|
EVERYTHING
What’s Next for the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research?
What: A big part of the White House’s Initiative on Women’s Health Research is building a centralized hub and “common data elements” for all women’s health related research in the federal government, Chair Carolyn Mazure told an NIH committee last week. The group is also planning to head to Capitol Hill for briefings soon.
Why it matters: President Joe Biden signed an executive order that aims to improve women’s health last month. Now it is implementation time, and that’s where success happens in most policy efforts (and organizations in general!)
Source: Maternie
MENSTRUATION
Migraines Matching Menstrual Patterns
What: A study funded by Pfizer found that a third of women with migraines say the headache attacks coincide with their periods. In more than half of the cases the women were premenopausal.
Why it matters: As the study author Jessica Ailani, professor of clinical neurology at Georgetown University School of Medicine put it: “As a headache specialist in the U.S., I know I can do better for women in my clinic, but what can be done for the millions of women who don’t get into a headache clinic? That is our true next step.”
Source: UPI
ABORTION ACCESS
The States That Don’t Let Pregnant Women Divorce Also Ban Abortions
What: There are four states that restrict divorce while a woman is pregnant, and after Arizona’s 1864 law came back into effect, all four now essentially ban abortion. Arizona “tends not to allow” divorces to proceed until the baby is born, while in “Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas, state laws bar or deter judges from finalizing divorces while a person is pregnant.”
Why it matters: “Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum people in the United States; between 3 and 9 percent of American women will experience domestic violence during pregnancy.”
Source: The 19th
What It’s Like Getting an Abortion in Arizona Now
What: The New York Times profiles ten women in Arizona who were scheduled to get abortions, even after the state’s supreme court reinstated an 1864 law banning all abortions.
Why it matters: “Like 60 percent of women nationwide who receive abortions, Jordan, 29, already had a child. But she said she suffered such severe postpartum depression after having her son that she almost committed suicide. She worried she might not survive a second pregnancy. Esmerelda, 25, also already had a child, a 7-month-old daughter, but said it would be impossible for her to afford another one. She spends $1,000 a month for a babysitter, and said another baby would force her to quit her job and hurt her family’s finances.”
Source: New York Times
MENOPAUSE
Experts Push Back Hard on Lancet’s “Overmedicalized” Menopause Claims
What: Last month a major medical journal, The Lancet, called for an end to the “overmedicalization” of menopause. Ms. Magazine has a response from over 250 OBGYNs, primary care physicians, cardiologists, and more: “The series was awash with misstatements that do not reflect the lived experience of women in this stage of life or our clinical experience in treating them.”
Why it matters: One of the main points made by the group? “The more accurate statement would be that most women navigate menopause without being given the option of medical treatments,” and they include the stat that “only 7 percent of OB-GYN, internal medicine and family medicine residents felt competent in treating a menopausal woman,” in the United States.
Source: Ms. Magazine
|