Nov. 16: ICYMI news for women

No TL;DR. Just the facts, ma'am. Dozens of new articles in the last week alone that matter to women. Click your picks, ignore the bricks: we watch the news so you don't have to.

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 two days later for all subscribers. It takes time — 10+ hours every week — to search for relevant news, add context and deeper dive links and get these news stories to you without ads or promotions. If you find this valuable, give us a shout-out with a❤️ or a share, or consider buying us a much needed espresso (or a snippet of wine?) or—definitely better yet—a paid subscription to support our work: we do it for you.

In the news this week for women: Cover pic: The Big Breakup…who knew? And can it be true…the you-know-who files finally released this week? And a new discharge petition goes after ACA subsidies. Is intermittent fasting good for the brain? Where you live may determine whether you find breast cancer early enough. Tips on avoiding holiday crud. Terrific new clues on diagnosing chronic fatigue syndrome, why younger women are getting colon cancer, and maybe even how Lupus develops. A death from tick-caused meat allergy. Cheetos color goes away—but the jokes and health issues won’t change. Managing winter skin, and the new breed of skin evangelists. A coffee a day to keep AFib away? Bonus: $20 wines for T-Day. GLP-1s in the news, ByHeart formula and botulism, and parenting communities. No Rx, no FDA, no insurance—but testosterone is all the rage. HRT and HRT options. Skip weight and BMI—there’s a new measure of health on the horizon. And some terrific new tech, including an FDA-approved device for home use that combines an electrocardiogram and digital stethoscope, and a virtual support program that may decrease NICU stays and C-sections.

• Tip: If you hit a paywall here or anywhere, copy the URL of the article into archive.ph.¹

• See our footnotes and italicized comments for context from our 30+ years in healthcare.

• Articles marked with an asterisk (*) are from professional journals.

• Disclaimer: Listing these headlines does not indicate a recommendation. With so many news items each week, we don’t take the time to review each. Use common sense and dig deeper into any issue that interests you. More on sources and bias.²

This week’s Women in the News cover pic

Trump and Marjorie breaking up sure wasn’t on our bingo card. But here we are: more 2025 governing chaos as MTG purports to be confused about why Trump doesn’t seem to want to publish the Epstein files, reportedly unleashing death threats to her from his very peaceful and loving followers. The Big Vote is scheduled for Tuesday, with “scores of Republicans” expected to support the following floor vote, now that Speaker Johnson finally ran out of excuses to deny a feisty Adelita Grijalva the House seat she won 50 days ago. Trump is burning up the phones, putting on any pressure he can to quash release of the files. Buckle up and stay tuned. We’ll follow it here.

Our bodies

- News on women’s health

• Melinda Gates names 80+ non-profits for $250M in grants.

• The battle on discharge petitions switches to extension of ACA subsidies as Dems propose 3-year extension.

  • Healthcare organizations urge Congress to act quickly.

• If you feel more awake and alive using intermittent fasting, you’re not alone.

• Tips on keeping yourself and the family from getting sick over the holidays.

• Where you live can determine access to reliable screening for breast cancer.

- Trending

• Finally!!! A new blood test identifies chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—and maybe long COVID, too.

• New clues on women’s colorectal cancer <50: Ultraprocessed foods…again.

  • 50-80 YO women twice as likely as men to be addicted to ultraprocessed food.

• Hemp industry plans next move after Trump signs THC ban that could outlaw gummies, vapes, drinks and creams.

• Scientists trace Lupus to one of the world’s most common viruses.

  • Lifelong drugs for autoimmune diseases—experienced more by women—doesn’t work. Scientists are trying something new.

• First person dies from meat allergy from tick bite.

- Nutrition, exercise, sleep, and looking great

• Cheetos are going colorless, but don’t expect them to make the health food list.³

• Dermatologists on how to manage winter skin conditions.

• *Study: A coffee a day to keep AFib away?

• Nutrition-ish? $20 wines for the Thanksgiving table. (Gift article…you’re welcome!)

- GLP-1 news

• GLP-1s linked to lower colon cancer mortality rates.

• New drug reduces side effects of GLP-1s.

Note we often group some articles in generational/lifestyle categories for easier reading, but generations don’t have a ‘hard stop’—they overlap, so check topics. Also check the Femtech section, below, for more news that can apply to your generation and interests.

- Gen Z and Millennials

• The acne evangelists: Making skin care as easy as a Drybar blow-out. (Gift article)

• What we know about DINKs in the US: Are you one?

- Pregnancy, birth and parenting

• Too few women get easy prevention for serious pregnancy complication.

• ByHeart recalls all baby formula as botulism investigation proceeds.

  • How parents discovered their baby had botulism from MyHeart products.

• Pew Research: How parents use online communities.

• Preterm, cesarean births more common in myasthenia gravis.

- Midlife and perimenopause

• The FDA hasn’t approved it, many doctors won’t prescribe it, and insurance won’t pay for it…but women are on fire about testosterone.

• HHS “rights a 20-year wrong” and removes black box warning for HRT. (If only I trusted this crew.)

  • Related: Can’t take HRT? Non-HRT approaches for menopause.

• *Study: 40% of perimenopausal women misdiagnosed.

- The untethered-to-my-uterus years

• *Study: Sleep problems tied to higher blood pressure in postmenopausal women.

• Body composition—not weight or BMI—may be more important for women’s health and longevity.

• Regularly listening to music or playing a musical instrument may protect against cognitive decline.

Deeper dives | policy

• Health Policy Watch: How intimate partner violence affects children.

Femtech and women’s health innovation

We’re way past time for innovation in women’s health, and Femtech is hoping to fill the gap. Don’t miss this free post with tips on investing in women’s health and see more about why investors are excited, but also why femtech can be the new Wild West. And see more about why we have a special section on femtech.⁴

• *Study: Overdue advances in biomonitoring tech for women’s health.

• Herself Health and Midi Health partner to delivery hybrid care for midlife and older women.

• Finally: A new device that combines an electrocardiogram, digital stethoscope, and thermometer all in one gets FDA approval for home use.

  • See Beamo here.

• New AI-enabled population health Maven Clinic offering may prevent up to 27% fewer NICU stays and 15% fewer C-sections.

1. Archive.ph is a web archiving service that captures and preserves snapshots of web pages. If it’s a lesser-known site or if the article is very popular, it could take a few minutes to load, but it generally works very well—including, BTW, forwarding posts to Canada or other countries wisely concerned about some of our US media.

2. 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, we’re biased. 1) We’ve been in women’s and children’s health for over three decades as providers, international consultants, and health system execs. If you’re in healthcare, with few exceptions, women’s and children’s services are not where you make money; those services are more 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 we 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. It’s also possible we are a bit cynical. 2) We were trained in Western medicine, but have lived long enough to know much of Eastern 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. Another cool website and app (thank you, Julie L!) is ground.news, which rates political bias in particular stories.

3. But it does mean that, eventually, calling a certain politician The Great Cheeto will lose its meaning. Maybe by 2035 or so.

4. We have a special section on femtech for three reasons: While not all femtech is created equal, 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 Trump and Kennedy’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, it’s a good eye-opener to those of us who have been dulled to the possibility of better after decades of often insensitive and boringly predictable care. Femtech views that neglect as opportunity.