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EVERYTHING
More Research Shows Infant Deaths Rise After Abortion Bans
What: Hundreds more infants died in the months after the right to abortion was revoked, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. Infant mortality was 7% higher in the months after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, with nearly 300 more infants dying per month than expected.
Why it matters: “About 80% of those additional infant deaths could be attributed to congenital anomalies, which were higher than expected in six of the 18 months following the Dobbs decision, according to the new research.”
Source: CNN
Trump Could Dismantle Women’s Health Research Investment
What: Donald Trump’s abortion bans are well known, but Maggie Fox reports for the Fuller Project that women’s health research will lose the significant gains made under the Biden administration if he takes the White House again.
Why it matters: “That trajectory would likely continue and even expand if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president. It would likely stop dead if former President Donald Trump returned to the White House. ‘It’s either going to enter its heyday or it’s going to be gutted like every other federal agency. We all know what’s going to happen,’ said Emily Jacobs, a neuroscientist at the University of California Santa Barbara who is studying the effects of hormones on the brains of both men and women. ‘What happens in November determines whether this line of research continues or whether we are up against the strongest headwinds ever. This research depends on the support of the federal government.’”
Source: Ms. Magazine
BIRTH CONTROL
White House Wants Over the Counter Birth Control to Be Cost Free
What: The Biden administration proposed making over-the-counter birth control free for the over 50 million women on private health insurance. It could go into effect next year if finalized.
Why it matters: “’This rule, once finalized, will expand contraception coverage for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance,’ White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein said during a briefing. ‘For the first time ever, women would be able to obtain over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no additional cost, and health plans would have to cover even more prescribed contraceptives without cost sharing,’ she said.”
Source: NBC
How Menstruation, On and Off the Pill, Changes the Brain
What: Neuroscientist Carina Heller was tired of waiting for data on how menstruation, with or without oral contraceptives, affected the brain. So for about 75 days over the course of a year, she spent 90 minutes in her university’s brain scanner.
Why it matters: “Heller found a rhythmic pattern of change in brain volume and connectivity between brain regions over the course of her menstrual cycle, with volume and connectivity dipping slightly while she was taking oral contraceptives. (Higher brain volume or connectivity does not imply improved brain function, and vice versa.) This pattern largely returned to its former state after she stopped taking the medication, showing that the brain is ‘quite adaptable’, says Laura Pritschet, who conducted her graduate work with Jacobs and is now a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.”
Source: Nature
MENOPAUSE
The Potential Dangers of Menopause Supplements
What: Today has deep dive into menopause supplements, a booming-but-unregulated industry. The physicians they interview say to try hormone therapy first (if you don’t have risk factors from certain cancers) versus rolling the dice on a supplement that doesn’t have research to back it up.
Why it matters: “Experts tell TODAY.com that the rising popularity of menopause supplements highlights a lack of access to evidence-based options, rampant misinformation about hormone therapy and gaps in our knowledge about menopause — even among specialists.”
Source: Today
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