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EVERYTHING
Hysterectomy: The Pain Solution With Few Options
What: Mother Jones reviews 'Get It Out: On the Politics of Hysterectomy', a book from Hunter College medical sociologist Andréa Becker. She found a lot of women want a hysterectomy, a choice driven by years of undiagnosed reproductive issues causing severe symptoms.
Key Line: "Hysteria has the same etymological root as hysterectomy—'hystera,' Greek for 'womb.'...I found a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association from the 1950s where the researchers were trying to figure out what hysteria actually was, since it was so vaguely defined. So they surveyed institutionalized patients who had been diagnosed with it. Not surprisingly, almost all of them were women. And their symptoms—things like strange bleeding, unexplained pain, no interest in sex—just sounded like endometriosis to me."
Source: Mother Jones
Alcohol Use Disorder Harms Women's Brains Faster
What: The NIH's Office of Women's Health Research spotlights a Yale study that found women with mild to moderate alcohol use disorder have lower levels of brain immune cells compared to healthy women. This could lead to worsened mood, anxiety, and impaired brain function.
Key line: "Most treatments for AUD were designed around predominantly male study groups. These new findings underscore the need for women-specific interventions that bolster the brain’s immune resilience. Increasing healthy behaviors known to support immune health, such as regular exercise, restorative sleep, and a nutrient-rich diet, may complement medications to improve outcomes for women in recovery."
Source: ORWH: In the Spotlight
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Getting Postpartum Labs -- At Home
What: Forbes contributor Geri Stengel covers Trellis Health, an at-home lab test targeted at postpartum moms. The $239 kit looks at 30+ measures including hormones and thyroid levels and aims to address the lack of postpartum care in the US.
Key Line: "During pregnancy, women are tested for dozens of conditions at regular intervals. But once the baby arrives, those metrics disappear—despite clear risks to maternal health. “We test hundreds of biomarkers during pregnancy. Then we test nothing. That’s a healthcare failure,” said Giraud. Conditions like postpartum anemia, undiagnosed thyroid disorders, and vitamin deficiencies can mimic or exacerbate postpartum depression, fatigue, anxiety, and long-term metabolic disease. But because they’re rarely measured, they often go untreated."
Source: Forbes
ABORTION ACCESS
How Brazilian Women Pioneered Safer At-Home Abortions
What: NPR has a deep dive on Brazil's unexpected drop in deaths due to abortion complications in the 1980s. It turns out women found an over-the-counter drug known as Cytotec, meant for ulcer treatments, also helped end early pregnancy. This method would soon ripple across the world.
Key Line: "They called it Saintotec. Cytotec, Saintotec, it has many names. You might know it as Misoprostol, aka Miso, like the soup. Or Maiso, there’s no agreement on how to pronounce it. Experts believe it’s now the most commonly used abortion pill in the world. And the World Health Organization says it’s safe to self-manage with pills through 12 weeks of pregnancy."
Source: NPR
MENOPAUSE
Op-ED: FDA, Stop Scaring Menopausal Women
What: Washington Post's Leana Wen has an op-ed calling for the FDA to remove black box warnings on hormone therapies to treat menopause symptoms. An FDA panel met earlier this month to discuss removing the warning, which was issued for a 2002 study that "was later shown to be deeply flawed."
Key Line: "Manson was one of the original Women’s Health Initiative researchers who has since written multiple articles critiquing its earlier conclusions. Like Pinkerton, she feels strongly that the black box warning should not apply to low-dose vaginal estrogen. In her experience, it causes confusion and fear. Women are 'reassured by their doctor that it’s very safe, that it hardly increases the blood level of estrogen at all,' she said. Then when they fill their prescription, they see a big warning label. They don’t know who or what to believe."
Source: Washington Post
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