Women

I wrote a poem over the last few days to work out my feelings about Mother's Day and my mother. I have nowhere else to share it, so I'm plopping it here, below. I think writing this was helpful for me, maybe? Not sure how I feel about the final work, but the process was actually pretty cool for working through my feelings, clipping them down. Does anyone else write for therapy, poems or anything else?

Perhaps this will resonate with some of you who have settled into similar relationships with your mothers to the one I have with mine. Anyway, here goes (dropping as an image because formatting is impossible):

Take care of yourselves today. It's tricky, being a woman with a complicated mother relationship. It's okay to feel however we do. I hope despite everything that's ever happened, that right now you have true, deep love in your life. With someone else, for others, for yourself...just some true, deep, unshakable love. You are worthy of that, just the way you are. <3

A young women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia was secretly sentenced to 11 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court after being arrested for “her choice of clothing and support for women’s rights”.

Saudi officials confirmed in a statement to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights that Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced on 9 January for what the Saudi government called “terrorist offences”.

Al-Otaibi, who was sentenced in a secret hearing before the counter-terrorism court, was found guilty of charges related to a Saudi anti-terror law that criminalises the use of websites to “broadcasts or publishes news, statements, false or malicious rumors, or the like for committing a terrorist crime”.

Among other charges, Otaibi was accused by Saudi authorities of using a hashtag – translated to #societyisready – to call for an end to male guardianship rules.

Her case follows a slew of similar cases in which Saudi women, in particular, have been subjected to draconian sentences for using social media accounts to express themselves. They include women such as Salma al-Shehab, sentenced to 27 years, Fatima al-Shawarbi, sentenced to 30 years, Sukaynah al-Aithan, sentenced to 40 years, and Nourah al-Qahtani, sentenced to 45 years.

Menopause thus far has been a breeze. This is not common, but it's probably because I'm on mood medication. It is really nice not to have PMS or tender breasts or leaking or surprise middle of the night flooding or any of it. I feel lucky.

I've seen a few communities where this question has led to some interesting discussion and figured this community might have some thoughts on it.

With [email protected] being closed due to being unmoderated, there is something of a vacuum for active safe places for women. What do you guys think the future should look like, and how do we get there?

Well, we’ve had cars for a long time….but finally we’ll be testing them for safety for women, too.

In a sea of bad news, today this got me excited.

Conversation ongoing over there, inviting anyone who wants to participate to please consider sharing their thoughts if they are willing to. If you wanna post in the original thread from your instance copy and paste the link into your instances search panel

As I said in the thread, if you aren't comfortable posting feel free to DM me here or on matrix and I can post anonymously for you.

When you go to the doctor, you expect they’ll listen to your concerns and help fix whatever problem you may be experiencing. But many women, especially those suffering with chronic pain conditions, find the opposite is true. This can make it difficult for women to get the treatment they need.

For instance, researchers who interviewed endometriosis sufferers on their experiences with healthcare practitioners found many struggled to get the support they needed. As one participant put it, “you need to try so hard that they believe you, because they don’t. You experience that immediately, that they don’t believe you.”

In the UK, a survey by the Wellbeing of Women charity (which invests in research on women’s health) found that over half of female respondents felt their pain had been dismissed or ignored by a healthcare professional at some point. Women in other parts of the world – including North America, Australia and Europe – report similar experiences.

There’s a clear gender gap when it comes to identifying and treating women’s pain compared to men’s. For instance, women are less likely than men to have positive treatment outcomes for chronic conditions such as angina and musculoskeletal pain.

Physicians are four times more likely to recommend a knee replacement for a man than a woman with the same knee injury. The poorer quality care women received compared to men after suffering a heart attack was to blame for 8,243 preventable deaths between 2003-2013 in England and Wales.

The dismissal of women’s pain also leads to long delays in diagnoses and treatment for conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.

The gender pain gap affects not only adults, but children and young people – with research showing young women are more likely to have their pain dismissed by physicians than young men.

The gender pain gap is even worse for black women, who are more likely than white women to have their pain dismissed and receive poorer pain treatment.

There also remains little research on pain treatment for gender diverse, transgender, non-binary and intersex patients which may mean these groups are even worse off when accessing treatment.

Gender pain gap Pervasive gender stereotypes are a key reason women’s pain is underestimated. These widely held stereotypes – held even by healthcare professionals – construct men as “stoic” and women as “emotionally expressive” when in pain.

Men are thought to be less likely to seek care for pain – so when they do, they are to be believed. In actuality, this is false, with research showing men are equally likely to go to the doctor when experiencing pain as women are.

Women are also believed to have a greater capacity to cope with pain because of the pain that accompanies menstruation and childbirth. These stereotypes mean women’s pain is viewed as “natural” and “normal” – and may not be taken as seriously by a practitioner.

One study, which had healthcare professionals watch videos of female and male patients experiencing chronic shoulder pain, found practitioners were more likely to underestimate women’s pain. They also reported the women, but not the men, would benefit from psychotherapy.

Other studies have shown healthcare practitioners are sometimes more likely to prescribe sedatives than pain medication to female patients experiencing pain.

Historically, women have been underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials. In the UK, only from 2024 will it be compulsory for new GPs to have training in women’s health.

This may somewhat explain the lack of knowledge practitioners have had in regards to women’s pain and their health concerns. And, women may be given medications and treatments that have only been trialled with men – despite female patients being more likely to experience side effects from new medications.

The gender pain gap cannot be addressed until disparities in medical research and funding are. Conditions which have a disproportional affect on women (such as migraines and endometriosis) receive “much less” funding relative to their severity and prevalence, while conditions which predominantly affect men (such as HIV) receive more funding – despite their lower prevalence.

Getting the right care Pain is never something you should accept and put up with. If you need to speak with a practitioner about your pain, there are many things you can do to ensure your voice is heard.

For example, telling your practitioner how pain affects your ability to function in your day-to-day can be more effective than trying to rate pain on a scale. Using an app or diary to track pain and related symptoms, and bringing it with you in the consultation room, can also be helpful.

If you’re comfortable, raise the issue of bias in pain care. Ask how your practitioner is ensuring you’re not part of the larger statistic of women feeling dismissed. Ask them to explain their diagnostic decision-making and how they’ve ruled out certain conditions. You can also ask them to note in your file why they haven’t made a referral for specialist care. This may be helpful if you return with the same symptoms later.

Bring a family member or friend to advocate for you if you don’t feel comfortable doing it alone. In the UK, you can also ask for a patient advocate, who will speak up for you and help you get the right care.

Addressing inadequate funding for conditions that affect women, improving training for practitioners and increased awareness of the gender pain gap, will all help ensure women in pain are no longer dismissed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3855472

as the title says, a community to ask and discuss all things related to female fashion.

[email protected]

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) says it is temporarily banning transgender women from competing in its women's events.

The FIDE said individual cases would require "further analysis" and that a decision could take up to two years.

The move has been criticised by some players and enthusiasts.

Many sports governing bodies have been working on policies towards transgender athletes, but chess does not involve comparable levels of physical activity.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/3413638

New signs emphasize strength and hope of Indigenous women and communities.

Families of missing and murdered Indigenous women in northern B.C. and an Indigenous social service agency have unveiled four new billboards to honour and remember the women and girls who've died or disappeared along a notorious highway that's been dubbed the Highway of Tears.

The route has been called the Highway of Tears because more than 40 women and girls, mostly Indigenous, have gone missing or been murdered along the 700-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in northern B.C. since 1969.

AUW organised for 148 Afghan women to go on the last US hanger out of Kabul. (...)

(...)AUW hopes to help more women - the goal is 1,000 - to continue their education by offering scholarships and a safe exit from Afghanistan.

A migraine is far more than just a headache – it’s a debilitating disorder of the nervous system.

People who have migraines experience severe throbbing or pulsating pain, typically on one side of the head. The pain is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light or sound. An attack may last for hours or days, and to ease the suffering, some people spend time isolated in dark, quiet rooms.

About 800 million people worldwide get migraine headaches; in the U.S. alone, about 39 million, or approximately 12% of the population, have them regularly.

And most of these people are women. More than three times as many women as compared to men get migraines. For women ages 18 to 49, migraine is the leading cause of disability throughout the world. (...)

Women tend to experience accelerated ageing around the ages of 30 and 50, according to a study that analysed a wide range of molecular and physical markers. This may be due to hormonal changes that occur when some women give birth or go through the menopause.

In recent years, there has been growing recognition that ageing doesn’t always progress at the same pace and certain factors, such as stress and smoking, can speed it up. (...)

Thought we could use a bit of humor, but please remove if this breaks any rules.

In 2008, archaeologists in Valencina, Spain, discovered a stunningly ornate tomb. The single-occupancy grave, a rarity in itself for the time, contained a treasure trove of valuables: a rock crystal dagger, high-quality flint, ostrich eggshells and ivory, including the tusk of an African elephant.

Dating to the Iberian Copper Age—some 5,000 years ago—it held an individual who likely died between the ages of 17 and 25. Assuming the tomb belonged to a wealthy, powerful leader, scientists called this individual the “Ivory Man.” But now, 15 years later, researchers have determined that the Ivory Man was actually an “Ivory Lady,” according to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

To reach this conclusion, researchers used a new technique that can identify an individual’s sex based on tooth enamel. This process can be more effective than DNA analysis when studying remains in especially poor condition.

This new research shows that women could hold high-status roles in Iberian society at the time—and that this particular woman may have even been the “highest-ranked person” during her lifetime, says study co-author Leonardo García Sanjuán, an archaeologist at the University of Seville in Spain, to Live Science’s Jennifer Nalewicki. He adds that the Ivory Lady’s wealth and social status were impressive even when compared against a database of approximately 2,000 Copper Age burials in the region.

“The Ivory Lady totally stands out, head and shoulders above the rest, either male or female,” he tells Science’s Celina Zhao.

Researchers think that the Ivory Lady may have been revered for several generations, reports CNN’s Katie Hunt. Other graves and artifacts around her tomb date to as late as 200 years after her death.

Additionally, one nearby tomb—the only “comparably lavish” grave in the area, according to a statement announcing the new study—contains the remains of at least 15 women, suggesting that other women held leadership positions and high status during this period. (...)

This is exactly the kind of abortion-ban-supportive police action we’d been hoping we wouldn’t see.

It is imperative that women seeking healthcare in states other than their own remain vigilant in their travel planning and discreet around communicating about their condition.

Truly scary times. It was difficult to imagine this reality even a year ago.

The number of people dying in the U.S. from pregnancy-related causes has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to a new study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

And while the study found mortality rates remain "unacceptably high among all racial and ethnic groups across the U.S.," the worst outcomes were among Black women, Native American and Alaska Native people.

The study looks at state-by-state data from 2009 to 2019. Co-author Dr. Allison Bryant, an obstetrician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says maternal death rates in the U.S. just keep getting worse. (...)