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FERTILITY
American Fertility Rate Drops to New Low
What: The CDC reports that the United States’ fertility rate has dropped to the lowest level it’s been at in more than a century, with 3.6 million babies born in 2023, breaking down to about 54 births for every 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. The previous low was in 2020, at 56 births per 1,000 women of reproductive age.
Why it matters: This is the first full year of data since the end of Roe vs. Wade, and the numbers bear out what other research has shown – allowing states to ban abortion has not increased the number of babies born.
Source: CNN
ABORTION ACCESS
The New Faces of Abortion Care
What: The Washington Post’s Petula Dvorak profiles Mylissa Farmer, a women who dearly wanted the baby girl she was pregnant with, until her water broke at 18 weeks while she was living in Missouri. Months later, Dvorak writes, Farmer found herself in Washington outside the Supreme Court, “telling a large crowd outside that court about her harrowing night, pinballing across three states, her amniotic fluid leaking, her fetus being crushed in her womb, her body headed toward sepsis, trying to find a hospital that wasn’t too bound up by politics to give her care.”
Why it matters: Farmer is just one of the many American women who want to continue their pregnancies but can’t for a variety of reasons, and instead of getting the health care they need, they are sent hundreds of miles from home, because doctors are too unsure if, when, and how they can be treated. Not for medical reasons, though—just simply political ones.
Source: Washington Post
MENOPAUSE
Delaying Menopause with an Organ Transplant Drug
What: The Today show features a clinical trial conducted by Columbia University’s Zev Williams, looking at the potential to delay menopause by giving women a drug called rapamycin, typically given to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. The theory is that the drug can slow down the release of eggs from the ovaries, and menopause is triggered once all eggs have been released.
Why it matters: The study is still recruiting participants. Depending on the results, it could help women not only expand their fertility, but also avoid the negative health conditions that can come with menopause.
Source: Today
ENDOMETRIOSIS
Tiffany Haddish Shares Story of Endo Diagnosis, Miscarriages
What: People magazine interviews comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish about her endometriosis diagnosis, and the eight miscarriages she’s suffered in her life.
Why it matters: It took Haddish years to get diagnosed, and she was incorrectly told she had a dent in her uterus. “It turns out it’s not a dent they saw on the ultrasound. It was endo that was hanging down. It looked like a dent but it was just extra layers.” Haddish said.
Source: People
WELLNESS + BEAUTY
Groundhog Day for Counterfeit Botox
What: A deeper dive into the counterfeit Botox scheme that’s flooding America. It’s prompted a UC San Diego professor who studies counterfeit medicines to call it “Groundhog Day.” One plastic surgeon said he gets emails all the time from unauthorized manufacturers, pushing foreign-made Botox with promises that they are “ready to offer the best price.”
Why it matters: The advice from doctors was—once again—seek out a licensed provider, plus a new tip: ask to see the tamper-proof seal on the Botox pacakge.
Source: New York Times
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