Tag: Medical Sexism

Midterms and ‘Mid-Cycle Spotting’: Getting Real About Women’s Health

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We have been left all alone, our bodies overlooked by the law and undermined by the courts. We’re left, quite literally, to save our own lives. But perhaps one silver lining of the overturning of Roe v. Wade has been creating space for women to openly and deliberately trace the arc of their reproductive lives—in public—from menstruation to menopause.

As advocates, scholars and providers now work to reimagine and rebuild what meaningful reproductive care looks like in this country, we have an opportunity to be more holistic in addressing the full continuum of women’s reproductive lives. Private sector interventions and public policy solutions must reflect those intersections. Period. Full stop. 

‘The Future Is Disabled’: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on Creating a More Humane Social Order

Writer, disability-justice activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha knows that it’s possible for society to become more equitable. Piepzna-Samarasinha’s latest book, The Future Is Disabled: Prophesies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs, lays out a bare-bones agenda for what is needed to make the U.S. more socially just.

Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms. contributor Eleanor J. Bader communicated about the book, the disability justice movement and the ways that activists can support each other in the fight for a more ecologically sustainable and humane social order.      

The Pain Gap: Gender Bias in Endometriosis Pain Management

Women are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men and their pain dismissed. Medical gaslighting is rampant in pain management, particularly with regards to endometriosis. 

Such gender bias is well-known, yet it continues to persist. The narratives and statistics are sobering. Most of the studies on pain are based on male anatomy and physiology. Last year, Science Daily published a study that concluded that when women expressed the same amount of pain as men, their pain was dismissed as less intense and psychotherapy was suggested instead instead of medication.

Is Male Birth Control Finally at Hand?

With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade severely curtailing women’s reproductive rights, it might seem an odd moment to report good news about male birth control. Nevertheless, researchers recently announced that male birth control trials with mice were wildly successful—99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy.

Depending on the result of human trials, the drug could soon be the first effective form of birth control for those with testes apart from condoms or vasectomies. Why has it taken so long?

Thousands of Medical Professionals Urge Supreme Court To Uphold Roe: ‘Provide Patients With the Treatment They Need’

Over 2,500 healthcare professionals from all 50 states have signed a letter urging the Supreme Court to scrap their leaked Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft opinion and uphold Roe.  

“As medical professionals, we have a duty to provide our patients with the treatment they need to be safe and healthy. Patients should be able to make their own decisions about their health, using science and medical guidance from their physicians, without interference or influence from politics or the courts.”

Rep. Carolyn Maloney Pushes Corporations for Better Birth Control Coverage

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), as chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, sent letters to the top insurance companies and their pharmacy benefit managers requesting information on their activities related to birth control coverage as required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“I am deeply troubled by reports that health plans and issuers may not be fully complying with the ACA’s requirement to cover contraceptives at no cost, potentially depriving patients access to critically important reproductive health care,” Maloney said.