- Last week, we joined many other women’s health activists in celebrating the judicial ruling making emergency contraception finally available over-the-counter. But this week, Roni Caryn Rabin points out in the New York Times that it may very little effect: “Studies have suggested that many women are not aware that there even is a morning-after pill. Plan B is expensive, about $50, and many women could find the price alone a deterrent. If drugstores choose to keep Plan B locked up, teenagers may be reluctant to ask for it”.
- Pseudo-academia: The growth of open access journals has also spawned growth in sketchy pay-to-publish scientific publishing.
- Two of our favorite menstrual activists, Chris Bobel and Chella Quint, were quoted in a piece on Alternet about menstrual taboo. The piece inspired this essay at The Hindu, and was discussed on the amTWiB podcast April 3 (a spin-off of TWiB [This Week in Blackness]). The discussion of the article starts at 45:26 and continues for about 15 minutes, until the show ends, at about 1:03, and inspired the title of the episode: “Real Men Buy Tampons”.
- Preliminary results of a 15-year study led by professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, University of Besançon, indicate that 1968 protestors were right: “Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra”. Where’s the Freedom Trash Can now?
- Following the success of their post on DIY treatments for yeast infections and cystitis (mentioned in this space last Saturday), The Vagenda has launched a new feature dedicated to women’s health myth-busting, called “TMI all about our ladyproblems”. This week’s edition is a first-person narrative of the experience of Mirena IUD inserted.
