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EVERYTHING
Watching That Glymphatic System
What: Mass General Brigham is using a $3+ million grant from the Biden-Harris Sprint for Women’s Health program to study women’s sleep. They’ve developed a wearable, wireless monitor to track the glymphatic system, which is the fluid-filled spaces in the brain that clears waste products. The thinking is that tracking how this system performs could flag potential neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimers.
Key line: ‘“Being able to create a tool that can monitor this system during sleep in women, especially in the context of menopause and aging, provides a chance to make a real difference in women’s lives,’ says Maria Angela Franceschini, PhD, the lead investigator of the study…’Unlike costly imaging methods that are available for this purpose, this device provides a key tool to measure sleep quality and brain health, and we hope to make it widely accessible for everyday use.’”
Source: Mass General Brigham
ABORTION ACCESS
She Carried a Baby With a Terminal Diagnosis for 3+ Months To Watch Him Die in 94 Minutes
What: Deborah Dorbert was forced to carry her baby for three and a half months after she found out he would die shortly after birth. Even though doctors recommended induction immediately after the devastating diagnosis, Florida’s laws prevented her from getting the abortion care she needed.
Key line: “I was doing Instacart, but I kind of slowed down on doing that because it was kind of unbearable to go out into public and see people, and acquaintances. You could have people coming up to ask you, ‘Is this your first or second child? Are you excited?’ And I didn’t know how to answer. I was like, ‘Yes and no.’ And they give you that look like, no? I would say ‘I found out my son has a life-threatening condition and he’s going to die after birth.’ And it leaves me in this awkward position with these people because they don’t know what to say. …Shortly after nine o’clock, I remember my doctor handing me a baby boy that was blue and cold. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t crying. And I remember her putting him on my chest, and the next thing I hear is him gasping for air. I just felt numb and just cried because my son was suffocating. He was struggling to breathe, and not knowing how much pain he was feeling, and feeling like there wasn’t anything I could do. …He took his first and last breath on my chest. He was only alive for 94 minutes.”
Source: Rolling Stone
The Next Antiabortion Move: Making Pills Scary
What: An op-ed breaks down the utter disregard for life behind Louisiana’s law categorizing abortion pills a controlled substance. It will not necessarily slow telehealth prescriptions for pills written by doctors in other states, but instead will make miscarriage treatment slower and more difficult – a risk that could cost lives.
Key line: “This law is a warning call of what is to come. It is part of a national, antiabortion strategy to discredit these medications as unsafe despite copious evidence to the contrary. Attorneys general from three conservative states just reignited a lawsuit — rejected last term by the Supreme Court — that attempts to reimpose sweeping restrictions on mifepristone. All of these antiabortion efforts, cloaked in the guise of patient safety, do nothing but put patients’ lives at risk.”
Source: Washington Post
MENOPAUSE
Menopause Meets the Law
What: A UVA law professor has a book coming out about menopause and the law. It covers, among other things, how employment law treats (or largely, ignores) menopausal women, and explains how laws can be used to reduce ignorance and judgement about a natural part of life.
Key line: “Cahn and her colleagues call for workers’ ability to take legal action against discrimination based on menopause, improved publicity surrounding potential menopause treatments, a higher number of clinical trials to explore data collection and new forms of health care, and increased funding for public education. ‘We aren’t calling to mandate that medical schools offer certain curricula, but there need to be strong policy statements about the need to address menopause in health care training,’ she explained.”
Source: UVA
ONCOLOGY
Embracing the Scars
What: Olivia Munn revealed her mastectomy scar in an advertising campaign for Skims underwear, as part of a Breast Cancer Awareness month campaign. Munn had her breast cancer diagnosed early after her doctor recommended extra testing due to a high lifetime risk score for breast cancer.
Key line: “She revealed she had initially wanted to cover some of her scars for the project, but experienced a moment in between shots that changed her mind. ‘After my first shot with this one black bodysuit, we were changing and we were touching up my scars with my makeup artist. And then it just hit me after she touched up one scar that is placed in a way that I haven’t really learned to love yet,’ she recalled. ‘But I was looking at my mastectomy scars and I was thinking about the first time I saw them and how shocking it was for me. And I thought, you know what? I do look at these scars as proof of how hard I fought. And I think I want to not only embrace the scars right now but show other women who have these same scars that there’s nothing to feel bad about.’”
Source: CNN
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