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PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Maybe We Need a Women’s Health Specialty
What: WBUR interviews the lead authors of a study that found texting new moms about seeing a primary care doc helped them get over the “postpartum cliff” and doubled the number of people who got their follow up appointment.
Why it matters: It’s a dead simple approach, and WBUR asks why it’s not happening more. The answer? Organizational structure: “My impression is that pregnancy care providers, for the most part, don’t see that as their job. And the whole structure — the front desk staff, the nurses — don’t really see that as part of their job. There’s also just not that much time to do kind of counseling about the [postpartum] period. The more immediate needs are the pregnancy.”
Source: WBUR
ABORTION ACCESS
Trump VP Pick Is a ‘Menstrual Surveillance Hawk’
What: Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance, was one of only 28 members of Congress to complain that a federal rule that prohibits sharing medical records with police related to menstruation and abortion. (For reference, there are over 500 members in the House and Senate. So 28 is…small.)
Why it matters: Vance is pretending to moderate his abortion views (yesterday he deleted the anti-abortion section of his website), but he is one of the most extreme Republicans on this issue. And he wants the police to be able to get the data on your menstrual cycles.
Source: Talking Points Memo
MENOPAUSE
Understanding the Biology of Menopause
What: A recent study showed that the number of estrogen receptors increases during menopause. Verywell Health does a deep dive with the lead author to understand what that means.
Why it matters: “’Far too long, women’s symptoms have been chopped up to a phase of life with little to no [information] on the science or physiology of why,’ Jillian LoPiano, MD, chief health officer at Wisp, told Verywell. LoPiano was not involved with the research. ‘The more we know about these physiological processes, the better we can provide specific and innovative care for symptomatic peri- and postmenopausal women.’”
Source: Verywell
ONCOLOGY
Of Mammograms and MRIs
What: An excellent deep dive from Dyan Neary explaining breast cancer screenings, dense tissue, and the women who had their cancer cases missed. The best screening for high-risk women, according to experts in the piece, has long been an MRI. But (as always) the higher cost of an MRI versus mammograms has slowed adoption: “…One reason doctors rarely order supplemental screens like MRIs is cost: MRIs are ten times more expensive than mammograms, and insurance companies almost never cover them
Why it matters: “In a fatty breast, mammograms are up to 98 percent accurate; in an extremely dense breast, the accuracy can be as low as 30 percent. …This is hardly a fringe problem. Half of women in the U.S. have dense breasts, and, difficulties of detection aside, women with dense breast tissue are also at higher risk for developing cancer, though clinicians aren’t sure why.”
Source: The Cut
Waiting for Screening Until 50
What: NPR has a story from the flip side of breast cancer surveillance—the perspective that too many screenings can create unnecessary anxiety and false positives. A study found that when told the pros and cons of screenings, women between 39 and 49 were more likely to elect to wait for screening until 50.
Why it matters: “’In an ideal world, all women would get this information and then get to have their further questions answered by their doctor and come up with a screening plan that is right for them given their preferences, their values and their risk level,’ said social psychologist Laura Scherer, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Of 495 women surveyed, only 8% initially said they wanted to wait until they turned 50 to get a mammogram. After researchers informed the women of the benefits and the harms, 18% said they would wait until 50.”
Source: NPR
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