Women's health is a complex subject, as each change within a woman's lifecycle brings new needs. Recent studies consistently illustrate the benefit that vitamins and minerals hold for women's health-during reproductive years and after menopause.

Vitamins and other supplements can provide amazing disease-preventative effects for women.

Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are best absorbed by the body through eating nutritionally dense foods. Unfortunately, with today's hectic pace and less than healthy lifestyles, getting the necessary nutrients from diet alone may be difficult. Many women find that supplementation provides the nutritional link that their diets are missing.

Numerous supplements are available, but navigating the shelves of your local health food store or vitamin shop can prove both difficult and confusing.

Choosing among the supplements available is a daunting task. Herbalists, naturopaths and other practioners of alternative medicine can help guide you in choosing supplements that are right for your body and your needs.

According to recent studies, women need more than thirty nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, as well as essential fatty acids for normal, healthy hormonal balance.

In addition, many vitamins and minerals work more efficiently in combination with one another, like calcium and magnesium. Choosing a multivitamin is more efficient for both your body and your time, as your body benefits from the interaction among nutrients and you save time by taking a single pill as opposed to an entire handful.

When choosing supplements, examine the ingredients not only for vitamin and mineral content, but also for cheap fillers and dyes that reduce the quality of the supplement.

Many supplements of poor quality include fillers such as maltodextrin, cellulose and dyes.

Probiotic supplements increase the bioavailability of the vitamins and minerals contained within the multivitamin, meaning that your body has a better ability to absorb the nutrients.

Probiotic formulas often contain powdered foodstuffs such as broccoli, kale and brussel sprouts which, in addition to increasing the absorbability of the nutrients, also contain indole-3 carbinols a powerful nutrient for women's reproductive health.

In choosing supplements, women must consider several factors including nutrient ingredients and combinations. Most importantly one should never sacrifice quality for price.

A Simple Test That Can Save Your Life

When it comes to women's reproductive health, detecting cancer of the cervix should always be a definite priority.

Although any woman can contract this particular form of cancer, the risk generally increases in women who are more sexually active early on in their lives. If you started having sex before 18, have many sexual partners and presently have or ever had genital warts or any other type of sexually transmitted disease, than you are a prime candidate for a Pap (Papanicolaou) or smear test.

Without overstating the fact, suffice to say that a smear test can save your life. These tests are used to detect cancer of the cervix and treat the disease before it becomes invasive and has a chance to spread to other parts of your body.

This test should be a routine fixture of every woman's yearly health checkup or trip to the gynecologist and usually takes only a couple of minutes to complete. The procedure is simple: once some cells are removed from inside and around the cervix using a brush or swab, they will be checked in the lab to ensure everything is normal.

If any type of infection or cell abnormality is found, more tests may be required. It's important to remember that no smear test is 100 per cent accurate and that 'abnormal' test results don't necessarily mean that you have cancer of the cervix.

The point is that having to go through another set of tests is far better than finding out that your cancer is untreatable because it wasn't detected early enough.

Although most doctors will recommend a smear test every two to three years for women whose results are constantly normal, there is no age limit to these tests - even women who have gone through menopause or are no longer sexually active are encourage to take them regularly.

Unfortunately, the looming threat of cervix cancer doesn't recede with age.