Ways to Help - Be an Advocate for Fibroid Research
Make your voice heard! Send the following letter in support of women's health research to your senator(s).
Dear Senator:As a constituent, I am writing to urge you to support increased funding for women's health research. Scientific progress in the field of medicine in general, and in the area of female reproductive biology in particular, has been impressive in the United States during the past decade. However, it is important that these efforts be continued and expanded if we are to conti
nue our progress towards improving health care for women in this country.Research funding relevant to women's health is particularly important in view of the increasing and aging population of women in the United States. Issues ranging from cancer prevention and treatment to hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis and uterine fibroids merit aggressive research funding. Specifically, uterine fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus that may affect as many as 80% of reproductive age women. Fibroids are the most common indication for hysterectomy, accounting for approximately one third (or about 200,000) of hysterectomies in the US each year. In addition to the costs and consequences of hysterectomy, fibroids are also associated with significant morbidity including abnormal uterine bleeding and anemia, debilitating pelvic pain, infertility, spontaneous abortion, and premature labor. Clearly, funding of fibroid research would lead to enormous savings in health care costs in the future.
Now is the time for Congress to allocate more money to support research for women's health problems. The Center for Uterine Fibroids at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts is an organization dedicated to clinical and scientific research to address the major public health problem of uterine fibroids. As a supporter of this organization, I urge you to increase support for basic and clinical investigation in these areas so that our population will enjoy improved health care and quality of life.
Sincerely,