstetrics & Gynecology, we...
You’ve decided that you want to start trying for a baby. You and your partner stop using birth control and begin having sex a little more often in hopes that you’ll soon conceive. But each month when your period arrives, you’re disappointed that you aren’t pregnant. This can be very...
Do you have painful periods? If so, you’re not alone. More than half of all menstruating women experience period pain for a day or two each month, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But just because period pain – also known as dysmenorrhea – is common doesn’t...
You’re probably accustomed to going to the doctor when you’re sick or experiencing medical symptoms. Sick visits provide an opportunity for your care provider to diagnose and manage health conditions. But it also makes sense to have medical checkups when you’re well. This is true with your overall health and...
If you’re thinking about using birth control to prevent pregnancy, or for other desired alternative uses, you may be wondering which method is best. Perhaps you’ve heard good things about implants or IUDs. Or maybe your friend is happy with the birth control pills she takes. Which one should you...
Infertility affects up to 15% of couples. You may receive an infertility diagnosis if you can’t get pregnant after one year of unprotected intercourse if you’re under 35, or after six months if you’re over 35, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Infertility has many possible causes....
You probably know there are many important things you can do while you’re expecting to increase your chances of having a healthy baby and an uncomplicated pregnancy. But did you know that choices you make before you get pregnant can also help you and your baby? Here at Albany Obstetrics...
Since the appearance of COVID-19 in December 2019, medical researchers around the world have been working furiously to understand its implications on certain segments of the population, including those who are pregnant. At Albany Obstetrics & Gynecology in Albany, New York, and our team of dedicated women’s health experts...
March is National Endometriosis Awareness Month, which means it’s a good time to consider how endometriosis may affect your chances of getting pregnant. Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue from the lining of your uterus grows in places where it shouldn’t, such as the outside of your uterus or...
During your annual well-woman exam, you may receive a screening test known as a Pap test or Pap smear. This simple test takes just a few seconds and is over before you know it. The Pap test may not seem very important, but it really is. In fact, thanks to...
Infertility is a condition in which a couple does not conceive a baby after 12 months of unprotected sex. It affects 1 in 8 couples, according to RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association. Approximately one-third of infertility is due to a medical condition in the woman, and one-third is attributed to...
As many as 15% of adult American women are estimated to have chronic pelvic pain, lasting six months or longer, but the true number is hard to place since many people simply live with the symptoms, particularly when the pain comes and goes. Nearly one-third have pain that’s severe enough...
Check out our new website with an enhanced reading room! You can now find lots of information about our practice and our services. Our goal is to deliver a great online experience for all patients!
“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits” -Samuel Butler
Hi everyone!If you’ve been to our practice in the last several months for your ob visits, we should have discussed with you flu vaccines and how important it is for you and your baby.Is it still true? Do you still need the vaccine?Now, most of the time, we get the...
Hi everyone! One of the most common complaints we get from our pregnant patients is low back and pelvic pain. There are many reasons for this and they are related to pregnancy itself. As we gain weight, the spine curves, allowing the center of gravity to remain over the legs so we don’t topple over. ...
“Like a great starving beast My body is quivering Fixed On the scent Of Light” Hafiz
It’s interesting to reflect how attitudes about pregnancy have changed. When you come to our office and are given an EDC or “due date’, EDC is actually short for Estimated Date of Confinement. There was a time when pregnancy was thought to be such a fragile state that a woman...
Celiac disease or celiac sprue is a disease that was identified as early as 2nd century AD in present-day Turkey and the cause was unexplained until a Dutch pediatrician recognized an association between eating bread and cereals and relapsing diarrhea in his young patients during World War 2. Celiac disease causes malabsorption of the intestines which...
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” -Albert Einstein
We are referring to the new law signed by Governor Cuomo which requires all providers of mammography to inform women of dense breasts. Several other states also have this “dense breast” law.The letter must read: “Your mammogram shows that your breast tissue is dense. Dense breast tissue is very common...
“The summer night is a like a perfection of thought.” -Wallace Stevens
Hi everyone! We previously talked about weight gain when carrying one baby….Do the recommendations change when we’re carrying twins??The answer is definitely YES! We get to gain more!!First, we need to figure out what our Body Mass Index is prior to pregnancy. Please go here to link to a BMI calculator....
Hi everyone! While we are on the topic of weight, we have a lot of questions from our patients about optimal weight gain during pregnancy. Let’s say we gain 30-32 lbs during the pregnancy. How is the weight distributed? Fetus: 7-8 lbs Maternal fat stores: 6-8 lbs Maternal blood volume:...
Most of us have probably experienced heavy periods some time in our lives. Some months may be normal, and other months make us feel like we live in diapers. When we are soaking through a tampon or a pad an hour, that’s probably too heavy. And certainly, if we’re soaking...
"...if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing." Kahil Gibran
February is the month of love, Valentines and ….Heart Disease Awareness Month. Not so romantic when we consider that heart disease is the Number 1 cause of death for women in the United States! That’s right. It’s not breast cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, but heart disease that will do us...
Hi everyone! Now that the new year is upon us, and almost everyone has a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and exercise more, let’s talk about thinnning bones or osteopenia and osteoporosis. The image is an example of a DEXA scan. How are they related and why do we care...