ICYMI news for women
No TL;DR. Just the facts, ma'am. 70 news stories that matter to women.
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. Snippets is a perk for our terrific paid subscribers, released a few 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 margarita?), 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: The coming healthcare crisis for women; attacks on routine gyn care at Planned Parenthood, multiple states; longevity and women—not just the bros. Multiple new studies on pregnancy, birth and parenting…and more on menopause and midlife! Ethics beyond abortion with the Adriana Smith disaster; public health workforce moral injury; as gabapentin use treands, new research shows brain concerns in young users. The delights of cinnamon and sex hormones. Weather, migraines, and MJ; endometriosis and digestion (no MJ, sorry, but there is more about MJ here). Prioritizing health policy; the real tea on that social security tax cut (imagine our government fibbing!) A plague death in Arizona—seriously. Leading medical organizations sue RFK-not amid cancellation of a second panel meeting, and he promotes a food company using ultraprocessed foods. The most and least stressed US cities; ads just can’t say these women’s health words, but talking erections is just fine. Kids’ health continues to decline (50% are covered by Medicaid, decimated by the budget bill.) Ticks! What Boomers miss about getting healthcare coverage at work; new Trump tactics attacking Harvard threaten world’s largest women’s health study; ice baths—yay or nay; mental health, Kate, and the LGBTQ+ hotline. Why sharp healthcare premium increases are coming in 2026, and WSJ says health insurance companies are becoming uninvestable—imagine that; the latest on Femtech and much, much more!
Thanks again for your support of Women Unbroken! Without you, we’d have no fun!
Tip: If you hit a paywall here or elsewhere, copy the URL of the article into archive.ph.1 Several articles here use links from there to overcome paywalls. If you experience a delay with popular articles; wait a moment or return later.
See our “Why it matters” footnotes for context from our 30+ years in healthcare as well as deeper dive info on news items.
A note that listing these headlines does not indicate any type of recommendation. With so many news items in each ICYMI, we don’t take the time to review each. Use common sense and dig deeper on any issue that interests you.
Articles marked with an asterisk (*) are from professiona medical or science journals.
Our bodies
America’s healthcare crisis is coming for all women: For the first time in history, daughters have fewer freedoms than their mothers and grandmothers.
Planned Parenthood ‘defunding’ threatens women’s health beyond abortion.
Study sheds new light on gabapentin (Neurontin) risks: Dementia incidence higher particularly for younger chronic back pain patients prescribed gabapentin. Why this is important2
Is cinnamon good for you? The sweet spice packs surprise benefits.
* Estrogen-only hormone therapy lowers young-onset breast cancer risk.
Pregnancy, birth and parenting:
Menopause and midlife
‘A national movement’: 15 states consider laws on menopause care and training for doctors.
The sleep-heart link doctors are urging women over 45 to know.
The complex relationship between alcohol, women, periods and middle age.
10 menopause myths the experts can’t stand. (gifted article)
Midlife women's hormonal health: A doctor’s personal journey.
The wisdom years
Step aside longevity bros. It’s time for the longevity ladies. [WSJ: of course they said ‘ladies.’]
* Study finds cervical cancer risk high in women aged over 65 years.
Oral health function linked to markers of lifestyle-related diseases in older adults.
* Identifying common diseases trajectories of Alzheimer’s with electronic health records.
Medical ethics: Keeping a brain-dead pregnant woman on organ support raises ethical issues beyond abortion politics with suggestions to provide more clarity the next time.
News impacting our health and lives, and those we love and guide
Digesting Trump’s big budget law, including the significant healthcare impact.
Opinion: Moral injury and brain drain are destroying our public health workforce.
RFK-not
Kennedy's move to cancel preventive health panel meeting raises alarm. [Yes, another cancellation—a second, different panel.]
While we were all focused on what Kennedy is not doing, here’s what they did do: FDA OKs Moderna's COVID vaccine for high-risk kids, the first COVID shot to be fully approved for the youngest children, albeit with conditions
RFK Jr.'s vaccine policy sparks a lawsuit from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Here’s what to know about the MMR vaccine, ‘fetal debris,’ and DNA: Claims about danger are deliberately misleading.
Trump’s war with Harvard puts largest-ever women’s health study at risk.
Related:
Wrestling promoter and not-doctorDepartments of Education and HHS notify Harvard University’s accreditor of Harvard’s Title VI violationRelated: Trump wields his ‘secret weapon’: College accreditation. (gifted article)
What to know about the plague (!) after Arizona patient death. (gifted article)
Stress is wrecking your health: how can science help?
Related: The most and least stressed cities in the US, with 73% of Americans admiting to feeling financially stressed.
Consider this (and tell the kids): Evidence of cell phone surveillance detected at anti-ICE protest.
The health of US kids has declined significantly since 2007, a new study finds.
Taling about erections is just fine, but the ‘taboo’ of women’s health advertising complicates access to treatment (just like it does investing and research).
What most people who grew up on employer-provided health insurance don’t know: Employers are failing to insure the working class; Medicaid cuts will leave them even more vulnerable.
Why 22 million people may see a sharp increase in health insurance premiums in 2026.
Ice bath trend raises health concerns: Here are 6 tips for staying safe.
Kate Middleton describes cancer journey as a 'roller coaster.’
As the budget bill dramatically cuts Medicaid to kids, social media analysis reveals emotional burden of children with multiple health conditions.
Misinformation lends itself to social contagion; here’s how to recognize and combat it.
Policy and research: Americans’ view on who influences health policy and which health issues to prioritize.
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—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.
How healthcare innovation happens—and why it matters for women’s health.
Childcare marketplace Bumo raises $10M to support working families.
French PCOS startup Solence raises €1.6M for AI-driven digital therapeutics.
Medtech startup The Blue Box closes €3M seed round to transform breast cancer screening.
Archive.ph is a public web archiving service that captures and stores snapshots of web pages, allowing users to access them even if the original page is paywalled, no longer available or has been modified.
As I listen and e-talk to friends and subscribers, gabapentin (Neurontin) use appears to be ‘trending’—prescribed more frequently for multiple issues. [Click here and here for approved uses, dosing and side effects.] Until you’ve seen someone elderly fall because they’re ‘snowed’ by surprisingly high initial doses of gabapentin prescribed for neuropathy or sciatica, it’s easy to ignore the danger, particularly at doses meant for younger, healthier kidneys that can break down the drug easily and more quickly than older kidneys dealing with multiple medications. Recently a young friend of mine was offered gabapentin at a surprisingly high daily dose for occasional nerve pain in a single toe—occasionally, not regularly, and just one toe. When she refused the drug because of its systemic effects for something simple, occasional and localized, she was given lidocaine patches which worked well without the system-wide side effects of gabapentin.
What does ‘trending’ look like in prescribing?
If you’ve been in healthcare for a while, you’ve seen examples of particular meds ‘trending,’ often for “off label” use. “Off-label “is the practice of prescribing a drug for a different purpose than what the FDA approved. Initial formal research leading to FDA ‘on-label’ approval for many older meds, like gabapentin, may go back decades. Original formal research on gabapentin is from the 1970s. It’s worth noting the 70s were not research heydays. Medical research was usually done on men only, not women who often don’t break drugs down as well, and in limited settings, like hospitals or institutions for severely ill patients. Gabapentin was originally approved by the FDA in the 70s for control of seizures, like epilepsy. today, it’s also used extensively in veterinary medicine; your dog or cat may have taken it…and you may remember how subdued they were on it.
Over the years, researchers find other specific uses for older drugs, and then at some point, the medication may start ‘trending’ for use for multiple uses. The list of off-label uses for gabapentin in humans now includes fibromyalgia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, resistant depressants, mood disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, alcohol withdrawal, postoperative analgesia, migraine prophylaxis, interstitial cystitis, painful diabetic neuropathy, social phobia, generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures, pruritus, insomnia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and refractory chronic cough and postmenopausal vasomotor symptoms.
Anytime I see a list as varied as that for off-label uses my skepticism rises. As has often been the case, once use spreads wider to previously unresearched patient populations, side effects become much more clear, as with this study. And when time-stressed prescribers start handing out prescriptions more casually, common side effects don’t always get emphasized, like those that increase known side effects of gabapentin, such as dizziness and drowsiness. I was unable to find studies on gabapentin with older populations for many of the off-label uses, as an example, although gabapentin interacts unfavorably with many issues older men and women experience.
Gabapentin interacts with caffeine, losartan, antihistamines, and sleep medications, potentially causing serious breathing problems at night. With so many older populations taking other meds or already on assisted ventilation like CPAP at night, and with older kidneys breaking down multiple other drugs, more side effects will likely show up—although it could take years for enough reports to generate warnings.
Unfortunately, there are often few alternative. Do your own research and learn about side effects. Particularly if you’re a woman and/or older, check to see if an initial lower dose than might ordinarily be prescribed works as well without side effects, or if there is an alternative with fewer systemic effects.
For a similar example of trending prescribing, see an in-depth analysis of the use of trazadone for a case study in how prescribing ‘trends’ happen and the potential unrecognized dangers when older, well-known meds start being used more widely with populations often never tested in research. Like many medications, trazadone also is broken down very differently—and not as well—by women than men, unnoticed by initial research back in the 70s on predominantly male, institutionalized populations.