Get the top three things to know in women's health + wellness, every weekday:

tiktok beating doctors

the top things to know in women’s health and wellness today:

  • Over a third of Gen Z people in a survey said their number one place to get health advice is…TikTok. At the bottom of that list? Doctors.
     
  • Perimenopause can bring weight gain for some women. And that can trigger eating disorders, which aren’t often studied in midlife. 
     
  • Trump VP pick JD Vance is already deleting sections of his website that said he is “100 percent pro-life,” in an effort to hide his extreme abortion views from voters. Don’t be fooled.  

JUMP TO…

Everything
Pregnancy + Postpartum
Abortion Access
Menopause

TOP STORIES TODAY: the most important reads we’ve found, and why they matter.

EVERYTHING

Majority of Gen Z Turns to TikTok for Health Advice

What: More than one-third of Gen Z people surveyed said they use TikTok as “their main form of health advice.” TikTok was “more than twice as popular as the other options listed,” which included friends, Google, and qualified doctors.

Why it matters: “The results also suggested that Gen Z users who turn to TikTok for health advice may be prone to misinformation because 1 in 3 said they do not double check the advice they get from the app.”

Source: The Hill

PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM

Getting Elite Athletes (And New Moms) Safely Back to Sports

What: Until very recent history, moms were not Olympic athletes. That has slowly started to change, as a “growing number of Olympian athlete-mothers who have been breaking records and changing the narrative. … But despite the increase in athlete-mother successes and improved advocacy, there is still a lack of evidence for a safe postpartum return to sport.”

Why it matters: “A study on elite athlete’s experiences returning to sport after childbirth demonstrated that athlete-mothers felt pressures and expectations to return to sport too quickly after childbirth, at a detriment to their physical and emotional health. Traditional return to sport frameworks after injury involve assessment of strength, endurance and functional abilities, but also emphasize the importance of mental readiness. Our team suggests that return to sport postpartum should follow a similar framework.”

Source: The Conversation

Ending the ‘Postpartum Cliff’

What: More than half of maternal deaths happen in the year after childbirth, but women are essentially dropped by OBGYNs after birth and told to follow up in six weeks. A study examined how text messages “explaining the importance of follow-up postpartum care with a primary care physician, and offering help scheduling an appointment” improved new moms getting care.

Why it matters: “The improvement was significant: 40% of patients in the intervention group completed their follow-up primary care physician visits, compared to 22% of the control group, which received no messages.”

Source: Stat

ABORTION ACCESS

VP Nominee JD Vance Hides Abortion Position

What: One day after being nominated as Trump’s vice president, Sen. JD Vance deleted a section of his website where he claimed to be “100 percent pro-life.” It also said banning abortion access is “pro-family,” despite women nearly dying and losing their ability to have children in the future because they were refused emergency abortions.

Why it matters:  Vance is hiding what he really thinks on abortion, just like he is hiding what he really thinks about Trump. He is an extreme anti-abortion candidate who opposes abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.

Source: Twitter

MENOPAUSE

Eating Disorders Mixed with Menopause

What: Women’s Health has a deep dive on midlife eating disorders, which can be triggered by perimenopause and weight gain associated with that process.

Why it matters: “In fact, you might be twice as likely to have an eating
disorder in your 40s (3.6 percent) as to have breast cancer (1.5 percent), according to Val Schonberg, RD, a certified menopause practitioner. What puberty is for eating disorders in adolescence, menopause is for eating disorders in midlife, according to a 2023 review of recent literature on the epidemiology and treatment of eating disorders published in the journal Current Opinion in Psychiatry.”

Source: Women’s Health