Vaginal mesh left me in agonising pain. When will women’s health be taken seriously? | Kath Sansom

In the 21st century it is hard to imagine women being maimed in a surgery with risks that they are not being properly warned about.

This, however, is the reality of vaginal mesh. A net-like implant, it is used to treat incontinence or prolapse, conditions that have often, but not always, been caused by childbirth. Between 2006 and 2016, more than 92,000 women in England have been treated with a polypropylene surgical material that is either inserted as a vaginal tape or a mesh patch.

Women are told they are going for a simple, low-risk operation that takes just 20 minutes.

But there is, in fact, the potential for this operation to leave them using a wheelchair or walking with sticks, with leg pain so bad it feels like intense toothache, constant urinary infections that burn and sting, and having to self-catheterise. Some suffer intense inflammation in sensitive tissues which means they lose their sex lives, and the mesh can slice through vaginal walls, urethras or cut into their bladder.

Problems can emerge quickly, or begin years after implantation.

I set up the support page Sling the Mesh on Facebook two years ago, in June 2015, just 10 weeks after I had a mesh implant to treat incontinence from childbirth. The pain in my legs and feet was so intense, along with burning pains in my vagina – like being cut with a cheese wire – that I knew something was terribly wrong.

When I told my surgeon of the pain I was suffering I was ignored. He told me I must have a slipped disc.

I had walked into the operating theatre as one of the fittest mothers in her 40s you could wish to meet – a keen high-board diver, mountain biker and boxer – and emerged a physical wreck. When I searched online I discovered women worldwide suffering similar problems. All were being ignored, not only by their surgeons but also by the media.

Perhaps this will change now that 800 women are suing the NHS and manufacturers of the implants. These women have all suffered serious complications, however the government watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), still says the benefits of this operation outweigh the risks. We know from leaked minutes of a meeting between the MHRA and NHS England in October last year that they are keen to “avoid media attention” over the scandal. It doesn’t seem to be working. Last week, after I appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show on the BBC to discuss the issue, 200 women joined Sling the Mesh within 24 hours.

This week I was contacted by a lawyer for advice. His client faces having her leg amputated as a result of her mesh implant migrating and causing repeated infections. On the same day three women joined Sling the Mesh; all had lost their bladder because of a simple operation to fix an embarrassing problem. Yes, you read that correctly. Women on support pages globally are losing bladders and bowels, and I estimate more than half the women on my page have lost their sex life.

The majority are told the symptoms they experience after the implant are a mystery. Without the internet we would never have realised that we were not alone.

Some surgeons deny they are putting in a mesh implant when queried by patients, instead calling it a tape or gauze. Or they deny it is plastic. “It is polypropylene” came the earnest reply from a surgeon to one woman earlier this year. (Polypropylene is, of course, plastic.)

The NHS and MHRA say the risk of complications with these operations is 1-3% but a report in the journal Nature by nine leading medics puts that risk at 15%. In the US the Food and Drug Administration recently released figures that said the trocar hooks used to implant the mesh cause injuries for up to 39% of women having a prolapse mesh and 29% of women having a mesh inserted for incontinence.

These aren’t the only problems. Mesh can be fine for years then suddenly shrink or degrade. This happens because the material is not inert – it can change inside the body. Years after implantation it can shrink, twist, harbour infection, go brittle or degrade. Unlike drugs, which have to go through a strict set of three trials, mesh has been approved for use according to a system called substantial equivalence, which means a product can be passed on the basis that there is already something else like it on the market.

Women tell me time and again about how their surgeon told them the risks were very low. Some risks, such as loss of sex life, had not even been highlighted to them, or if they had it was with a quick nod to the medical word dyspareunia (meaning difficult or painful sexual intercourse) and given no further discussion. This is in spite of a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 which stated all surgeons must give reasonable and transparent information to patients about the risks of any procedure.

It is not mandatory for surgeons to report problems to any database and there is no national register, so in truth nobody knows the true scale of this. All I can see as a patient campaigner is women experiencing chronic pain while in many cases surgeons deny the problem has anything to do with their operation. Some go back and forth for up to 10 years before their problems are properly recognised and addressed.

Given the complications, why are so many of these operations still being carried out? One answer seems obvious. Inserting a mesh implant takes 20 minutes as a day procedure under general anaesthetic compared to three hours and up to a four-night stay for traditional surgeries which include the Burch colposuspension (a hitch and stitch) or the autologous sling which uses a piece of muscle from a patient’s stomach wall to make a sling.

It is easy to see that vaginal mesh provides a cost-effective fix.

The traditional fixes have risks, as all surgery does, but the old-fashioned methods do not carry the risk of a piece of plastic shrinking inside the body, cutting into delicate tissues or causing allergic foreign body reactions.

The all-party parliamentary group into women’s health was formed this year to press for women to be treated with dignity and respect. Despite this, some women with the implant feel they are “going mad” after being told there is “nothing wrong”, despite years of painful symptoms, they say. Unlike other devices such as hip or breast implants, mesh embeds into the tissue and is designed to be a permanent implant. Removing it is like trying to get chewing gum out of matted hair.

When undergoing this surgery it is Russian roulette as to whether it will be successful or not. Is that a risk worth taking with a woman’s health?

Vaginal mesh left me in agonising pain. When will women’s health be taken seriously? | Kath Sansom

Serena Williams’s pregnant victory reminds us how amazing women’s bodies are | Natasha Henry

The news that Serena Williams won the Australian Open final while eight weeks pregnant has sent the world into a frenzy. Some evidently still think that women are the fairer sex, the weaker and the less capable of the two genders.

Believe me when I say we are far from fragile.

Williams is not the first elite athlete to compete during a pregnancy, but she is definitely the most prominent, given her recent win, defeating her big sister Venus. Triumphing 6-4, 6-4 in the final, she didn’t drop a single set on her way to lifting the trophy. I’ll repeat that: not a single set.

Now rumoured to be about 20 weeks – about halfway through a normal pregnancy – she will regain her place as world No 1 next week. That place at the top of women’s tennis will be held for her if she returns to competition within 12 months of giving birth, as per the Women’s Tennis Association special ranking rule.

Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham)

Serena’s snap suggests that she won the Australian Open without dropping a set while pregnant. pic.twitter.com/ltPndJRJBq

April 19, 2017

As much as I could pontificate about Williams’s achievements as a supreme athlete, role model and beautiful woman of colour all day, I just want to thank her for reminding us how amazing women’s bodies can be – particularly in an era when we are constantly peppered with examples of how they aren’t good enough, how we should alter them or how they should look.

While in the first trimester, the 35-year-old played tennis at the highest level in sweltering conditions. And as if her physical exertions weren’t enough, she also had to deal with the emotional stress of playing against her big sister.

‘Who can forget the picture of Alysia Montaño running the 800m while 34 weeks pregnant?’ Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

But as GP Dr Matt Piccaver told me: “In general, physical activity during any stage of life, including pregnancy, is a good idea. Serena Williams is an elite athlete, and has overcome a number of significant health challenges in her career. The human body is an amazing thing, and Serena proves that we are more robust than we think.”

Should she return to the tour and go on to win a grand slam, she will follow in the footsteps of Kim Clijsters, who won the US Open 18 months after giving birth to her daughter.

Jessica Ennis-Hill, Paula Radcliffe, Katie Chapman and Victoria Azarenka have all returned to compete at the top level in their respective sports after having children. And who can forget the picture of Alysia Montaño running the 800m while 34 weeks pregnant with her daughter?

Obviously every pregnancy is different, as is every woman’s relationship with fertility; but don’t the revelations of the last 24 hours remind you to consider what your body can do?

Like Serena Williams said: “You just have to prove to yourself that you can go out there and be the best that you can be and not prove anything to anyone.”

Maybe we should listen to her and just embrace our strength, our fabulousness and our beauty a bit more, as well as each other’s.

Serena Williams’s pregnant victory reminds us how amazing women’s bodies are | Natasha Henry

Do women’s periods synchronise when they spend time together?

Talk to a woman about her period and she will probably give you an example of the time her cycle aligned with a friend, partner, colleague or family member. Many of us have noticed that the closer we get to another woman the more we seem to get crampy, grumpy, tired, bloated and spotty at the same time. It’s as if our uteruses, in a monthly show of solidarity, are saying hey, why not go with the flow? Let’s do this painful, stigmatised, and bloody expensive thing together, and take advantage of the three-for-two tampon offers in the process.

However, a new scientific study – thought to be the largest of its kind – has found data showing women’s periods do not synchronise when they live together after all. The study – carried out by period tracking and fertility app Clue in partnership with the University of Oxford – received 1500 responses, which were narrowed down to 360 pairs of women. Analysing three consecutive cycles in each pair, the research found the vast majority – 273 pairs – had a greater difference in period start dates at the end of the study than at the beginning. In other words, menstrual syncing is a myth up there with periods being tied to the waxing and waning of the moon. Not only that, women’s menstrual cycles are more likely to diverge than come together over time.

“It’s very unlikely that cycle syncing is a real phenomenon,” says Clue’s data scientist Marija Vlajic. “Menstrual syncing amongst the sample we had did not exist. We’ve also done some statistical tests and found that the difference in cycles actually grows. This doesn’t mean that pairs go out of sync – it means they were never in sync in the first place. It’s the nature of two mathematical series that keep repeating: the series will diverge as the numbers grow.”

This has been my experience. I have been with my female partner for 13 years, living together for 11 years. In that time, our periods have never synced for more than a month or two, because our cycles are different lengths.

“Exactly,” Vlajic says. “So there will be a time every six months, say, when your periods sync but that doesn’t mean the difference is getting smaller.” Has Vlajic ever experienced her period syncing with another woman? “My background is scientific,” she notes. “So when I say to my friends that I have my period and they have theirs too I don’t conclude that we are syncing. I just think it’s information bias; our brains looking for patterns.”

Still, the belief in menstrual synchrony persists, with a study published in 1999 revealing that 80% of women believed in the phenomenon and 70% saying they enjoyed it. The editor who commissioned this piece told me that she syncs with her sister whenever they spend time together and gets her period at the same time as her closest colleague. The idea has been around for centuries, though because menstrual health has long been overlooked by the scientific research community it was not until 1971 that it was first documented in a study.

In a Harvard research paper titled Menstrual Synchrony and Suppression, psychologist Martha McClintock tracked 135 female college students living in the same dorm and found “a significant increase in synchronisation of onset dates”. She concluded: “the evidence for synchronicity is quite strong, indicating that in humans there is some interpersonal physiological process which affects the menstrual cycle.”

The idea that pheromones enable women to become sexually receptive at the same time has been researched in various groups as well as in rats, baboons and chimpanzees. Themain evolutionary explanation is that it permits female species to avoid being monopolised by a single dominant male. But McClintock’s paper has been discredited on methodological grounds and a whole host of other studies, like this new one, continue to prove that menstrual synchrony is a myth.

So why won’t we let this one go? And how does Vlajic explain all the anecdotal evidence of our periods synchronising? “I like the idea myself of this dominant super uterus in a group of women that makes everyone adjust their cycles,” she admits. “I can see how it gives you a special connection with a woman to go through that at the same time. It feeds into a feeling of connection, support, and sisterhood. Even though we do it every month, t Periods are personal and the thought of sharing with someone makes the idea powerful. That’s why we continue to look for patterns even when they don’t exist.”

Chitra Ramaswamy

Do women’s periods synchronise when they spend time together?

How women"s health advocates can win in 2017

In the cold light of 2017, maternal and child health advocates are still recovering from Trump’s election. Last year’s optimism that lifelong champion for women and children Hillary Clinton would ascend to the world’s most powerful political role has dissolved into despair, outrage and defiance.

For many who joined Women’s Marches in January, fear of losing access to healthcare was a top priority. “Women in America are not going back” declared Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, at the Washington DC march. Yet days after the marches, Trump took executive action to expand the ban on USAid funding NGOs providing abortions, or even information about them.

Canadian and European governments are taking the lead in raising funds to plug the loss of US support, with a new Twitter hashtag which is also rallying cry: #SheDecides.

The health of women and children are at risk in this shifting global environment, but how can advocates and newly enraged activists turn this crisis into opportunity?

Research helps us to understand why some global health campaigns succeed while others fail. Progress in combating HIV/Aids, advancing tobacco control and reducing women’s deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, for example, would not have been possible without influential action.

Academic Jeremy Shiffman and colleagues identified three key factors in creating change: strong evidence of severity of health threat; clear definitions of problems; coherent solutions and compelling reasons to act and coalition-building strategies that extend beyond the sector.

On the first point there’s piles of evidence demonstrating that millions of women and children are still dying from preventable causes, with little or no access to quality health services. At the same time, advocates have made tremendous strides to coalesce around a unified solution. Its vision, a “continuum of care” with access for all to dignified, quality services including family planning and reproductive health, is backed by rigorous new research on topics such as maternal health, adolescent health and breastfeeding.

January 2017’s massive global mobilisation for women’s rights reveals the power of civil society

From 2000 to 2015, advocates used millennium development goals 4 and 5 – reduce child mortality and improve maternal health – to galvanise political commitment, donor funding and country action. Women’s and children’s health are now embedded within a broader sustainable development goal, “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. In 2017, we can use this to attract attention and resources.

Savvy communication can do wonders. Let’s start by replacing the jargon-laden term the community uses to describe itself – Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) – with a more compelling name?

Broader coalition-building is needed, starting with deeper engagement with nutrition and gender equality networks. Top creative talent and celebrity star power can help popularise this cause.

January 2017’s massive global mobilisation for women’s rights revealed the power of civil society to shape political discourse. It will mean being opportunistic and focusing locally, where politics are less gridlocked, while projecting a global message.

Now that health is more political than ever and gender is central, reproductive health advocates can make the most of this as an opportunity to make headlines.

It’s about women – elevating their rights and realities, quantified in data, told via stories. That requires powerful voices, independent accountability, making the business case and sustained citizen engagement. Women Deliver is an inclusive platform to build on, alongside a revitalized Every Women, Every Child initiative.

It’s also about politics – further sharpening political engagement, from high-level forums to NGOs and civil society movements.

Leadership at all levels is critical. It will be the determining factor in advancing the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) in this new era.

If there ever was a time to be bold it’s now, counter-intuitive, as that may seem.

Where will that leadership come from? If it starts with you, the sky’s the limit.

Ruth Landy is a consultant and advocate for women’s and children’s health & nutrition. Follow @rl_sf on Twitter.

To pitch an idea for our Optimistic thinking for 2017 series, email globaldevpros@theguardian.com.

Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter.

How women"s health advocates can win in 2017

Mississippi pro-choice activist fired on International Women’s Day

Catholic Charities fired a Mississippi employee on International Women’s Day for discussing her former pro-choice advocacy work in a recent magazine article.

Lori Gregory is the former program director of Hope Haven, a children’s crisis mental health facility in Jackson, Mississippi. Hope Haven provides free counseling for at-risk adolescents without private insurance, many of whom are in foster care. Gregory had worked for Catholic Charities since 2002, beginning as a volunteer and working her way up to program director. She was fired unexpectedly Wednesday morning during a meeting with the local bishop, in reaction to a feature article in Find It Fondren’s recent women’s issue.

Entitled Stand Up, Be Heard, the article lauded Gregory’s social-advocacy work, her old op-ed columns (penned under a pseudonym), and her outspoken opposition to Missississippi’s 2011 anti-abortion legislation Proposition 26, which, the article claimed, “threaten[ed] … Gregory’s beliefs”. The article then commended her volunteer work at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a local abortion clinic.

Her employers at the Catholic diocese cited the article as a violation of the church’s code of ethics in a termination letter that they presented her during this morning’s meeting.

“If I’ve got to go down, I’d rather go down for something I really, really believe in,” Gregory said. “Now the International Women’s Day thing is just the Band-Aid of irony on it.”

Gregory had been warned about making pro-choice statements before. In 2013, she wrote an op-ed article for Slate about her work at the Jackson Women’s Health Center. Her employers reprimanded her for the article and made her promise to stop speaking out in favor of abortion rights and to end her volunteer work at the abortion clinic. These terms were presented as mandatory conditions of employment.

Gregory agreed to stop. “It broke my heart. It was one of my most favorite things to do,” she said. “I spent two years of my life intensively involved in social justice work with women here … And it was a great joy of mine but I also knew that I needed to have a job.

“And at the time, I was having some health issues. I needed to have insurance. All the regular stuff that you need as an American. I was not in a position to give up my employment so I elected to no longer write or do the justice work or do my job. And I was very sad about it for a long time. Which is why this time, I’m not going to be quiet.” Gregory also said Hope Haven was the only provider in Mississippi that offered crisis services to kids without private insurance.

The article in Find it Fondren’s says that Gregory still escorts women at the abortion clinic, but she says she stopped volunteering after her talk with her bosses in 2013, which Gregory thinks was a misunderstanding with the journalist. She believes it’s unfair that an article mentioning her previous pro-choice advocacy work could be grounds for termination.

Maureen Smith, the communications director for the Catholic diocese of Jackson, would not comment specifically on Gregory’s termination. But she said employees of the Catholic Church were expected to follow the church’s core teachings.

“As a church, we are a pro-life entity. When you work for the Catholic Church, you work for the church in all aspects. There is a pro-life ethic in everything we do. I don’t know how you can work for the Catholic Church and be a part of a pro-life ethic and be in conflict with it at the same time,” Smith said. “Why would you do that? If I was walking around saying things against church teachings, that’s hypocritical and that’s problematic.”

Robert Tuttle, a law professor at George Washington University, said federal anti-discrimination law allowed religious organizations to discriminate on the basis of religion. “Courts have had some doubts and questions about what it means to discriminate on the basis of religion, but one of the things they have done is defer strongly to the core doctrines and beliefs of the organization, and if someone is not in compliance with them, then they may be terminated,” he said.

Gregory is a single mother with a seven-year-old daughter. She’s not worried about telling her daughter about her firing.

“I think that I will just tell her that I lost my job because I believed in something,” Gregory said. “And there are a few things that I know that she believes in real strongly as well. First one is that girls are awesome. And I think that if she knows that about me, then that’s a good thing. But I also had a mother that walked out of a job in the 70s due to a pay-gap issue. So I had a good model.”

The Catholic diocese confirmed that Hope Haven would continue to operate.

Mississippi pro-choice activist fired on International Women’s Day

Women’s Health and Weight Loss: Lose Weight to Fight Osteoporosis

1. Exercise and Bones

It is a well-known fact that exercise and weight loss make you both look and feel better. Another bit of common knowledge is that to lose weight, control your diet, and exercise regularly gives you a healthier heart.

In addition to the previously mentioned benefits of proper diet and exercise are several other very specific health benefits of having a regular exercise and weight loss program.

One additional health benefits of exercise and weight loss activities is guarding against osteoporosis, the disease that makes the bones weak and brittle with age (1).

Weight-bearing activities like walking, elliptical machine, and jogging, have been shown to strengthen the skeletal system and lower the risk of the development of this very debilitating disease.

The primary reason for this is that exercises that force the body to bear weight make the bones denser over time as opposed to a sedentary lifestyle, in which the bones get weaker and more brittle due to a lack of force placed against them.

In women, the low estrogen levels that often accompany menopause and/or very sporadic menstruation make the problem even worse as the bones lose a lot of their mineral content and weaken accordingly.

In addition, such activities that many take part in to either lose weight or maintain an already healthy body composition have also been shown to aid in preventing further development of the disease for those who have already been diagnosed and have received clearance from their doctor.

2. Calcium and bones

So, in addition to exercise and hormonal factors, a woman’s diet is extremely important in guarding off this very debilitating condition.

One of the reason why we do not recommend most traditional diet plans and programs is because the over-restrictive eating guidelines often eliminate or seriously limit the consumption of some very necessary vitamins and minerals that keep the body healthy and strong.

The most important time to get an appropriate amount of calcium is between the ages of 14 and 24, when peak bone mass is obtained.  Then after that bone continues to develop until about age 35 to 40, at which time the bone mass that a woman has will strongly determine how much at risk she may be for bone fractures in her later years.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that women intake 1,000 mg (1g) of calcium daily, and then increase their daily dosage to 1,500 mg (1.5g) post menopause (2).

Sadly, only an estimated 25% of women in any age group consume the recommended daily amount of calcium to guard against osteoporosis. And when they go on diets and weight loss programs, they tend to consume even less. The best sources of easily assimilated calcium are raw milk and bone broth.

3. Iron and Bones

Finally, one of the biggest weaknesses of the traditional commercial diet is the lack of iron that exists in its stringent and often excessively limited eating guidelines (3). In order to lose weight, many unsuspecting women get bamboozled into taking part in weight loss programs that cut out many of the nutrients that they need. Iron is one of the primary casualties of such diets and weight loss plans.

The plot thickens for women in particular due to the fact that their bodies regularly lose iron during menstruation.  Therefore, eating a low-calorie, low-iron diet in an effort to lose weight only makes the problem more severe.

It is generally suggested that women supplement their diets with an iron supplement such as either Ferrofood or Iron-Fe Max from Standard Process. This is particularly important during periods of heavy exercise and training that are typical aspects of any weight loss program or general effort to lose weight even when a special program is not in use.

One thing to be on guard for, however, is excessive iron supplementation by iron-deficient (non-anemic) women.   There is a disorder known as hemosiderosis which results from large deposits of iron made in the liver that causes a glitch in the proper metabolism of the iron itself. Avoiding prolonged large doses will eliminate the risk of this particular disorder. Supervision by a trained and experienced holistic doctor is recommended.

Below are a few recommendations from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) that will help you to make sure you get the adequate amount of iron intake in your daily diet, whether on a program to lose weight or not:

Eat foods with a high vitamin C content with all meals. Vitamin C aids in the absorption of iron. (examples: salsa; chili peppers; oranges)

Include dark meat chick and/or turkey in the training diet. Both of these are rich in iron.

Vegetable proteins such as split pea soup or chili beans with lean meat help the iron in those meats to properly absorb

1. https://www.niams.nih.gov/health_info/bone/Bone_Health/Exercise/default.asp


2. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/


3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425147/

Women’s Health and Weight Loss: Lose Weight to Fight Osteoporosis

Will Trump cause progressives to forget about women"s rights? | Jessica Valenti

If you were concerned that forced funerals for fetuses and zygotes wasn’t quite horrific enough, rejoice! In the last week, Ohio has passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks and Oklahoma wants to mandate that businesses post anti-abortion signs in women’s public restrooms.

In the wake of Trump’s win, reproductive rights opponents have not wasted a moment in their plan to roll back access to abortion and birth control. And, as has been the case for some time, these harmful policies are being presented as wins for women.

When Governor John Kasich of Ohio passed the 20-week ban, for example, he also vetoed a six-week ban – the hope being that the move would be seen as moderate in comparison. But 20 weeks is around the time that women find out about fetal abnormalities – a leading reason for later abortions. And while the Oklahoma plan is being touted by pro-life groups as a way to offer women “alternatives”, what it’s really doing is shaming women and requiring that businesses spend money on ideological propaganda. (Also, so much for the Republicans caring about women’s privacy in bathrooms!)

The research is clear: women suffer when you deny them access to birth control and abortion. In fact, despite anti-choice rhetoric to the contrary, the only kind of negative mental health impact that abortion has on women occurs when someone seeks out the procedure and is denied.

The challenge we have in front of us, though, is not just the danger of Trump’s administration or the emboldening of Republicans. In a time when bad news for progress is around every corner – as Slate writer Jamelle Bouie put it, “what disaster to write about today?” – we have to make that sure that women’s rights don’t get lost in the shuffle.

It wasn’t so long ago that gender and race were considered ancillary or distracting topics in progressive politics – a notion still being bandied about as people blame “identity politics” and “political correctness” for Trump’s win. If history is any indication, it won’t be long before we start hearing murmurings from so-called progressives that women should sacrifice working on issues that affect them in service of “the greater good”.

It’s vital that we not forget or lose the momentum feminism has had over the last decade, especially on reproductive rights. The stakes are just too high. Hundreds of thousands of American women have already sought out illegal abortions, in part because of state-level restrictions. And as the Affordable Care Act comes under fire, it could leave millions without coverage for contraception.

These are not small things, these are not side issues or special interests. Women’s ability to control their bodies and plan their family size is a human rights issue. And while we have a tremendous amount of work to do on so many fronts, Americans cannot afford to treat feminism and women’s progress as something that can be pushed aside for a time and picked up later. Let’s not allow our the fact that we’re overwhelmed to get the better of us – not now, and not for the next four years.

Will Trump cause progressives to forget about women"s rights? | Jessica Valenti

Women"s groups urge Scotland to scrap two doctors abortion rule

The Scottish government should scrap the legal requirement for two doctors to approve a termination, effectively decriminalising the procedure, and consider regulating abortion drugs for use by women in their own homes, according to a report by a coalition of women’s rights organisations.

With abortion law devolved to Holyrood as part of the Scotland Act 2016, the report argues that the SNP government must now “be bold in creating a distinctive approach” by removing it from criminal statute and regulating it like any other healthcare procedure.

The campaigners – including Amnesty Scotland, NUS Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid – are calling on politicians to “make a woman’s legal right to choose a reality” by removing the two doctors rule.

Under UK law abortion is permitted for non-medical reasons up to 24 weeks and with the permission of two doctors. The SNP reaffirmed its commitment to current legal protections and to maintaining time limits in line with the rest of the UK in its spring manifesto.

But the report insists it is time to go further, arguing: “There is an opportunity within the devolution of abortion law to develop a distinct Scottish approach to women’s reproductive health and the strengthen women’s rights.”

Since the devolution of abortion law was announced last November, some pro-choice campaigners have raised concerns about the risk of anti-abortion groups exploiting cross-border differences.

Others have suggested the surge in political engagement, particularly among women, brought about by the 2014 independence referendum campaign could bolster any forthcoming drive to extend abortion rights in Scotland.

On a visit to Dublin two weeks ago, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said her government would explore how to allow Northern Irish women to obtain free access to abortions in Scotland’s NHS hospitals.

Abortion is legal in Northern Ireland only when the pregnancy poses a direct threat to the mother’s life. The NHS has so far refused to pay for abortions for Northern Irish women who travel to Britain.

Emma Ritch, executive director of the feminist campaign group Engender, which spearheaded the report, said: “It does seem there is a very unique status given to abortion, in that it is the only type of healthcare in which this criminalisation exists. We would want to see decriminalisation happen so that abortion was regulated in the same way as any other type of healthcare.

“Any Scottish approach to abortion should be based on international best practice, so we could adopt a situation as in Canada where there is no criminal law when it comes to abortion. While the debate around time limits is not a focus of the report, there is no compelling evidence of a reason to have time limits at all. Research shows that women want to access abortions at the earliest possible stage, and allowing later-term abortions does not significantly increase demand.”

The report criticises NHS Scotland for lagging behind England in its provision of later-term abortions, with terminations for non-medical reasons not normally available after 20 weeks, forcing some women to travel south.

It also suggests the Scottish government should consider regulating the provision of medical abortion drugs to allow terminations in early pregnancy to be carried out at home. A total of 12,082 abortions were carried out in Scotland in 2015, about 80% of which took place before 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The report counters the assumption that Scottish social attitudes, influenced by strong religious traditions, are more anti-choice than elsewhere in the UK. It says that according to polling carried out in the last year, 75% of Scots support a woman’s right to choose.

Women"s groups urge Scotland to scrap two doctors abortion rule

Council cuts hitting women"s contraceptive services, data shows

Clinics offering women contraception are closing or reducing their opening hours in the wake of heavy Whitehall cuts to local councils’ public health budgets, new research has revealed.

One and a half million women of reproductive age live in parts of England where councils have restricted contraception services or are considering doing so, according to data obtained under freedom of information by the Advisory Group on Contraception.

The findings have prompted warnings from sexual health experts that paring back such services could lead to an increase in unintended pregnancies and abortions. One in four councils have already reduced their contraception service or may do so, the new findings show.

“Councils are between a rock and a hard place when faced with cuts to public health budgets, but it’s a false economy to restrict women’s access to contraception,” said Natika Halil, the chief executive of the Family Planning Association, which is a member of the AGC.

She cited research showing that every pound spent on contraception saved £11 in averted health costs, for example from women going on to have a baby or a termination.

“Making it harder for women to choose the right contraception for them will mean more unplanned pregnancies and more abortions,” she said.

Four sites offering contraception services have closed or will close during 2016-17 in Dorset, several clinics have stopped operating in Wandsworth in south London, while a clinic operating at Leighton hospital in Crewe, Cheshire was shut down last year.

Responses from 140 of England’s 152 councils to the freedom of information requests showed that a lunchtime school drop-in service in south Gloucestershire has been ended, a sexual health worker in Wokingham in Berkshire lost their job when a condom distribution service was brought in-house by the council and a young people’s service in Bexley, south London, ceased being a standalone service but is now being provided in a local GP’s surgery.

Dr Anne Connolly, a GP in Bradford who sits on the AGC, said: “It’s hugely concerning to see that, in many parts of the country, contraceptive services are being cut, meaning that women can’t access the most reliable types of contraception. Without close scrutiny, I’m worried this trend will only continue and that women will bear the consequences.”

Among the 140 councils which responded, 20 (14%) confirmed that at least one site had shut in 2015-16 or would do so this year, while another 18 (13%) said that clinics could be closed this year. The AGC is made up of health charities such as the FPA, doctors, the Local Government Association and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, which represents specialists.

Councils in England have been obliged by law since the coalition government’s NHS shakeup in 2013 to provide open access to sexual health services, including for contraception.

NHS England commissions some contraceptive services under its contract with GPs. The AGC also found that fewer councils now have contracts with local family doctors to provide the long-acting forms of contraception that women are now often encouraged to use.

However, councils have had to reduce the public health services they offer since the Treasury cut £200m from their budgets for this year and it intends to take another £600m by 2020-21, just under 10% of the planned total.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has warned several times that cuts to public health will inevitably lead to higher long-term costs for the NHS. Last year, he said he was “crystal clear that any further cuts in public health and social care would impose extra costs on the NHS over and above the minimum funding requirement [the £8bn extra by 2020-21 that then chancellor George Osborne promised last year to give the NHS]”.

The Department of Health said councils were best at deciding what public health services they provided for their residents.

“Local areas are best placed to decide how to provide the sexual health services their communities need. Good progress is being made, for example teenage pregnancy is down 30% in England since 2011, the lowest for 40 years”, a spokesman said.

“Over the next five years, we will invest more than £16bn in local government public health services, in addition to what the NHS will continue to spend on vaccinations, screening and other preventative interventions.”

Council cuts hitting women"s contraceptive services, data shows

Why a porn star is fighting California"s condom law: "It"s a women"s rights issue"

What does a porn star wear when she hits the campaign trail?

A smile.

And a black net brassiere with intricate straps. A very short, peach satin romper open to the waist. A whole lot of deeply tanned skin. And a fist full of “No on Proposition 60” pamphlets.

Not familiar with Proposition 60? Neither were most of the students Tasha Reign (her nom de scène) encountered on a sunny Monday at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

The measure, one of 17 on the California ballot in November, would require adult entertainers to wear condoms while filming sex scenes. To the 27-year-old feminist with a fan base she calls her Reigndeers, Proposition 60 is an assault on her human rights, her artistic freedom and the very constitution itself.

Not to mention that it is often anatomically impractical.

“I do acts where I literally could not use condoms, whether that be anal, whether that be double penetration, whether that be multiple guys,” Reign told the Guardian. “I cannot even imagine having a group sex scene like that.”

I hate the idea that some man is going to tell me what I can and can’t do

Tasha Reign

The logistical hurdles are endless. How do you ensure that the same condom doesn’t find itself inside more than one woman? Do you stop filming while an actor swaps latex? What if the condom breaks during a particularly rigorous outing? This isn’t, she notes, regular sex, 20 or so comfy minutes and it’s over.

“It’s extremely difficult for somebody to be able to maintain an erection for 45 minutes, and to be able to pop with a condom, especially,” she said. “The bigger issue for me is that it opens up the gateway to mandate my body. I hate the idea that some man is going to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

Reign is a practitioner of gonzo porn – none of the cuddly couples stuff for her. Her Twitter feed is filled with political activism and waxed genitalia. As she campaigns in front of UCSD’s Geisel Library, she attracts attention, if not always votes.

Ten minutes before every hour, as one class ends and another is set to begin, the tree-lined walkway fills with students. Young women weighed down with heavy backpacks slide their eyes Reign’s way before hurrying off. A young man on a skate board does a double take fast enough to cause whiplash.

Tasha Reign talks to UC San Diego students about Proposition 60, which would require adult entertainers to wear condoms during sex scenes. Photograph: Ariana Drehsler for the Guardian

She walks up to student after student, leading with a smile, campaign literature in her outstretched hand. More often than not on this day, her targets scurry by. The young men at the fraternity table across the path rebuff her.

“It’s like a lot of rejection,” Reign says with a pout. “When they say no, I’m not used to it, actually.”

But she is not deterred. “Are you going to vote on Prop 60?” she begins, over and over. “Let me tell you about it. I’m an adult film star.”

The day after her UCSD foray, she arrives at California State University, Long Beach. In her first hour, she gives her pitch 18 times – 19 if you count the guy who said he wasn’t voting but hung around to talk to her anyway – and posed for a selfie with a young man in full Dodgers regalia.

I want to be able to say: I’m a sex worker. I have a choice in the way that I protect my genitals

Tasha Reign

“This would take away the choice we have to use condoms or not,” Reign tells them. The measure, she says, “incentivizes people to sue adult film stars, giving them access to their personal names, their personal home address, taking your tax dollars and putting it toward regulating an industry that does a really good job at self-regulating itself.”

“It’s a women’s rights issue,” she says. And “it’s also a freedom of speech issue.” And “it’s something the performers, the majority of us, don’t want passed.” And “we just want you guys to vote no.” And “tell your friends.”

Michael Weinstein, president of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, is the measure’s major backer. Neither he nor his organization responded to repeated requests for comment.

The Vote Yes on Prop 60 website says “condoms in porn is about protecting California employees at work.” Although Reign and other adult film actors undergo regular screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, such testing is voluntary.

The state’s Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties have officially come out against the measure, along with Aids Project LA, Equality California, the Transgender Law Center and the San Francisco Aids Foundation.

Most major newspapers in the state recommend a no vote. The Los Angeles Times’ editorial against the measure points out that “any resident who spots a violation in a pornographic film shot in the state could sue and collect cash from the producers and purveyors if they prevail in court.”

Reign is a registered Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton for president. She had planned to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary, but her mother persuaded her otherwise. She lives in the hills above Los Angeles with her Chihuahua mixes, Cinderella and Bambi, and her pot-bellied piglets, Harley and Quinn.

She graduated from UCLA with a degree in women’s studies. And she did not get into adult entertainment, she said, so she could be pushed around by a man like Weinstein “who has never been a sex worker” and doesn’t respect the choices she and her fellow performers make.

She doesn’t believe that such a person “should come in and tell me, on my own adult film set that I’m producing in my own home that I need to use a condom”.

“I want to be able to say: I’m a sex worker. I have a choice in the way that I protect my genitals. This is a huge issue for me.”

Why a porn star is fighting California"s condom law: "It"s a women"s rights issue"

Prenatal selection destroys women’s health

It is not a secret that prenatal selection leads to the eradication of over 90% of unborn babies with Down syndrome. However, it is a secret that killing these babies can lead to serious health complications in women not unlike PTSD-symptoms soldiers face when returning from war.

When Canadian, pro-choice, filmmaker Punam set out on a journey to make an honest movie (Hush) about women’s reproductive health, she never expected to find this: Abortion leads to very serious health problems. Problems include breast cancer, infertility, pre-term birth in future pregnancies, anxiety, depression and even suicide.

Induced abortion more than doubles the risk for breast-cancer

Induced abortion causes a sudden overexposure of estrogen. Studies published in the Lancet and British Journal of Cancer show that these hormonal changes more than double a woman’s risk for developing breast-cancer.

Furthermore, the surgical or vacuum removal of a baby weakens a woman’s cervix and may form scar tissue. This significantly increases the risk of infertility, miscarriage or (extreme) premature birth (before 32 weeks) in future pregnancies. Extreme pre-mature birth in itself is a known cause for breast-cancer.

Selective abortion does not fix problems but creates new ones

The majority of women going through an abortion believe they are responsible for terminating a human life. Feelings of guilt, stress and depression are well-known long-term effects in soldiers who have killed or witnessed murder. It is no surprise that many women also suffer severe and lasting emotional damage after an abortion.

One woman calls the abortion of her unborn son diagnosed with Down syndrome the blackest decision she made in her life. She writes: “I’m going thru hell. But I believe I am not entitled to mourning. I have played a role in the death of my child. To live with that, is the hardest part in this journey.”

In recent years the marketing of prenatal genetic screening tests has intensified. Today’s pregnancy is cast in the illusion of ‘perfection’. Detecting disability in unborn children results in higher numbers of selective abortions. It is a sad irony that in the quest for perfection developmental and health problems may occur more frequent in future pregnancies. This is due to the fact that abortion increases the risk for premature birth.

Women don’t hear about the risks when prenatal screening and selection is offered. Instead they hear outdated, negative predictions about life with Down syndrome. The promise of “peace of mind” lures women into screening. They are made to believe that attacking their own babies for reason of being ‘different’ is a ‘right’ and a ‘freedom’. Some eugenicists even claim women have the ‘moral obligation to abort and try again’.

The truth is that abortion cannot make women un-pregnant. It makes them mothers of dead babies. Mothers who are then left to deal with the mental and physical consequences.

Women should take back their pregnancy

People with Down syndrome have always existed as a natural part of our human species. Down syndrome is not the result of increased pollution of our environment. Most importantly: most people with Down syndrome lead healthy, rewarding lives. 99% indicate they are happy with their lives. That number is much higher than the average population.

It is time women take back their pregnancies and stop fearing genetic differences. Instead we should fear the marketing of a fictitious perfect world where money, food, health and humans are controlled by a select tight-knit group of people.

The prenatal testing and selection industry is not about women’s rights. It is about women’s suppression as much as it is about eugenics and economics: creating ‘perfect’ humans while maximizing profits for pharma and reducing projected health-care costs for states.

The majority of care-takers are female. Women need extra support when their baby is diagnosed with Down syndrome or another disability. Better information, access to therapeutic programs and improved chances and equality in society helps women and their children. Genetic testing with the intent of selective abortion is not support. It is discriminatory and destroys women’s health.

Sources:

hushfilm.com

abortionbreastcancer.com

abortionfacts.com

trouw.nl

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

theguardian.com

Prenatal selection destroys women’s health

Lupus (SLE) and Kratom — Two Women’s Stories

Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) or SLE is usually grouped with the autoimmune diseases. Conventional medicine doesn’t know for sure what causes it and — because they theorize that for some unknown reason the patient’s immune system has decided to begin attacking its own body — most of the treatment revolves around suppressing the immune system, which causes a whole new set of problems.

Women in their prime of life (ages 15-44) are nine times more likely to develop lupus than men.

That autoimmunity is just a theory, with often conflicting test results, does not stop rheumatologists from having a field day using the pharmaceutical tools they have to weaken the body’s protective immune system, leaving the patient exposed to yet more dangers from opportunistic infections.

Multiple organ systems are affected by Lupus — How much of the damage seen is caused by the medications and how much is intrinsic with the disease? Nobody knows, but then, is anybody looking?

 

Rather than get into an academic discussion of the theories supporting the various methods of treating lupus, let’s just allow two women — both of whom use the herb kratom to manage their symptoms — to tell their stories.

Here’s Angie’s Story:

“In 1992 I was in a car accident. I have herniated discs in my neck and back thanks to that.  In 1998 I was diagnosed with Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Raynaud’s. I have scoliosis in which the curve (of my spine) pushes on the herniated discs in my back causing almost continuous pain. I have a bad knee from a sports injury as a teenager needing yet more surgery. I have arthritis in my left big toe so bad it no longer bends. I will always be on Plaquenil to keep my lupus under control as much as possible but there is no cure for lupus. For pain I have been on Corticosteroids (steroids like prednisone), anti-inflammatory drugs (Naprosyn or ibuprofen), pain meds (Vicodin, Vicoprofen, Percocet), muscle relaxers (Flexeril) and sleep meds (Lunesta or Ambien and/or trazodone) for many years. While the pain meds helped at first it never completely handled all the issues plus it came with side effects. I refused to take any RA biologics (like Enbrel or Humira) for the pain or cancer drugs (methotrexate) because I felt the side effects far outweighed what it might help.  The pain continued to get worse over the years. I struggled daily and continued to use only ibuprofen for pain. Most people know people with lupus are in pain but another thing you battle is extreme exhaustion. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year non-stop exhaustion.

Two years ago a close friend of mine brought over some all natural pain medicine she got from the chiropractor. They were gelatin capsules filled with Mitragyna Speciosa better known as kratom. It is the ground up leaves of an evergreen tree in the coffee family that is native to Indonesia.  I tried the (capsules) to humor her. I was expecting absolutely nothing.  However, I was surprisingly amazed! My back did not hurt. My neck did not hurt. My toe did not hurt even while wearing tight fitting shoes. I also noticed I had more energy. With kratom I was able to do basic chores for more than 10 minutes at a time. I ordered myself some of the capsules and that was the beginning of my kratom journey.

I began to do more and more research on kratom. I read tons of great things about people who took it for various reasons; chronic pain, energy, MS, RLS, depression, diarrhea, insomnia, Crohn’s, Lyme Disease, diabetes and opiate withdrawal. I joined groups and forums to talk to others using this wonderful plant. I learned about different strains that offer different results. Some are more stimulating, others more relaxing. I learned about various ways to take kratom such as with water, juice, coffee, cider, smoothie, making tea, capsules etc. I read anything I could find on kratom be it good or bad. Throughout reading the information a pattern became obvious. People who were taking kratom said wonderful things about it. Things like how much it has helped them and changed their quality of life. However, the DEA and media say something completely different. I would like to say that they are inaccuracies but that would be an understatement. Fallacies would be the correct term. Below you will find three examples.

Kratom gives you heroin like high.

FALSE. You do not get high from kratom.

Kratom is dangerous and you can overdose.

FALSE. You cannot overdose on kratom. If you take too much kratom you will get nauseous. It you really take too much you will throw it up.

Kratom is addictive and you will go into withdrawal without it.

FALSE. You do not go into withdrawal. I’ve used it on and off for two years and have never had any withdrawal symptoms. What you WILL notice when you stop taking it is how much it was helping you.

I cannot say enough good things about how this plant has changed my life. Most days I have no pain at all except for some in my knee which requires surgery. However, overall even my knee feels better.  I have energy again. I am able to do chores, go shopping and even some yard work. At night I am able to relax and sleep without pain and without drugs. Someone recently asked me to describe my life with kratom. I said I feel normal again. I am able to participate in my life instead of watching it go by. What an amazing feeling that is.”  

Angie’s doctor is aware that she is a consumer of kratom and is supportive of that because of the visible results in her blood tests. Angie also uses the herb Turmeric to help control the pain and inflammation that come with Lupus. There is some very compelling scientific research that supports Turmeric for this purpose.

Here Is Lois’ Story:

“I was diagnosed with lupus/scleraderma when I was around 10 years old. I have pain from head to toe, RA, hardening of the esophagus and several muscles,  several DVTs, chronic illnesses, (get sick easy and stay sick longer than most), exhausting tiredness,  and neuropathy. I have been to more Dr’s than I can count and in and out of hospitals over the past 10 years. I’ve tried every treatment they suggested, many were steroid drugs for inflammation and to prevent tissue damage and neurontin . I was with pain management for 10 years and was treated with methadone and a surgical device called a neuro-stimulator. I’ve gained 60 plus lbs and lost all my teeth due to medications. I came across kratom around 7 months a go. I stumbled on it surfing the Web for natural alternatives for pain relief. I was skeptical and thought to myself that there was no way something natural could truly help me.

Up until I tried kratom for the first time, I spent most of my life in bed, missing out on life experiences. Racked with pain and depression  and suicidal thoughts,  I gave kratom a try. 7 months later I happily report that I currently do not take any prescription drugs. I no longer stay in bed everyday. I’ve only been sick a few times and was very minor and the duration was very short. Compared to being sick more than I was well is huge. I have a clear head, unlike the methadone life I led. I now enjoy my 6 grandchildren. Kratom gave my family me back.

I had a doctor tell me I would never be well and I most likely would die a painful death. I know better.”

Editor: They love to threaten their patients with pain and death if you don’t do what they (MDs) order, don’t they?

Lois: “Exactly! Then treat you like a drug seeker.”

Editor: If you are doing much better now, by objective standards, than when you were on their meds, that really makes one wonder what conventional therapies for Lupus are all about.

Author Paul Kemp harbors a deep skepticism about the pharmceutical-driven U.S. healthcare system after almost 6 decades of noting its failures in family and friends. He has found good health by avoiding processed foods and supporting his health with nutrition and kratom.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/fighting-lupus-with-turmeric-good-as-gold/

Angie’s testimony is used courtesy of the American Kratom Association

To Learn More About the Herb Kratom, Visit Online Kratom

Lupus (SLE) and Kratom — Two Women’s Stories

Why has women’s fitness become a beauty contest? | Anna Kessel

Being a female Olympian must be a confusing experience. You win a gold medal, you wow the world with your athleticism and sporting talent, you make history … and all anyone can talk about is your make-up, your marital status, or your hair. In 2016 we may finally have woken up to the infuriating daily inequalities facing sportswomen, but it is damning that so much superficial nonsense remains in the rhetoric that surrounds their success.

We should be in awe of what these sportswomen do and say, not harping on about what they look like. When Simone Manuel won gold in the pool, and spoke out about Black Lives Matter, she wasn’t doing it so that people could have an opinion about her hair. When Jessica Ennis-Hill ran her guts out in the 800m for a heptathlon silver medal, she wasn’t thinking about showing off her abdominals. When Egypt’s Nada Meawad and Doaa Elghobashy made their Olympic debut in beach volleyball, they weren’t weighing up how their outfits looked compared with their bikini-clad rivals.

‘When Jessica Ennis-Hill ran her guts out in the 800m for a heptathlon silver medal, she wasn’t thinking about showing off her abdominals.’ Photograph: Ian Walton/Getty Images

Neither should we be. If I see one more editorial about a sportswoman’s outfit, or make-up, or how to get abs like an Olympian, I will throw up. Professional sport should be about the struggle to reach the pinnacle of your abilities, to stretch yourself, to win. These women put their bodies on the line, and use their platform to make bold political statements; it can’t be right that all we can think about is how to achieve greater butt lift.

Because with the explosion of fitness for women has come a new preoccupation with our bodies: the quest for muscle – also known as “fitspo”. It’s all delivered under the banner of being good for you, buoyed by the now ubiquitous slogan: strong is the new skinny. But if strong really is the new skinny, then why do the #Fitspo and #SheSquats images show us flat stomachs? Is “strong” just “skinny” rebranded? And why does it all come loaded with this weird front-facing pressure? By its very nature, fitspo wants you to show your muscle off: to tweet it, Instagram it, Facebook it, Snapchat it. Women, once again, are being put on display.

Related: Fitspo: how strong became the new skinny

What is so pernicious about this movement is that feeling bad about our bodies is being dressed up as female emancipation, wrapped up in the idea of self-control. If you want to look good, you just have to work harder. You’ll feel pain now, but you will feel great tomorrow. Look at her! Do you think she just woke up like this? No! She sweated in the gym. (Remember, ladies, “sweat is just fat crying”.)

If you said any of this out loud, to a friend, you’d probably both have an attack of the giggles. But somehow, in the private glow of the laptop, or phone, these images hold sway over us. Why? Because the messages are so familiar. We’ve been hearing them our whole lives in the language of the diet industry. We already know that we should suffer for our bodies to look right; we already know that we should critique, and pick, and compare, and judge, and measure, and ultimately feel dissatisfied. This is our zone.

Depressingly, it’s fast becoming the case for men too. Reggie Yates’s BBC documentary, Dying for a Six Pack, broadcast earlier this year, brought tears to my eyes as I watched young men risk their lives, waste their bank balances, and ultimately damage their own mental health – all in the pursuit of the right shaped abdominal stack. Which, inevitably, never materialised. Because all our bodies are different and we won’t all get six packs, even if we work out in a sauna, on steroids, with our gut wrapped in cling film. The narrative was so eye-gougingly familiar I wanted to shout in despair at the TV.

Skinny was bad enough, but now we need a six pack and a tight booty that looks like it’s been implanted with beachballs

Rather than “strong” paving the way to female liberation, it all just smacks of new pressures to look a certain way, to conform to a new body trend. Skinny was bad enough, but now we need a six pack and a tight booty that looks like it’s been implanted with beachballs. Plenty of sports at least offer the possibility of inclusivity – but this exercise trend feels entirely elitist. It’s expensive, it involves tight-fitting lycra and revealing crop-top outfits: just how many women are we further alienating in an already alienated section of the population?

Some will argue, inevitably, that fitspo is an improvement on what went before: a necessity, even. We have an obesity crisis, society is less active than ever, gyms and hot yoga being cool are good things – right? And not all media outlets are to blame. At the turn of the year the US editor at Women’s Health announced a ban on some of the worst phrases that have traditionally graced its covers – including “diet”, “shrink”, “drop two sizes”, and “bikini body”. Good for them. But until we stop polarising these issues – from obesity to fitspo – profiling the extremes as though it’s only one option or the other, will we ever truly find a healthy space to live in?

So why do we insist on perpetuating this punitive approach? Why are physical goals so deeply attached to attaining a certain type of body image? Why is all this stuff so emotionally loaded with unhappiness? I want women to be physically active because it feels good, because it is something enjoyable they can do with their friends, their partners and their children, or because it provides a quiet space to be on their own.

I want more women to be inspired by the likes of Jessamyn Stanley, an African American woman living in North Carolina who posts beautiful photographs of her body in exquisite yoga poses that mainstream media would lead you to believe were not possible for a woman of her shape and size.

‘Jessamyn Stanley posts beautiful photographs of her body in exquisite yoga poses that mainstream media would lead you to believe were not possible for a woman of her shape and size.’ Photograph: Jessamyn Stanley

I want to shout about the £2.50 family fitness classes at my local Salvation Army, or the clubbing exercise classes at a community centre down the road, I want women spreading the word about exercise that makes them feel great –through the menopause, dementia and period pains.

With the final note of the Olympic closing ceremony having played last night, our biggest takeaway from these two weeks of incredible sport should be about female sporting achievement and how it connects to our own lives. If we want to move forward as a society we’ve got to stop obsessing over women’s bodies.

Sport is supposed to be fun – that’s the point – and it is supposed to be liberating. In 1896 the American civil rights leader Susan B Anthony wrote: “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a bike. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood.”

Sport should move us further away from thoughts about how we are supposed to look, not chain us into a lifetime of butt-taming burpees.

• Anna Kessel is the author of Eat Sweat Play

Why has women’s fitness become a beauty contest? | Anna Kessel

Consuming an apple a day improves women"s intercourse lives, study shows

The review, published in Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, analysed 731 Italian girls aged 18 to 43.

Every single participant was asked to report on their day-to-day apple consumption and consuming habits.

The group was then split into two, with 1 part asked to eat a single or more apples a day and one more informed to consume much less than one a day.

All participants had been then asked to complete the Female Sexual Perform Index (FSFI), which integrated 19 queries about their sexual pursuits like frequency and total satisfaction.

Researchers located that eating an apple a day was linked with greater FSFI scores, suggesting it increased their sexual pleasure.

Apples have been located to have numerous wellness positive aspects. In 2012, scientists discovered the fruit considerably lowered blood fat ranges in postmenopausal ladies, the group most at chance of heart attacks and strokes.

Snacking on the fruit every single day for 6 months cut cholesterol by nearly a quarter.

Consuming an apple a day improves women"s intercourse lives, study shows

Eating an apple a day improves women"s sex lives, study shows

The research, published in Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, analysed 731 Italian girls aged 18 to 43.

Each participant was asked to report on their every day apple consumption and eating routines.

The group was then split into two, with one particular segment asked to eat 1 or a lot more apples a day and one more informed to eat less than one particular a day.

All participants had been then asked to complete the Female Sexual Perform Index (FSFI), which incorporated 19 inquiries about their sexual activities including frequency and overall fulfillment.

Researchers discovered that eating an apple a day was linked with higher FSFI scores, suggesting it enhanced their sexual pleasure.

Apples have been located to have many health advantages. In 2012, scientists identified the fruit substantially lowered blood body fat levels in postmenopausal girls, the group most at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Snacking on the fruit each day for six months lower cholesterol by virtually a quarter.

Eating an apple a day improves women"s sex lives, study shows

Statins could assist reduce women"s chance of breast cancer

Analysing a mammogram. Substantial ranges of cholesterol have been linked to an elevated chance of breast cancer. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

Decreasing cholesterol with statin medication could aid prevent breast cancer, analysis suggests.

A examine of a lot more than 600,000 British girls located that the threat of breast cancer was nearly doubled in these with abnormally substantial ranges of blood fats.

The research is nevertheless at an early stage and the findings do not show that cholesterol aids trigger breast cancer.

But if future function demonstrates a causal link it opens up the probability of utilizing low cost cholesterol-lowering statins to decrease women’s danger of the ailment.

Cardiologist Rahul Potluri, from the University of Aston, mentioned: “We discovered that ladies with higher cholesterol had a considerably better opportunity of establishing breast cancer.

“This was an observational study so we can not conclude that large cholesterol causes breast cancer, but the power of this association warrants more investigation.

“A prospective examine that monitors the chance of breast cancer in ladies with and without having large cholesterol is required to verify what we observed. If the connection amongst high cholesterol and breast cancer is validated, the next stage would be to see if reducing cholesterol with statins can minimize the risk of developing cancer.”

A total of 664,159 females from across the Uk whose wellness information had been stored on a big database took part in the examine.

Almost 23,000 (three.4%) had hyperlipidaemia, that means their blood contained abnormally large amounts of lipid fats – cholesterol and triglycerides.

Some 530 ladies with the situation had been amid the 9,312 who created breast cancer.

Statistical analysis showed they have been one.64 instances much more most likely to have the condition than girls with out hyperlipidaemia.

Earlier analysis has shown a clear association amongst weight problems and breast cancer in submit-menopausal women.

A US examine last year identified that a cholesterol solution named 27HC fuelled human breast tumours in genetically engineered laboratory mice.

Scientists also identified higher levels of 27HC in each wholesome breast tissue and tumour cells in girls with breast cancer.

“We have a standard principle that weight problems is linked to breast cancer and a research in mice suggested that this may possibly be because of cholesterol,” stated Dr Potluri, who presented his findings at a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona.

“We made a decision to investigate whether or not there was any association among hyperlipidaemia, which is substantial cholesterol primarily, and breast cancer.”

He added: “While our study was preliminary, our benefits are promising. We discovered a considerable association in between having high cholesterol and creating breast cancer that demands to be explored in much more depth.

“Caution is required when interpreting our results because even though we had a large examine population, our analysis was retrospective and observational with inherent limitations. That explained, the findings are interesting and additional analysis in this discipline could have a big affect on patients numerous many years down the line.

“Statins are low-cost, widely offered and fairly risk-free. We are probably heading in direction of a clinical trial in 10 to 15 years to check the impact of statins on the incidence of breast cancer. If this kind of a trial is productive, statins may have a function in the prevention of breast cancer, specifically in substantial threat groups, this kind of as women with higher cholesterol.”

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of the Breast Cancer Campaign charity, mentioned: “These are interesting results that report a website link between increased unwanted fat in the blood and an increased chance of breast cancer.

“Nevertheless, this is just the 1st phase in comprehending much more about how cholesterol relates to the risk of breast cancer, and far more study is required to figure out whether statins could help avert breast cancer.

“We do know that getting overweight, notably soon after menopause, can enhance a woman’s risk of building breast cancer. We would inspire women to sustain a healthful excess weight and to go over any considerations, such as their breast cancer threat, bodyweight or cholesterol levels with their GP.”

Statins could assist reduce women"s chance of breast cancer