HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OVARIAN CYST?

What is Ovarian Cyst?
An ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac that develops on a woman’s ovary. Women have two ovaries — each about the size and shape of an almond — located on each side of the uterus. Eggs (ova) develop and mature in the ovaries and are released in monthly cycles during your childbearing years.
Most ovarian cysts occur as part of the normal workings of the ovaries. They are very common and do not usually cause any symptoms. These cysts are generally harmless and disappear without treatment in a few months.
Many women have ovarian cysts at some time during their lives.Most ovarian cysts present little or no discomfort and are harmless. The majority of ovarian cysts disappear without treatment within a few months.
However, ovarian cysts — especially those that have ruptured — sometimes produce serious symptoms. The best ways to protect your health are to know the symptoms that may signal a more significant problem and to schedule regular pelvic examinations.

Types of ovarian cyst
The two main types of ovarian are:
1. Functional ovarian cysts – cysts that develop as part of the menstrual cycle and are usually harmless and short-lived; these are the most common type of ovarian cyst
2. Pathological ovarian cysts – cysts that occur due to abnormal cell growth; these are much less common

Causes of ovarian cysts
Ovarian cysts often develop for no apparent reason in women who have monthly periods. They develop as a result of the normal function of your menstrual cycle (known as functional cysts.) The other types of cysts are much less common and are not related to the normal function of your menstrual cycle. Ovarian cyst also affect women who no longer have periods, meaning women in their menopause.

Conditions That Cause Ovarian Cysts
In some cases, ovarian cysts are caused by certain conditions, such as endometriosis.
   Endometriosis occurs when pieces of the tissue that line the womb (endometrium) are found outside the womb in the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bladder, bowel, vagina or rectum. Blood-filled cysts can sometimes form in this tissue.
   Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a condition that causes lots of small, harmless cysts to develop on your ovaries. The cysts are small egg follicles that do not grow to ovulation and are the result of altered hormone.
  Other types of cysts not related to the normal function of your menstrual cycle.
   1. Dermoid cysts. These cysts may contain tissue, such as hair, skin or teeth, because they form from cells that produce human eggs. They are rarely cancerous.
    2. Cystadenomas. These cysts develop from ovarian tissue and may be filled with a watery liquid or a mucous material.
   3. Endometriomas.  These cysts develop as a result of endometriosis, a condition in which uterine endometrial cells grow outside your uterus. Some of that tissue may attach to your ovary and form a growth.
Dermoid cysts and cystadenomas can become large, causing the ovary to move out of its usual position in the pelvis. This increases the chance of painful twisting of your ovary, called ovarian torsion.
Complications Associated With Ovarian Cyst.
Some women develop less common types of cysts that may not produce symptoms, but that a doctor may find during a pelvic exam. Cystic ovarian masses that develop after menopause may be cancerous (malignant). That's why it's important to have regular pelvic exams.

Infrequent complications associated with ovarian cysts include:
   1. Ovarian torsion. Cysts that become large may cause the ovary to move out of its usual position in the pelvis. This increases the chance of painful twisting of your ovary, called ovarian torsion.
   2. Rupture. A cyst that ruptures may cause severe pain and lead to internal bleeding.

 Do ovarian cysts affect fertility?
Ovarian cysts don't usually prevent you from getting pregnant, although they can sometimes make it harder to conceive.
If you need an operation to remove your cysts, your surgeon will aim to preserve your fertility whenever possible. This may mean removing just the cyst and leaving the ovaries intact, or only removing one ovary.
In some cases, surgery to remove both your ovaries may be necessary, in which case you will no longer produce any eggs. Make sure you talk to your surgeon about the potential effects on your fertility before your operation.
Signs And Symptoms
An ovarian cyst will usually only cause symptoms if it's very large or it splits (ruptures), or it blocks the blood supply to the ovaries. In these cases, you may have:
  1. pelvic pain – this can range from a dull, heavy sensation to a sudden, severe and sharp pain
  2. pain during sex
  3. difficulty emptying your bowels
  4. a frequent need to urinate
  5. heavy periods, irregular periods or lighter periods than normal
  6. bloating and a swollen tummy
  7. feeling very full after only eating a little
  8. difficulty getting pregnant (although fertility is unaffected in most women with ovarian cysts)
Visit your doctor if you persistently experience any of  symptoms listed above.
How To Prevent Ovarian Cyst
Although there's no definite way to prevent the growth of ovarian cysts, regular pelvic examinations are a way to help ensure that changes in your ovaries are diagnosed as early as possible. In addition, be alert to changes in your monthly cycle, including symptoms that may accompany menstruation that aren't typical for you or that persist over more than a few cycles. Talk with your doctor about any changes that concern you.

Treatment For Ovarian Cyst
Treatment depends on your age, the type and size of your cyst, and your symptoms. Your doctor may suggest:
  1. Watchful waiting. In many cases you can wait and be re-examined to see if the cyst goes away on its own within a few months. This is typically an option — regardless of your age — if you have no symptoms and an ultrasound shows you have a small, fluid-filled cyst. Your doctor will likely recommend that you get follow-up pelvic ultrasounds at periodic intervals to see if your cyst has changed in size.
 2. Birth control pills or Medication. Your doctor may recommend birth control pills or some medications to reduce the chance of new cysts developing in future menstrual cycles.
3. Surgery. Your doctor may suggest removal of a cyst if it is large, doesn't look like a functional cyst, is growing, or persists through two or three menstrual cycles. Cysts that cause pain or other symptoms may be removed.
  Some cysts can be removed without removing the ovary in a procedure known as an ovarian cystectomy. In some circumstances, your doctor may suggest removing the affected ovary and leaving the other intact in a procedure known as oophorectomy.
  If a cystic mass is cancerous, however, your doctor will likely advise a total hysterectomy plus removing both ovaries and the fallopian tubes, as well as your uterus. Your doctor is also likely to recommend surgery when a cystic mass develops on the ovaries after menopause

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN GHANA: THE ROLE OF THE JOURNALIST

   

Ghana, one of the first African countries to gain independence from the British is characterized worldwide as a democratic and peaceful state. However, this has not always been the case. The country has been through the mill right from the onset of independence. The occasion of coup d’états and military oppression could never be erased from the minds of most Ghanaians. The Journalist, who plays a major role in every democratic state, serving as a watchdog, has been a part of the struggle for true independence.

Freedom of expression; a phrase which is on the lips of most Ghanaians is rather valued in this part of the world. The sphere or space which mainly allows for it is the media, which is the hub of information in this country. Journalists are mostly at the war front of this theme because they are the major representatives of the people. The 1992 constitution declares in no equivocal terms that: All persons shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media. The constitution thus guarantees that the press and every individual in Ghana has the right to say anything that they want, to whoever that they want and wherever that they want. Journalists and media practitioners have been bestowed with this right in Ghana, but there has been an uprising that this freedom is somewhat abused and demonstrated anyhow.

The traditional role of journalists in a democracy generally takes the form of informing, educating and entertaining audiences. They also serve as the fourth estate by keeping an eye on the three other arms of government in every democracy which are the legislative, executive and judicial bodies. Journalists are the bridge or the link between government and the ordinary people, the elite and the public. They disseminate the views and policies of government to the citizens of the country in a bid to inform them of what goes on in society, how resources are being utilized, and how accountable those in government are to the tasks for which they have been assigned. In return, journalists also listen and gather the opinions of the citizens concerning these policies and disseminate them to the government in power. Thus, it is a two way affair. It is important for journalists to carry out this role in democratic states where there is freedom of expression because, they are equipped with the skills of distilling or presenting free speech in a way that would not offend either parties but bring about peaceful co-existence. In the absence of journalists, a right such as freedom of expression would be less regarded since it would be impossible for views and opinions to be heard in the citizenry and governance. Journalists and the media are the referees when it comes to the opinions and views of all levels of people in society.

Although in the process of propagating free speech and freedom of expression among citizens, certain biases could be made in the form of selecting specific opinion leaders to represent a group of people when the aim of these leaders is only to promote a certain agenda, or directing journalists to represent only a particular side of the story, leaving the other party no space or opportunity to express themselves as well. These are some of the pitfalls of the journalistic profession when it comes to being the advocates of freedom of expression. It is not entirely the fault of individual journalists though since the profession is now infested with ‘objectivity obstacles’ such as ownership of the media houses, advertisers, sources of information (mostly government), ideologies and flak in the form of complaints and petitions.

As Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States puts it, “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”. The role of the journalist in ensuring that the constitution and its provisions, freedom of expression being of prime importance, are met is risky but essential to the core of every democratic society; hence the need for cooperation and support from both citizens and government

MARKETING PLAN FOR TESHIE MANGOASE ON THE PROPER WAY OF DESILTING GUTTERS (BACS2017246)

Situation Analysis

Based on research conducted on the aforementioned area, we came to a realization that people are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that they need to keep their environment clean and as a result, they try their best to do that.

However, people neglect the basic ideology that the rubbish that they gather must be disposed of properly and hence, they do not do this rightly and this causes their gutters to be choked, leading to environmental hazards and flooding. In view of this, we plan to educate them on proper ways of desilting their gutter as well a

TACKLING THE CHALLENGES OF ELECTION IN GHANA

Touted as a model for the practice of modern democracy in Africa, the resilience of how solid Ghana’s democracy is would be put to the test once again come November 7, 2016. The country adopted for itself the practice of democracy with the promulgation of the 1992 constitution, which came into force 1993. The country ever since has proven to really grasp what it takes to satisfy the requirements of the practice. 

It has since the general elections of 1992, moved on to organized a relative five successive elections. In spite of the obvious envious feat chalked over the decade with regards to the organization of credible free and fair elections, the electoral process cannot be overly rated to have fully arrived yet. The untold realties are that, the comparisons have been with fellow African States, who seem to be grumbling with the practice over the years. In the country’s bid to rub shoulders with advance democracies like the United States, Britain and a host of many others. It is advisable efforts are made to tackle identified challenges before they degenerate into something untoward.
Indeed, the advanced democracies being alluded to, others might argue are yet to arrive either, and certainly have had challenges of their own, but the overt nature of the challenges as it pertains to Ghana’s still maturing democracy, certainly affords the country no chance of sweeping issues under the carpet as if all is well. Several or bits of the challenges faced by the Ghanaian electoral system were brought to bear during the 2012 electoral petition hearing.
And the way forward in the words of former UN Secretary General is, as a nation “We must not be blind to the flaws in our electoral system that the judicial review has brought to light” It is such a critical situation which demands for concerns from all, who hold the peace of the county Ghana at heart. It is this concern, I believe that has premised the argument over the years that, between the peace the country has enjoyed till now and war is a thin line. If this is the case, what do we have to do as a people?
I believe now is the time to wake up to the challenges that face us and confront them. With barely seven months to the November 2016 elections, This article would set the basis for the need for more consented efforts to tackle the situation by opening the country, stakeholders, likewise donor communities to the challenges that stare us in the face as a country.  What then are the challenges going forward? This discussion as much as possible gives the theme a more holistic treatment from the perspective of the period before, during and after elections.
The discussion should better be understood from this point because, according to the Kofi Annan International Peace Training Center (KAIPTC), elections 2012 categorized under these three phase of the electoral process revealed that, the pre-election recorded 57.7 percent of violent incidents, while as the election and the period after recorded 30 and 12.2 percent respectively.
For a better understanding, the challenges could better be spread under three broad topics, thus, institutional, human and technological. Under institutional, the consideration should be focused on, how empowered the electoral commission, security agencies like the Police, civil society groups are to lend their support and live up to their responsibilities in order that, no stone is left unturned in getting the right thing done.
Our institutions, especially the security agencies were very much exposed in the period prior to elections 2012 that, they failed woefully in their duty to analyze “secret tapes” purported to have reveal grand schemes by certain political actors within the NPP and NDC to subvert the electoral process. In my opinion, there should be better reasons for these cases that were widely reported to be left on attended to. These agencies per the sensitive nature of their responsibilities to the state are ideally expected to be non-bias. This unfortunately is not the reality.
Many culprits in the past have been left off the hook because of their political affiliations. If this becomes the normative, then the citizenry begin to develop a sense of mistrust in the services rendered by these agencies. People in the long run would take issues into their own hands because of the feeling that these security agencies are not credible enough to deliver their services devoid of fear and favor.
This invariably is a threat to the services these agencies are constitutionally mandated to offer the larger public especially in times of milestone events like elections. Though I do not seek to justify the use of thugs and “macho” men in policing or protecting whether election materials or a political interest, it can be argued that, this situation as widespread exist because of this general mistrust held by the public.
The media space arguably poses a greater threat. The media space now than ever has become an avenue for political actors to engage each other in endless banters. This, more than often has resulted in unwarranted exchanges that are a likely recipe for inciting their respective followers against each other. Credited as one of the few countries that strictly uphold media freedom to its apex, it is no surprise that, the media field now attracts so much investment.
The landscape has been proliferated with so many television and radio stations. If the saying that “to him that much is given much is expected is true,” then as a responsible country, now is the time we have to churn efforts into drafting policies that should serve as guide to regulate the works of these media outlets. The influx of the social media platforms seems to have placed the fight beyond reach.
Political activists have chance on the unregulated nature of the medium to churn out certain untrue information, which on majority of cases borders on the sensitive nature of maintaining the relative peace the country enjoys. It would be very unfortunate to assume an adamant posture and do nothing to curtail the enormous challenges the social media platform poses to the peace of the country in the 2016 elections. The statistics are that, as of November 15, 2015; there were as many as 2,900,000.00 Ghanaians registered on face book alone.
It may be true that the figure could be halved for users on other equally vibrant ones like instagram and twitter. It is worth noting that the Ghanaian now than never relies so much on social media for information. And if what happened during elections 2012 is anything to go by, then it only means many Ghanaians would depend on social media sites like face book and twitter for results from the various voting centers come November 7, 2016.

However, it appears the unregulated nature of these sites would pose a serious challenge to the country if issues are not taken seriously. Many in current times have used the social media platform to spread hoax which nearly, if not, has sent the whole country into some state of confusion. An example of the threat if care is not taken, an unregulated social media platform poses is the case of the claimed circulation from the office of the President, which went viral earlier this year announcing a ministerial reshuffle, only for us to be informed hours after that there was no reshuffle as purported by the circulation. Another sensitive issue for consideration is the source of funding of our political parties.
Politics is now money, and essentially without money, no one can survive the beauty of the gigantic billboards, flayers and the lots that are common with the season. I have not forgotten what it takes to get an endorsement from the so called celebrities. And I doubt anyone of them endorse for a song. This is money. So the question is, where do our politicians get the monies to finance their activities? What do I mean by their activities?
By this, I make reference to campaigning, rallies, campaign songs or tunes and the lots. When it comes to funding activities of political parties like campaigns or administrative duties, the realities are that, parties might be forced to solicit for financial support beyond national borders. The dangers are that most of these supports come with strings attached to them. This eventually has led to the numerous cases of abuse of incumbency and its accompanying corruption. Now is the time for regulation. Why the need to regulate political source of funding?
In the wisdom of the advocates of regulating political source of funds, regulations are necessary in that, it would help to safeguard the political process from unnecessary foreign interest and interference. The shared believe also is that in regulating the sources of funding, the national interest shall be protected from falling into criminal hands. The absence of such regulations has led to the situation where parties, both old and new to search for more lucrative sources of financing, especially from external private sector sources in exchange for investment opportunities as well as leverage on the international scene.
Worst, is the possibility of entanglement of political parties with the international, domestic and regional criminal community. The benefits of a regulation of a kind are transparency, limitation on political discretion and the opportunity of creating a political environment built on greater accountability and a consolidated democratic practice. To be able to arrive at this aim, the various national legislative bodies, civil society groups and the donor community ought to help the country in the drafting and passing into law of a law to regulate how political parties source for funds now and the in the future.
The Institute of Economic Affairs -Ghana have also suggested that, for the country to be able to fight such tendencies in the future, a consented effort should be taken to implement the Akosombo 2 declaration on enhanced public support for political parties. It further advocated the establishment of political party’s support, which would be used to support the activities of these political parties. On top of the list is the Electoral Commission with its bits of challenges.
It is not only faced with the problem of funding, but staffing and the difficulty in winning the trust of the people. Yes, there are still masses out there that cannot and do not keep trust in the abilities of the commission to organize a credible free and fair election. But whatever the mistrust, we should not lose sight of the fact that, it is this same commission that has seen us through all these years. Our neighbors have even trust in the abilities of the commission to have in times past sort for their advice in their given situations, why not we ourselves?
I believe the commission like never before shall deliver. But the EC definitely cannot do it alone, therefore there is the need we lend our supports to this common cause. The issue of trust, I think emanates from the power vested in a single party President to appoint who heads the commission at a point in time. But the President I trust cannot make a decision that would not favor the country.
Samuel Tettey, the Director of Elections at the EC, revealed that experience gathered from the NPP and the NDC primaries showed the commission has a crucial challenge of malfunctioning of biometric equipment ahead of the 2016 general elections. My simple opinion, it is man that made the machine, and what man expects the machine to do, man himself can better do. And it is simply lies in our sense of loving and doing right. Our yes should be a yes and no, a no. No matter how perfect the machine can be, it cannot beat the perfection of man.
These are far reaching exposition on what lies ahead of the country come November 7, 2016. The fact of the case is simple; the world is watching and has a full expectation that the country does not fail this time round. The former chief of the Nigeria Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega has urged the country to beat Nigeria by ensuring that, the forth coming elections are free, fair and credible.
At the 25th anniversary celebration of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Prof Jega attributed at length that, Nigeria did not disappoint in staging a very successful, peaceful, free, fair and credible elections. He urged that the country used the Nigeria elections as the standard in convincing the world. If the Nigerian experience is anything to go by, then it is prudent the country considers all the necessary reforms that their system was allowed to experience in other to replicate a similar feat come November 7th.
The world is watching to once more applaud us for the success we have enjoyed since the birth of our democracy. And in making it, we must be informed that even the slightest of effort counts! As religious as we are, I cannot end without saying God bless our homeland.