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EVERYTHING
Alcohol’s Lies (and Breast Cancer)
What: Women’s Health has a deep dive on drinking, and examines why people reacted far more swiftly to the news that smoking causes cancer than they have for alcohol—especially breast cancer.
Key line: “And Morris says that alcohol’s correlation with increased breast cancer risk is far more significant than with other types of cancer risks: Over two decades ago, a meta-analysis found that women who consumed two or three alcoholic drinks per day had a 20 percent higher lifetime risk for breast cancer than those who didn’t—and alcohol is now believed to be responsible for around 100,000 breast cancer cases worldwide each year.”
Source: Women’s Health
MENSTRUATION
The Science of Cravings, Chocolate, and Periods
What: Washington Post columnist and doctor Trisha Pasricha breaks down cravings during menstrual cycles, and how some small studies have shown the foods we crave may be driven more by culture than by biology.
Key line: “Women’s caloric intake does increase just before the start of a period — while at the same time insulin resistance may decrease — so the idea that fluctuating hormones would impact cravings feels logical. For years, it was hypothesized that the fall in progesterone, which typically occurs a few days before the start of a period, is what induced chocolate cravings. However, when scientists directly measured hormone levels and tried to correlate them with cravings, no such link was found.”
Source: Washington Post
ABORTION ACCESS
How Trump Talks About Abortion Bans, By the Numbers
What: The New York Times analyzed over 600 speeches (!!!) from Donald Trump on abortion and shows visually just how much his rhetoric has changed. Trump has been clearly trying to distance himself from his enthusiastic pro-abortion ban positions after the real life-and-death consequences hit for women.
Key line: “After the Dobbs decision overturning the right to abortion in 2022, Mr. Trump often celebrated his role in it: ‘If you look at what we’ve done with Roe v. Wade, we did something that everyone said couldn’t be done, and we got it done.’ …During this campaign, though, he has sent mixed messages. At first, he said he would support a Florida measure expanding abortion access, then said he wouldn’t. He said he wouldn’t restrict access to abortion pills, then said he was open to it.”
Source: New York Times
Gabrielle Goodrick Isn’t Afraid
What: The Guardian profiles Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick, a family medicine doctor and owner of a clinic in Arizona that performs abortions. Goodrick decided to treat a patient who needed an abortion at 17 weeks, after her water broke prematurely. A hospital refused to treat the woman because she wasn’t sick enough yet, though infection was bound to happen soon.
Key line: “There’s legal risk to helping this patient – Goodrick’s not sure she would do it if the state didn’t have a Democratic governor and attorney general – but she’ll remark later how frustrating she finds it that more doctors aren’t willing to use their position to more aggressively challenge abortion restrictions. She is in a bind countless doctors have faced in the last two years, as stories of women denied emergency abortions in their home states have piled up. Zipkin agrees they need to act. From her perch on a black office chair, she responds, defiant: ‘I’m not afraid. Let’s do it.’”
Source: The Guardian
MENOPAUSE
The Forties are For…Injuries?
What: Eliza Barclay has a reported essay on her experience with several muscle injuries in her 40s, and discovering how common those injuries can be for women in this decade. And like so much else in women’s health, no one is really talking about it.
Key line: “I stumbled into my 40s largely ignorant of the changes to come, not just to my muscles but also to my hormone levels. We may be prepared for wrinkles and gray hair, but the decline in strength and increased risk of injury, even among very active people at this stage in life, is little recognized and far too infrequently discussed.”
Source: New York Times
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