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EVERYTHING
The Lies Medicine Told About Women
What: Oncologist Elizabeth Comen’s All In Her Head is a book exploring the lies told (and believed) about women’s bodies for centuries in medicine. It’s also a “wake-up call, urging the discipline to recognize ‘that women’s health is not just about our uteruses or our breasts, but that we are fundamentally different from men and deserve unique attention.’”
Why it matters: Just one tidbit from Comen, among many: “In the field of oncology, for example, doctors are at least two times more likely to ask men about the sexual side effects of cancer-directed therapy than women. Part of that is how we’ve historically viewed women’s sexual desire as something that needed to be controlled or determined by their husbands or fathers.”
Source: Katie Couric Media
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Should Gestational Diabetes Tests Happen Earlier?
What: A consortium of academics writing in the Lancet called for gestational diabetes testing before 14 weeks of pregnancy. In most countries, women are currently tested between 24 and 28 weeks.
Why it matters: “The authors say they conducted a literature review of the evidence and observed that a significant proportion of women had high blood glucose in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. They had worse pregnancy outcomes compared with women whose gestational diabetes was not present until later in pregnancy. Earlier treatment helped reduce those risks.”
Source: The Guardian
BIRTH CONTROL
New York AG Gets Health Insurer to Pay Up for Birth Control Fail
What: New York Attorney General Letitia James got UnitedHealthcare to pay a “$1 million penalty for failing to provide birth control coverage, a violation of New York state law.” The case started when a Brooklyn patient submitted a complaint to James’ office, after they were denied coverage from their oral contraceptive.
Why it matters: That denial violated a New York state law that “requires health insurance plans to cover contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without copays, restrictions or delays.” James’ office also said consumers would be reimbursed if they paid out of pocket for birth control, plus 12% interest.
Source: Gothamist
ABORTION ACCESS
Senate Democrats Target 1800s Law
What: The Washington Post had the scoop that a group of Senate Democratic women introduced legislation to stop a future Trump administration from effectively banning abortion nationwide—without a vote from Congress. The legislation would target part of the Comstock Act, an 1800s law that bans sending “lewd” materials in the mail, including abortion pills.
Why it matters: If a Trump administration used Comstock to effectively ban the mailing of abortion pills, it would be swiftly challenged in court. But a pending legal issue could freeze access regardless—an especially dire situation, given the abortion pill is used in nearly two-thirds of abortions. This bill won’t go anywhere in the House, but it’s a start.
Source: Washington Post
MENOPAUSE
Menopause Brain Tries to Hold on to Estrogen as Long as It Can
What: A first-of-its-kind imaging study found that women develop more and more estrogen receptors in their brain cells as they transition to menopause—researchers theorize that “as estrogen levels drop during the menopause transition, the cells express additional receptors to sop up as much estrogen as possible.”
Why it matters: The experiment showed that PET imaging can be a “reliable, minimally invasive method for measuring estrogen activity in the brain,” an important element to study when it comes to “neuropsychiatric effects [of menopause] such as ‘brain fog,’ depression and anxiety.”
Source: Weill Cornell Medicine
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