ICYMI news for women
No TL;DR. Just the facts, ma'am. Recent news impacting women's health and lives.
Snippets is an occasional round-up of recent news pertinent to women’s health and lives. Watch our Notes for much more frequent hot-off-the-press news. If you like what you see here,❤️, share, or subscribe. We love all subscribers, and offer a paid subscription (at Substack’s lowest $30 rate) only because Substack pushes paid posts—meaning you’ll help get the news out and contribute to our piggy bank for paywalled articles we gift free to you here. Notes are free to all, and free subs get posts a day after paid; no one misses anything. Special love to anyone who gifts us a much needed espresso or snippet of wine as we sift through hundreds of often ugly news articles. I’ve been in healthcare for four decades (this lifetime) and write WomenUnbroken mostly for the fun of it and in memory of our journalist/editor dad, constantly thanking goddess neither he nor mom can see today’s headlines.
See footnotes for tips on reading Snippets1 including info on our sources and bias.2 Note an article marked * is from a professional journal and ** is a recommended Substack.
This week’s cover image from I grieve for SBC women
In 2000, ~7% of the US population was Southern Baptist. By 2025, that was down to 3.6% as the SBC doubled down on stifling the role of women and aggressively hiding pedophilia, misogyny and pedophilia being intertwined. And this week the Convention again voted to ban women from preaching. I was raised Catholic, a religion hardly pure on either misogyny or pedophelia, but new Pope Leo is rapidly setting a clear path on both with his focus on morality and ethics versus rules and retribution-based Godsplaining. Christopher Hale’s **Letters from Leo does a terrific job covering Leo if you’re looking for light behind historically impenetrable curtains defended by way too many religions. There’s a reason Leo is striking a surprising chord with Gen Z, for whom the world is dark on multiple fronts.
News about our bodies
PCOS: finally no longer just ovaries | Sleep disorder or hot flashes? | We’re now slightly less lousy at infant mortality, still terrible at maternal deaths, and a failure at parent support (while writing billions of words daily wondering why people aren’t having babies) | Essential women’s health checklist | Women are higher risk for COPD; spot symptoms early | *OB-Gyns say no to RFK, joining AMA and pediatricians | Can removing this (hated) 1840’s instrument free up access to care? | Millions of women left out of menopause care (gift article) | Are we finally done underrating ADHD? Links to other diseases (gift link) | A nation that can’t say “MJ” may be finally looking at psilocybin. See the history on this ancient practice. | Apple discovers menopause. | COVID vaccine: study links to heart protection (gift link) | Cancer-adjacent? Check out these two well-balanced Substacks: Dr. Daniel Flora’s **Curative and Hans Casteel’s **The Oncology Underground. | Twenty-somethings and preventive mastectomies (gift article) | mRNA vaccine for melanoma | Blood tests that predict Alzheimer’s: should you get one? (gift article) | Tick bites skyrocket; here’s what to look for in pets | Decades after European approval, FDA finally adds new sunscreen | Staring at pain at 3am: ibuprofen or acetaminophen?
- Changing times in women’s health? At last?
It’s possible the best thing that could have happened to women’s health care is Trump and RFK Jr labeling it forbidden DEI: Melinda Gates is all in—again—challenging billionaires to follow. | And so… VCs wake up on women’s healthcare | …and surprise! so do mammoth consulting firms PwC and Deloitte | Artifical Intelligence (AI) and therapy, checking your own body on medical recommendations, general uses in health, and new health legislation from states—Trump prefers limiting limitations | More on AI and health and our lives. | Remember, AI scrapes what’s out there. If it’s not there (as in MIA women’s health research), it won’t show up in your searches. The **error rates are daunting without that obvious gap…but IMO the future promise of truly presonalized care that breaks through the vast morass of worldwide medical research is breathtaking.
- Nutrition, exercise, sleep, and looking great
Eat it or toss it? Can you pass the test? (gift article) | What to know about alpha-gal meat allergy from ticks | Telehealth selling obesity drugs—be wary | **Practically Healthy: Scream if you’re exhausted from everything being fine and toxic | Reducing age-related muscle loss (gift article; see para at the end about the status of peptide research) | Bananas have fiber?? And not all apples are fiber-equal | His raw milk is making people sick; he and RFK Jr are good with that | Summer bliss—but how healthy is sweet corn? (gift article) | Gen X, Boomer women ignored by beauty industry? | If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember Mrs. Fields cookies; her daughter is upstaging her with (theoretically) healthier ones.
- The Generations: Our health and lives
Taylor Swift nails it on Platner and women (gift article) | If this doesn’t terrify you, you’re terrifyingly out of it: Teens and nudifying apps (Gift article, and once again, Europe is leading the fight) | Teens and Gen Z redefine healthy | MAHA brings you flavored e-cigarettes: how to talk to kids | The UK bans <16 from TikTok, YouTube (Once again, Europe leads on social media. Helloooo, Congress?) | OSU’s Gen Z health study | Gen Z and health spending, views on health justice | Gen Z and Millennials: work stress and mental health | Gen Z and Millennials drinking less | What doctors wish Millennials knew about health | Millennial rectal cancer crisis | It’s complicated: menstrual leave | What parents should know about looksmaxxing | Gen X women: health sniper’s alley | Midlife habits that may make or break later brain health | No good news on life expectancy for Gen X | Gen X and Boomers see mental health differently | Social media manipulation on gender roles; it’s not pretty. | Boomer women decide the fate of trillions of dollars: Who/what are we supporting? (gift article) | Boomer and Millennial women: endure or set boundaries? Can Boomer women afford to retire? | *Generations view health technology very differently.
Health policy
The World Economic Forum (!) says women’s health needs “system redesign” (no kidding); here’s why and more | Women’s health providers more politically active after Dobbs | The war on Obamacare (ACA) takes effect | New Federal ACA rules result in higher and more personal risk | Half of US adults struggle to pay for healthcare | OBBBA Medicaid cuts start hitting kids | As Ebola cases surpass total prior outbreaks, US wobbles on policy | Cure or designer babies? New embryo editing (Gift article. As our geriatric Congress continues to sleep through it all.) | Screwworm: Trump reversed a Biden 2024 livestock import ban, so after 60 years without screwworm we now have the flesh-eating parasite back again in TX, where it’s rapidly spreading across multiple counties. So the FDA is saving … wat for it … infected pets. | Follow Dr. Katelyn Jetelina’s **Your local epidemiologist and **KFF for solid, timely health policies, info, and news about what will impact all of us in the months to come.
Quick tips for reading Snippets:
See footnotes and italicized comments for context from our 30+ years in women’s and children’s healthcare.
Disclaimer: Listing these headlines does not indicate a recommendation. With so many news items, we don’t take the time to review each. Use common sense and dig deeper into any issue that interests you; follow the links.
Sources: We check both public and professional news sites, with click-throughs for sources. We tend to go straight to the original info more than the interpretation of popular magazines and blogs, as we’ve found the latter do not always correctly interpret medical science information. Medical editors are becoming rare. We give you the news directly, including the primary studies when available, and leave you to your interpretation.
Bias: Yes, I’m biased. 1) I’ve been in women’s and children’s health for decades as a provider, international consultant, and health system exec. If you’re in healthcare, with few exceptions, women’s and children’s services are not where you make money; those services are most often loss leaders. From policy to research to reimbursement for providers, women and children are second rate citizens, absolutely related to the historical perception of monetary value. So, you probably won’t be surprised I do not lean politically right on women’s health. We are center left but fair: we do not misrepresent data, and we do scan information from neutral and both center-left and center-right sites; you’ll see that in our posts and Notes. 2) I have a master’s degree as a nurse practitioner, so I was trained in Western medicine, but have lived long enough to know much of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine systems work just as well—what the US now calls “complementary and integrative medicine.” We strongly prefer actual scientific research to back up therapies, and definitely for therapies with potential harmful side effects. 3) If you’re wondering about media bias, check it on AllSides. We do.