Women suffering from chronic, disabling illnesses may be unable to find consistent healthcare or to pay for that care should the ACA be repealed—a dystopic situation we have already experienced.
Chronic Fatigue and Illness
HIV Will Not Stop Me: Girls Speak Out on World AIDS Day
It’s been 32 years since HIV was first discovered. Since then, it’s fair to say that we have come a long way. Just slightly more than 2 million people were infected with HIV in 2013, down from more than 3.6 million in 1997, the epidemic’s height. Currently, approximately 15 million people are taking anti-retroviral drugs […]
Eye-Opening Dispatch from “Kingdom of the Sick”
Laurie Edwards is all too familiar with life in the “kingdom of the sick,” which is how cultural critic Susan Sontag famously described the hidden world of chronic illness. From an early age, the 32-year old writer, blogger and mother of a young daughter has spent weeks of her life in the hospital and endured […]
Women’s Rights Key To Effective Global AIDS Response
As the XIX International AIDS Conference proceeds in Washington, D.C., this week, its pertinent to note that a new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body of former world leaders and top legal, human rights and HIV experts, has labeled the global response to the AIDS epidemic as “stifled” by various […]
Rivka Solomon Acts Up, Chronic Fatigue Be Damned
Rivka Solomon’s 2002 anthology, “That Takes Ovaries!,” still inspires action. That book (and play of the same name) even spurred its own international movement, serving as a blueprint for at least 600 open-mike speak-outs and performances in which girls and women celebrate their own “ovarian acts.” But Rivka has done much of this from bed.
Anorexia, 138 Years Ago
On the final day of Women’s History Month, let’ s take a moment to remember Miss A, the first woman medically diagnosed with anorexia, and the pioneering doctor who used her case to challenge the era’s prevailing presumption that eating disorders were simply a mark of an hysterical woman. On October 24, 1873, esteemed English […]
The 24-Hour Treatment for Anorexia
For years now, eating disorders patients and their families been watching and waiting for clinical trials to verify what treatment experts have been observing in practice: that the family-based Maudsley method really is the most effective treatment for many young anorexia patients. Last week The New York Times reported a new study by Maudsley pioneer […]