Video Campaign, Libido Talk, Covid-19 Vaccine, Gender Data Gap… | Weekly Roundup | Issue #002
A weekly newsletter about menstrual health.
Happy U.S. National Day of Encouragement!
Leading the Way
I’m cheering on Zainab Chamoun this week for landing a news feature at The New Humanitarian titled “Lebanese women fight period poverty with eco-friendly alternatives”. In her article, she highlights the menstrual health challenges many Lebanese women face. It covers the everyday financial barriers, the efforts to end the stigma about periods, and the initiatives aimed at increasing awareness about varying menstrual solutions.
To learn more about the current state of menstrual health in Lebanon, watch this video campaign by Fe – Male and Plan International.
Research
After the outcry of many menstruators (myself included) expressing changes in their menstrual cycle after taking the Covid-19 vaccines, the National Institute of Health finally stepped in. They announced a $1.67 million dollar study to investigate the hidden link between the vaccines and the menstrual cycle. Researchers of various universities have come together for the study (Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, Michigan State University, Oregon Health & Science University). Read more.
Unbalanced Neuropeptide S Receptor 1 activity is not our friend. In a collaborative study published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, Dr. Krina Zondervan and colleagues found that the NPSR1 gene was associated with endometriosis. When they introduced the NPSR1 inhibitor SHA 68R, it led to a decrease in inflammation and pain in mouse models and similar promising results in nonhuman primates. Their findings give us hope that there may be a nonhormonal treatment option for endometriosis in the future. Read more.
FemTech
On Monday, September 6th, Tania Boler, founder of Elvie, hosted a live event on Instagram with Caroline Criado-Perez, author of “Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” about the gender data gap and how to fix it. Caroline shared that she wrote the book out of frustration that, most of the time, gender-neutral defaults to males and all the consequences of that. Women are not being included in medical studies, symptoms are not being correctly identified, and many women lose their lives because they are not given the correct diagnoses and treatments. As she was writing the book, she kept being surprised and frustrated by the lack of gender-specific data and the biases in published medical works. Most importantly, she highlighted the excuses she kept hearing “women are too complicated to measure.” She responded “half of the world is too complicated to look at?? Where is your curiosity.” Watch the replay.
On Wednesday, September 8th, FemTech Collective and Women@Amazon hosted the event “The Future is FemTech”. Watch the replay.
On Thursday, September 9th, Dr. Laura Joigneau, medical lead at Tunne, and Dr. Lyndsey Harper, founder & CEO of Rosy, hosted the webinar “How Hormones & Birth Control Impact Your Libido”. During the event, Dr. Harper addressed the fact that many period tracking apps track sex in terms of whether you had sex or not. The apps don’t track whether you are feeling desirous of sex or not. To that, she recommended journaling or figuring out how to add notes to the tracker apps. She highlighted that it is important to note your libido levels to see how they pair up with your menstrual cycle. She closed the event by stating that you should vocalize and address your concerns and questions by talking to someone you trust and taking a look at the Rosy app because it covers a wide range of topics to explore libido and menstrual health. Click here to read the key takeaways and watch the replay.
The War on Women
The Justice Department sued Texas for going against the Constitution and violating menstruators of their rights. This article, from the Evening Standard, shares the full update.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, the co-founder of Period Equity, has joined the conversation and released an article about how the Texas ban proves a misunderstanding of how periods work.
Most importantly, here is where you can start to help alongside the Planned Parenthood Center for Choice.
Member Spotlight
Annabelle Jones: Biomedical Engineering Master’s Research Student at the University of Technology in Sydney.
This week, Annabelle joined our newsletter community. She is a research student focusing “on female physiology and its adaption into space travel” (taken from her LinkedIn bio). She will be speaking at the Australian Space Biology and Health Summit in November about her research. Let’s show some support! Register for the event. Congrats on the opportunity Annabelle!! 🥳🎉👏🏼
Upcoming Events
September
Mira Fertility webinar with Women’s Hormone + Fertility Expert | September 15th @4:00pm EST | Link here.
2021 Canadian Symposium on Sustainable & Equitable Periods | September 18th @10:00am PDT | Link here. (NEW)
Columbia University Periods & Sports webinar | September 22nd @8:00am EST | Link here.
Learn How To Intuitively Align with Your Cycle taught by Clara Bailey | Choose between September 23rd @8:00pm AEST or September 24th @9:00am AEST | Link here. (NEW)
Madami by Menstrual Health Hub Live Event | Know Your Cycle: Peaceful & Productive Periods | September 30th @6:00pm CET | Link here. (NEW)
…
Carrot Fertility Sneak Peek at What’s Coming in 2022 webinar (Turns out this event is only open to Carrot clients. Sorry folks!).
…
October
University of Sheffield Menstruation in the Media Conference | October 21st @10:15am BST | Link here. (NEW)
November
The Third Annual Australian Space Biology & Health Summit | November 16th-19th | Link here. (NEW)
Accounts to Follow
Instagram:
Cathie Beukes, certified nutritionist, and life coach from A New U Nutrition @thenomadicnutritionist
Clara Bailey, naturopath, herbalist, and fertility awareness educator @clarabailey_
Maria Carmen Punzi, menstrual health advocate @periodswithmariacarmen
Christine Bergsma, from Journaling Through @journaling_through
Margaret Hayes from Nature’s Cycle UK @natures_cycle
❤️ We like Instagram too! Here is our account @periodpress ❤️
Until next Sunday morning! 🗞☕️
Share with a friend!