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PREGNANCY
Your Cells Might Have Bits of Your Entire Family In Them
What: A deep dive from the Atlantic looking at “cell microchimerism”, where embryos deposit bits of genetic material wherever they implant. One example? A woman with Y chromosomes in her thyroid, likely from a male embryo the patient had once carried.
Why it matters: Scientists are split. Some argue that the cells are “so sparse and inconsistent [they] couldn’t possibly have meaningful effects.” Others “contend that microchimeric cells aren’t just passive passengers, adrift in someone else’s genomic sea.”
Source: The Atlantic
Lack of Obstetric Care Leads to Syphilis Increase – Especially in South Dakota
What: Vox looks at the rise of congenital syphilis in the United States, and South Dakota in particular, where a lack of obstetric care has put Indigenous woman most at risk.
Why it matters: “South Dakota offers a case study in how sparse maternal care creates challenges to stopping a congenital syphilis outbreak,” explains reporter Keren Landman.
Source: Vox
POSTPARTUM
How One California Insurer Got In Trouble for Making Postpartum Depression Drugs Too Hard To Get
What: A recap of KQED’s coverage in California of insurance company Kaiser Permanente making it difficult for women to get medication to treat postpartum depression. While most insurers in the state require women to try two different medications before covering a more expensive IV option specifically targeted to PPD, Kaiser required they try 4.
Why it matters: After the KQED story, Kaiser changed their policy and the Department of Labor investigated. Now there’s a pill dedicated to just PPD, and KQED says it will track how hard California insurers make it to get the medication.
Source: KQED
BIRTH CONTROL
California Also Makes Birth Control Prescription Free
What: California joined New Jersey in making birth control prescription-free in 2024, with a new law that took effect this week.
Why it matters: Like in NJ, the law will help people access birth control pills without having to spend time (or in some cases, money) seeing a health care provider.
Source: Jefferson Public Radio
ABORTION ACCESS
“Of Course They Want Us Dead”
What: An analysis of a federal court in Texas ruling that women who show up in a Texas ER needing an abortion to protect their health are not guaranteed to get one, despite a federal law that requires ERs to stabilize patients.
Why it matters: As Valenti puts it – “The judges ruled that when emergency room doctors are faced with a patient who has a dangerous or life-threatening pregnancy, they have a responsibility to ‘stabilize both the pregnant woman and her unborn child.’ That means a 6-week embryo would warrant as much emergency treatment as you do. …That’s what conservatives want, after all: for abortion rights to be reduced to court battles and political debates. For Americans to be so distracted with legal and legislative minutiae that women’s lives become theoretical.”
Source: Abortion, Every Day
WELLNESS + BEAUTY
Beware the Unregulated “Medspa”
What: NBC News has an investigative piece looking at the rise of medspas and the complaints that have come with that territory, especially after the FDA issued a warning last month about “severe infections and skin deformities after they got unauthorized shots touted to dissolve fat at med spas across the country.”
Why it matters: The CEO of the American Med Spa Association pushed his organization as a way to weed out bad actors and establish more rules in the absence of federal laws. He also said state boards don’t have time to enforce requirements, like having a doctor or other medical professionals on staff.
Source: NBC News
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