Hi there,
I hope you are having a decent week despite the lack of free speech and crazy health announcements in the US. The highlight of my week has been dreaming up a special salon series with my friend Maxine Friedman - keep an eye out for announcements soon, you won’t want to miss this.
In the meantime, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials just announced that pregnant women should “tough it out” instead of taking Tylenol. Yes, you heard that right: a group of men in suits telling women with high fevers while pregnant to “tough it out.”
I’m not here to discuss whether or not Tylenol causes Autism - I am not qualified. But this craziness is nothing new. Women have been dealing with pain and disease without the proper medical support since… forever.
For childbirth, doctors resisted anesthesia for labor well into the 20th century, arguing women were “meant” to suffer [1]. Excuse me? From last week’s developments, it seems not much has changed.
Women were excluded from most federally funded medical research and clinical trials until 1993 (let this sink in - this was the 90s!), meaning drug safety and dosages were built for men [2]. This includes heart disease, the number 1 killer of women in the US.
On average, it still takes 7–10 years for an endometriosis diagnosis, with women repeatedly told their pain is “just cramps” [3].
In a 2019 survey, only about 7% of OB-GYN residents felt “prepared” to manage peri-/menopause. More than 20% of OB-GYN residents in that same survey reported they had received no lectures on menopause during residency. [4]
As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, hysteria was used as a catch-all diagnosis for women who presented with symptoms from seizures to chronic pain to fainting. Basically anything that defied easy categorization. [5]
Imagine telling a man with testicular pain for a decade to “suck it up.” The streets would be on fire.
What’s The Solution???
Regardless of whether or not Tylenol causes autism, we know untreated high fevers in pregnancy may cause neural tube defects and other birth complications [6]. So if you are going to tell women to not take Tylenol, you should also recommend what they SHOULD take instead. Telling women to tough it out is not only ridiculously asinine, it’s also dangerous to both mom and baby.
If Men Were in This Position…
Now imagine if doctors announced “A high fever kills sperm. And if you take Tylenol, it might cause autism in your offspring. ”.
Do we think men would just “tough it out”? Please. There would be an Operation Warp Speed for Testicles, billion-dollar grants, fast-tracked sperm-safe Tylenol 2.0., and the government would make sure to announce an treatment to aleviate men’s pain.
We Need a Medical Revolution
We need women in leadership at the CDC, FDA, HHS, and, frankly, the White House.
We need more medical research on women.
We need med schools to update their curricula.
We are more than half of the population (50.8% in the US). We deserve better.
Thanks for listening. Sending love and health,
Patricia