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EVERYTHING
Considering Supplements Specifically for Women
What: Salon has a deep dive on supplements, and how the difference between men’s and women’s pills are often just the color on the bottle—despite men and women possibly needing different things.
Key line: “Although women consume more supplements than men, supplement use hasn’t been as well studied in women, she explained. ‘The majority of data, if there is data, is done in young men for many reasons,’ Smith-Ryan told Salon in a phone interview. ‘That doesn’t mean that everything needs to be at different doses, but at the very minimum, we need to understand: Should those be recommended at a different dose or with different ingredients to enhance absorption, or some of those things.’”
Source: Salon
MENSTRUATION
Menstrual Tracking: Not Just for Periods
What: The Times (UK) digs into a trend I’ve seen more and more of, at least via social media ads: planning your life around your menstrual cycle. Examples from individual women in this story include scheduling more (or less) intense exercise during certain parts of the menstrual cycle, or knowing when mood might dip.
Key line: “’There is a lot of variability on the accuracy of these apps to interpret this information meaningfully,’ says Dr Theresa Stujenske, who is researching the menstrual cycle at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. ‘Not all women experience significant mood changes across the menstrual cycle. What is most important is that women gain a better awareness of their personal symptoms.’”
Source: The Times
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Postpartum Retreats Filling the Care Gap
What: Vogue has an essay from a mom who went to a luxury postpartum retreat, this time in Dana Point, California. While the essay hits the usual notes (it was luxurious and at a fancy hotel), the author also digs into how there is a serious postpartum care gap in America.
Key line: “While I was screened for postpartum depression the day I checked out of the hospital after giving birth, this was, in my opinion, far too early to discern anything. At that point, I was actually experiencing postpartum euphoria, which is essentially the opposite of the baby blues. I was flying but would soon crash. My next touchpoint occurred two weeks later via a postpartum follow-up with my obstetrician, who checked my C-section incision site and sent me on my way. My son’s pediatrician never asked me a question about myself, despite the fact that I cried through every appointment during his newborn phase.”
Source: Vogue
ABORTION ACCESS
How One Texas Town Voted Down an Abortion Travel Ban
What: Ms. Magazine profiles Amarillo, Texas, a town with a “fiercely antiabortion” mayor and city council that voted this past November on declaring Amarillo a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” The measure failed by a large margin, 59 to 41 percent, thanks to a local grassroots campaign.
Key line: “As members of the [Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance] walked blocks and knocked on doors, they often asked voters how they would feel if a loved one turned to them for abortion-related support, and the alternatives were to turn that person away or risk being sued for engaging in illegal conduct. Samad says that most of those she spoke with, including many with antiabortion leanings, expressed serious discomfort over this kind of governmental overreach into their private affairs.”
Source: Ms. Magazine
CARDIOVASCULAR
Women with Heart Condition Missed Under Traditional Screening
What: A study in the American College of Cardiology’s journal found that adjusting screening for a specific heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) to consider sex and size increased identification of the disorder by 20 percentage points (!!!) among women. Researchers looked at 1,600 patients who were already diagnosed with the condition and compared the traditional screening to one that took into account age, sex, and size.
Key line: “Dr Hunain Shiwani (UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science and St Bartholomew’s Hospital), who led the research, said: ‘It is clear that this threshold, which is based on the results of studies from the 1970s, needs to be reconsidered. Having the same cut off for everyone regardless of age, sex or size completely ignores the fact that heart wall thickness is strongly influenced by these factors.’”
Source: University College London
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