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EVERYTHING
Biden Admin: Nearly a Million Women Will Save $1,000 on Prescription Drugs Next Year
What: An analysis from the Biden administration found that 857,000 women on Medicare will save $1,000 or more on prescription drug costs in 2025, due to changes made in the Inflation Reduction Act. (The average savings for this group is $2,444!) Across all women in Medicare, out-of-pocket spending on drugs are expected to drop by nearly 30%.
Why it matters: “Women enrolled in Medicare have higher rates of serious health conditions, such as certain cancers, autoimmune conditions, asthma, and Alzheimer’s Disease, and are expected to benefit from these provisions.” Or in other words…are likely to save the most money.
Source: HHS
MENSTRUATION
Testosterone Make Men Feel Anesthesia Faster
What: Adding to the annals of “We Should’ve Studied Women Sooner”, a study published in the National Academy of Sciences proceedings shows that testosterone interacts with general anesthetics in a way that renders “males more sensitive to the effect of general anesthesia than females. This finding adds to the growing body of literature backing the need to include both sexes in biological research.”
Why it matters: It was a study conducted on mice and typically I skip over those. But this was too emblematic of the challenges of women’s health to pass up. The results were a “genuine surprise” to the lead author, and “challenge an inherent bias that hormonal cycles in female animals contribute to sex differences…which often drives researchers to exclusively experiment on males.” In other words, its testosterone, not menstruation making changes here!
Source: Scientific American
ABORTION ACCESS
Florida’s State Supreme Court Effectively Bans Abortion in Southern United States
What: Florida’s state supreme court issued a ruling that allows a 6-week abortion ban to go into effect, starting in May. Voters will have a chance to overturn that ban in November, but until then, women throughout the state and the southern United States will have to find care elsewhere or be forced by the government to give birth.
Why it matters: There were more than 80,000 abortions in Florida in 2023, and as one family medicine doctor in Florida put it: “Where are these 80,000 patients gonna go? With the number of states that have restrictions, there are just not enough states protective of abortion to accommodate this volume.”
Source: The Guardian
Why Sen. Tina Smith Wants to Repeal the Comstock Act
What: An op-ed from Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, on her bill to repeal the Comstock Act, a “zombie” law that “hasn’t been broadly enforced since the 1930s.” Why? Because it was passed after the Civil War to give a man named Anthony Comstock, who was *scandalized* by his move to New York City, the ability to “seize anything in the mail that met Comstock’s criteria for being ‘obscene,’ ‘lewd’ or just plain ‘filthy.’”
Why it matters: As Sen. Smith points out, the “Comstock Act of 1873 was referenced on three separate occasions during oral arguments in a case dealing with access to mifepristone…Even if the Supreme Court doesn’t take the bait, a newly re-elected President Trump could order his Department of Justice to start interpreting that line to mean that it is illegal to mail mifepristone — a safe, effective, Food and Drug Administration-approved drug — to doctors and pharmacies, as well as to patients directly.”
Source: New York Times
MENOPAUSE
Once Women Hit Menopause, Heart Trouble Comes
What: A study presented at the American College of Cardiology conference found women’s heart health drops significantly after menopause. While men are more likely to have a heart attack at a younger age, researchers found that women’s arteries hardened twice as fast as men’s did in the study.
Why it matters: “The likely culprit, researchers reason, is estrogen, the female hormone that has protective effects for heart health — until it declines during menopause. Scientists have long known about this benefit of estrogen, but many women remain unaware, experts say.”
Source: Yahoo
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