ICYMI news for women
REALLY FINAL UPDATE: No TL;DR. Just the facts, ma'am. More than 80 news stories last week alone that matter to women. Click your picks, ignore the bricks.
Wow - apologies for the massive publishing blips! I fired the editor!!1 Here’s the correct final version; thanks for your patience!
Sunday Snippets is a round-up of headlines about women’s health and lives from the past week that we haven’t covered in our regular posts: We watch the news so you don’t have to! Snippets is a perk for our terrific paid subscribers, released three days later for all subscribers. It takes time — many hours every week — to search for relevant news, add context and deeper dive links, and get these stories to you without ads. If you find this valuable, please LIKE the post so we know someone’s out there—hellooo?—or consider buying us a much needed coffee (or a timely glass of wine?) or—definitely better yet—a paid subscription to support what we do. We’re all in on women’s health!
In the news this week for women: Women drinking more with bad results; AHA and women’s heart health; forever chemicals in period products; faster, easier diagnosis of endometriosis; tracking fibroids. Ozempic protects brains, too? Kennedy to fire another “too woke” panel. If a hospital can ignore a life-threatening complication in Serena Williams, it can happen to any woman—unfortunately, particularly to Black women. Are midwives the answer to embarrassing US pregnancy outcomes? Congress may make childbirth free for those who have insurance—never mind the half with no insurance. The problem with vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy; how Trump baby accounts work. New TN law negates medical ethics for pregnancy care. Antidepressants over used as fixall for women for millennia not the best option. Eating disorders not just for the young. The funniest menopause (and right-on) site on the Internet, as menopause continues to have a moment. Is the age cut-off for mammography too early? How about a fix for low sexual desire? Why Southern women aren’t living any longer than a century ago. Habits that sabotage brain health, and one that might help us live longer. Men’s birth control pill may be coming (finally); Uber’s women-only driver program; surviving nanoplastics; and Millennials playing mahjongg—who knew? Penis filler disasters—yikes! And, of course, the new beer bottle that broke the Internet (ER staff: just don’t). The latest on Femtech and much, much more.
Tip: If you hit a paywall here or elsewhere, copy the URL of the article into archive.ph.1 Several articles here use that trick. If it’s a lesser-known publication or if the article is very population, it could take a few minutes.
See our “Why it matters” footnotes for context from our 30+ years in healthcare.
Articles (*) marked with an asterisk are from professional medical or science journals.
Disclaimer: Listing these headlines does not indicate a recommendation. With so many news items in each ICYMI, we don’t take the time to review each. Use common sense and dig deeper into any issue that interests you.
Our bodies
Dr. Stacey Rosen, American Heart Association rewriting the script on women’s heart health.
Sleep, exercise, steps, hydrate - do we really need to stick to recommended daily doses?
* Non-invasive blood test offers new diagnostic approach for endometriosis.
NH is first state to require doctors to follow patients wishes on sterilization.
Does Ozempic protect your brain? Scientists identify potential new benefit.
Woman, 27, diagnosed with colon cancer shares one symptom doctors kept dismissing.
HHS news
How have Kennedy’s vaccine policies impacted America's public health?
Kennedy likely firing third “too woke” panel, this one on preventive care.
US health officials, tech executives to launch data-sharing plan. Why this matters.2
Pressure on NIH to update information on X-linked conditions—genetic disorders caused by mutations in genes on the X chromosome, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Fabry disease and hemophilia.
Pregnancy, birth and parenting
What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women, who are often dismissed or ignore by medical care providers. She wasn’t an exception. Why this matters.3
Childbirth is too dangerous. This ancient profession can help.
Related—see much more here
Survey: High vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women, new mothers.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working on a bill to make childbirth free for those with private insurance. Why Congress is exhibiting massive cognitive dissonance with this one.4
Here’s how the $1000 ‘Trump Accounts’ for newborns will work.
Unmarried Tennessee woman denied prenatal care under a new law.
European agency OKs medication for postpartum depression.
Related: * Defining postpartum depression
Midlife and perimenopause
Prescribed antidepressants, she was in menopause and needed another drug.
FDA extends review period for Bayer’s new hormone-free treatment for moderate to severe not flashes during menopause, approved as Lynkuet™ in the UK and Canada.
Doctors urge FDA to remove black box warning on hormone therapy for menopause.
Related: * A physician debunks estrogen therapy myths.
Breaking the Silence: MyMenoplan.org Empowers Women to Take Charge of Menopause. NIH funded the development of this site. Why it matters.5
Midlife Unfiltered: How to Decode Perimenopause Symptoms: What the “We do not care club” gets right.
The free-to-be-me years
Women 70+ may benefit from mammograms longer than we thought.
Women aging in the South are no better off than they were 125 years ago. Why?
* Short-term resistance training enhances functional and physiological markers as we age.
Mediterranean or plant-based diets may reduce constipation risk with aging.
News impacting our health and lives, and those we love and guide
Let’s kick it off with this, shall we? Male birth control pill passes early safety test, with more trials underway. Hubba hubba!
Unconscionable: US plan to destroy $9.7 million of contraceptives.
7 short, simple, science-based way to be a bit happier each day.
Uber is testing a women-only driver service. Here’s how it works.
Nanoplastics and long term health: heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Why the best place to pick berries may be in the frozen food aisle.
Even megastars like Venus Williams get the health insurance blues.
Texas has removed almost two million people from Medicaid in the last two years—before the budget bill hits with further deep cuts.
* Narcolepsy: Social determinants of health and clinical burden.
Related: She thought sleeping through class was normal. Then she was diagnosed with narcolepsy.
Related: Narcolepsy toolkit: A woman’s empowerment guide, including data on diagnosis in women can take a decade longer than it should
International adoptions to the U.S. have slowed to a trickle, matching trends in other countries.
Millions of popular above-ground pools recalled due to drowning risk after multiple child deaths.
AHA, Epic to help disseminate tools for postpartum hemorrhage recovery. Why this matters.7
Penis filler is becoming popular. The botched stories are horrifying.
The design of this new beer bottle has everyone thinking the same thing. (ER staff: Just don’t.)
NEW: Deeper dives | policy
Doctors Without Borders (rated least biased): 1 in 4 young children and pregnant women in Gaza clinics are malnourished.
Center for American Progress (rated leans left: The Trump Administration is endangering women’s reproductive health.
KFF (rated Center): The intersection of state and federal policies on access to medical abortion via telehealth after Dobbs.
KFF: 10 Key Data Points About the Experiences of LGBT+ Women and Their Access to Care.
KFF: Key facts on abortion in the United States.
Related: US abortion dashboard.
KFF: A closer look at negative interactions experienced by women in health settings.
WHO: Impact of contraceptive use on women’s health and socioeconomic status: evidence brief.
Femtech and women’s health innovation
We have a special section on Femtech for three reasons: While not all Femtech is created equal, overall outside investors—now finally often led now by women—are stepping up in a major way to fill the huge hole that traditional medical research is still neglecting and will worsen under RFK-not’s NIH that classifies women’s health research as DEI. Second, many of us have never invested specifically in women’s health but are in a position now to do so—if not us, then who? Finally, we may not be as tuned in to the possibilities of tech in what have been often insensitive and boringly predictable health care offerings for decades. We’re way past time for innovations, and FemTech is leading the way. Don’t miss this free post with tips on investing in women’s health and see more about why investors are excited.
Why women’s health is a critical societal infrastructure, according to femtech pioneer Ida Tin. I love this phrasing—here’s why.8
How femtech startups are disrupting traditional care models with personalized, app-based solutions.
Women's health app market set to expand from $5.22B in 2025 to $16.3B by 2032 at 17.6% CAGR.
Talkspace partners with Tia to integrate mental health services in women’s primary care.
WHAM.org CEO explains why women's health cuts are moral, financial disaster — and why the future belongs to women.
Women's health supplementation enters new era with DITTO and Fairhaven Health.
Cooler Heads raises $11M Series A for chemotherapy hair loss prevention device.
Neuspera wins FDA approval for battery-free sacral neuromodulation device for bladder control.
Expanded UNITY panel aims to improve fetal risk screening across diverse populations.
Many femtech companies are hiring; see a current list here.
The editor.
This could actually make a huge difference—depending on how it’s done. (Recent sharing of HIPAA-protected confidential health database information to ICE by this administration is not reassuring.) There are multiple IT systems in healthcare. Little unites them, and proprietary capitalism divides them to all our disadvantage.
The minute Serena Williams entered that hospital, everyone on the staff would have known and been excited to have such a VIP there. The best nurses and doctors would have been assigned to her. You can take it to the bank that if this near-disaster could happen to Serena Williams—it can, and does—happen far more to normal, everyday women. Our US history on maternal mortality among Black women should leave everyone aghast. Nowhere is this more evident than in the maternal mortality statistics of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama—three of the most dangerous places to birth in the civilized world, not just the US. Expectant moms living there would be safer birthing in Libya or Iraq, as our own CIA’s data shows. We’ve made some strides recently, but we have a long, long way to go.
Here’s how bad it is: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-MS)—a medical doctor—actually said “the maternal death rate in Louisiana isn’t as bad if you don’t count Black women”—and hardly anyone blinked. Cassidy is not a dumb guy. He knew he’d misspoken so he tried to make it better by saying, “Sometimes maternal mortality includes up to a year after birth and would include someone being killed by her boyfriend”—because obviously Black women get killed by boyfriends—‘boyfriends’ because they’re unmarried, you know. If you’ve ever thought implicit bias doesn’t exist, welcome to Senator’s Cassidy’s Mississippi world.
They’re working on making childbirth free for those with private insurance? That’s nice. But this is the same Congress that just slashed Medicaid—tossing at least 10M people off coverage. Medicaid currently funds almost half of US births. They also cut ACA coverage, estimated to raise rates for up to 24M more, and that’s what many small employers—where many young career-starters/potential parents work—use to provide coverage to employees. Another 10% of women of childbearing age have no health coverage at all. Even back in 2020 the average cost of a vaginal delivery was $15K, and it’s $26K+ for cesarean; women with insurance pay about a sixth of that, usually <$3000. I’m all in favor of decreasing the incredible medical debt we have in America: Millions of Americans are burdened with medical debt, and a substantial portion of those with debt end up filing for bankruptcy. For young poor women, medical debt is the start of a road to lifelong poverty. After the havoc coming from the budget bill, families with private insurance are probably not the highest need here. But it sounds good—something Congress is really, really good at doing.
The research that led to this new site was funded by the NIH. Given the Trump administration’s current definitions of DEI, you should assume something like this would not be funded again by this administration. Now unfolding in plain sight at NIH: “In just six months, more than 5,500 research projects have been halted. That’s 5,500 unanswered questions. Thousands of communities left behind. Researchers stuck in limbo. And a generation of training lost.” What’s happening there is like getting rid of grades 1 through 12 and expecting people to be successful in college.
Neil Howe (who wrote the book on Generations) says in his Substack, “Today’s young adults are drawn to toys that offer both a tactile experience and a hint of nostalgia, think Beanie Babies with a modern twist. It helps if there’s also a social dimension, as with mah-jongg parties.”
Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Best practices for predicting and treating it are not a mystery. Yet it still takes 17 years for research and best practices make it to the bedside; too many lives are being lost. Epic electronic health record (EHR) system is the dominant EHR player in US health systems, representing nearly 38% of the inpatient EHR market share. It’s also increasingly being used internationally. If standardized best practices for hemorrhage combine with AI prediction capabilities, huge inroads could be made very quickly on much better control of PPH.
Women hold everything together day after day. We make or guide north of 80% of the health decisions for ourselves, spouses/partner, kids, aging parents, half the ‘hood, and untold numbers of colleagues at work. If we go down, it all goes down—but we’re expected to hold it all together without the credit for doing so. I love calling women’s health “critical societal infrastructure!”