Tonight, a women’s health dataset that needs to be used, a congresswoman who passed out from period pain is doing something about it, and how menopause may quietly rewire breast tissue for cancer — and more.
CLOSING THE DATA GAP ON WOMEN'S HEALTH // A new paper makes the case for using data from the All of Us Research Program, which has which has enrolled more than 500,000 participants (including a large cohort of women) for nearly a decade, to close gaps in women's health research. To prove its value, researchers ran three use cases, with meaningful results: 1) hyperthyroidism is strongly linked to osteoporosis development; 2) women face specific barriers to getting health care, including cost, transportation, and caregiving; and 3) anemia, preeclampsia, obesity, placental abruption, and placenta previa as significant risk factors for postpartum hemorrhage. The point is less the individual findings than the argument: this dataset exists, it's inclusive, and researchers should be using it.
CONGRESSWOMAN PASSES OUT FROM PERIOD PAIN, INTRODUCES LEGISLATION // Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari has an op-ed in Time explaining legislation she's introducing to give workers up to 12 paid days off a year for reproductive health issues, covering period pain, endometriosis flare-ups, menopause symptoms, IVF, and miscarriage. She describes her own experience with debilitating period pain, which included passing out on the floor of a New York bodega at 23 years old. The legislation would also cover men recovering from vasectomies or undergoing fertility treatments.
HOSPITAL GROUP: POSTPARTUM HEMORRHAGES MORE PREVENTABLE // Postpartum hemorrhage is responsible for about 14% of maternal deaths in the United States, yet it is considered one of the most preventable causes. The American Hospital Association launched a nationwide effort to help care teams get better identify and respond to it, using digital tools already built into electronic health records. The gaps they're targeting: visual estimates consistently undercount blood loss, risk assessment often isn't continuous, and teams aren't coordinating quickly enough when a hemorrhage unfolds.
MENOPAUSE REWIRES THE BREAST FOR CANCER // Cambridge researchers published what they say is the most detailed map to date of how breast tissue changes with age, covering more than 3 million cells analyzed from over 500 women. They found the most dramatic changes occur at menopause, including immune cells that identify and kill cancer cells decreasing while cell types associated with inflammation increase. About four out of five breast cancer cases occur in women over 50, and this research starts to explain why at the cellular level.
POSTPARTUM CLOTHING ADS VS. REALITY // Julia Wertz has a comic strip in the New Yorker highlighting the gap between what postpartum wear is marketed as and what it actually looks like in practice. My favorite: a cute nursing-friendly dress that is ultimately replaced with an old t-shirt with a stretched-out neck. (And there are many other examples to enjoy!)