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menopause minus the 🌟marketing🌟
the top things to know in women’s health and wellness today:
The New York Times has an incredible collection of stories from women changed (and scarred) by the fall of Roe, told through snippets of video, audio, and text messages.
Former beauty editor Valerie Monroe explainsmenopause before all the marketing.
Massachusetts becomes the latest state to give sick leave for pregnancy loss, including challenges with IVF.
What: The New York Times has an incredible collection of stories from women changed by the fall of Roe—from a doctor fleeing her state after a sheriff’s threat, to women trying to take abortion pills with Reddit’s help. The piece is told through text messages, videos, and audio, and is best suited for your phone.
What: KFF Health News profiles mobile health clinics that bring long-acting birth control, like IUDs, to rural areas. The story opens with a truck converted into a mobile health clinic in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
Why it matters: “Mobile clinics help shrink that gap in rural care, but they can be challenging to operate, said Elizabeth Jones, a senior director at the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association. Money is the greatest obstacle, Jones said. The Texas program costs up to $400,000 a year. … While many programs launch with the help of grants, they can be difficult to sustain, especially with over a decade of decreased or stagnant funding to Title X, a federal money stream that helps low-income people receive family planning services.”
What: Massachusetts becomes the latest state to provide sick leave for pregnancy loss or failed fertility, adoption, or surrogacy procedures. The benefits apply to individuals and spouses/partners.
Why it matters: “This expansion comes on the heels of other federal legislation expanding the rights of pregnant workers and obligations of employers. The PUMP Act is a federal statute that requires an employer to offer break time for nursing employees to pump in private. …The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is another federal law that requires employers with 15 or more employees to consider employee and job applicant accommodation requests related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions (including menstruation and abortions).
What: Gen X is hitting menopause—and they aren’t taking “this is just life” or “there’s no treatment for your symptoms” sitting down.
Why it matters: “The typical ob/gyn doesn’t really get any formal hormone training,” says Dr. Maureen Whelihan, a member of the Menopause Society and a gynecologist who specializes in sexual medicine at Florida Woman Care in Palm Beach County, Fla. “But if doctors simply dismiss women and say that their symptoms couldn’t possibly be related to menopause or perimenopause, women are not going to put up with that because a million other pieces of information they’ve reviewed online tell them otherwise.”
What: A lovely essay from former beauty editor Valerie Monroe on surviving menopause without having to buy a bunch of stuff.
Why it matters: “What I’m saying is this: Menopause isn’t unlike all the other transitions you’ve survived. Weird shit happens, and then it stops. (Though some of it lingers as a small percentage of women have hot flashes post-menopause.) Yes, there is some loss involved—of juiciness, agility, and hardest of all, sleep. But life goes on. Having experienced menopause almost a quarter of a century ago, I can tell you that there is a sense of well-being that follows, with a rich, poignant, happy/melancholy quality. For one thing, we older women are pretty much free-range chicks, roaming the landscape unencumbered by the watchful, often predatory gaze of men.”
