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EVERYTHING
Reviewing Women’s Health Research Progress at NIH
What: Janine Clayton, the head of NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, along with NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli and several other authors, wrote an overview of how the agency has approached women’s health over the past several decades. The article has a timeline of how NIH has required more focus on women’s health in research and breaks down current challenges still facing women’s health.
Key line: “NIH’s policies, programs, and research funding fill gaps in knowledge about the health of women. Their synergistic results generate evidence for data-driven decision-making and targeted interventions that will improve the health not just of women, but of all people.”
Source: JAMA
An Investor’s View of Women’s Health Funding in 2025
What: MobiHealthNews interviews Alice Zheng, partner at Foreground Capital, a fund that invests exclusively in women’s health, about what the sector might look like in 2025. Zheng notes a shift from focusing solely on reproductive health to hormones more broadly.
Key line: “I do see a broad conversational shift from women’s health as solely reproductive health, which is, I think, is where we started five years ago. A lot of the investment and interest was in fertility, maternity, reproductive areas, and there’s certainly still a lot of opportunity there and a lot to be sold. I do also see a broadening of the conversation into, hormonal health broadly, not just for reproduction and autoimmune conditions, and women’s heart health and all these different areas.”
Source: MobiHealthNews
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
What Is the Right Balance Between Pregnancy Information and Fear?
What: Emily Oster, author of the book Expecting Better that aimed to give women a deeper take on pregnancy guidelines, considers the balance of giving women more information about the dangers of pregnancy without scaring anyone out of the decision of having children.
Key line: “We need to find a balance between giving women the information they need, telling them the truth about risks, and not creating unnecessary panic. I wish I could say I knew for sure what this balance looks like. What I do believe strongly is that keeping information hidden, and doling it out only after it is needed – or never – is not the right answer.”
Source: The Guardian
Greater Risk of Postpartum Hemorrhage with Prolonged Stage 3 Labor
What: A meta-analysis in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found a 5-fold increase in risk of postpartum hemorrhage when women remained in “stage 3” labor for more than 15 minutes. Stage 3 labor is the time between birth and the expulsion of the placenta and membranes.
Key line: “Currently, data about the best duration of [the third stage of labor] is lacking, leading to discrepancies in guidelines about the timing of [manual removal of placenta]. It is also unclear whether [manual removal of placenta] would improve overall maternal outcomes.”
Source: Contemporary OBGYN
WELLNESS + BEAUTY
Does That At-Home Laser Work?
What: The New York Times looks at the explosion of at-home beauty devices, like laser hair removal tools and LED masks, to avoid going to the dermatologist’s office or a spa (and potentially save money in the process).
Key line: “Popular at-home skin-care devices tend to be less vetted, said the study’s lead author Joel Gelfand, MD, a professor of dermatology and epidemiology at the Perelman School. ‘If they aren’t studied in a randomized control trial, it makes me skeptical,’ he said. ‘Was a study done by the manufacturer in a situation to benefit financially, or was it large with hundreds of patients? Because it’s a very murky area, most people would be best off speaking to a dermatologist and seeing if a light modality would have some effect on their skin.’”
Source: New York Times
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