The majority of post-menopausal women are uncomfortable talking about vaginal dryness and pain and are reluctant to seek medical help, according to results from a new international survey presented today at the European Congress on Menopause in London.

Beneficial bacteria found in healthy women help to reduce the amount of vaginal HIV among HIV-infected women and might make it more difficult for the virus to spread, boosting the possibility that “good bacteria” might someday be tapped in the fight against HIV.

French surgeons successfully removed a woman’s gall bladder through her vagina, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Most women who think they have a vaginal yeast infection are wrong and may be doing more harm than good in treating their problem, says a Saint Louis University researcher who presented her findings recently.

Silence may impact women’s health since few women or their doctors are comfortable talking about vaginal health openly. This hesitation, combined with a limited understanding of the differences between women, can lead to misinformation, misdiagnosis and potentially ineffective treatments.