Category: Reproductive Rights

Tampons: ABC News ignores the bleedin’ obvious – Women’s Cooee

Who use tampons? Women. What word doesn’t appear in this 1,808-word on-line ABC News article about tampons? ‘Women.’

The reason menstruation has long been overlooked in medical research is because it’s women who do it, and we don’t count for much in a patriarchal society. It was women who died or were hospitalised due to tampon-related Toxic Shock Syndrome back in the 1970s and early 1980s. The reason that happened was Procter & Gamble’s inadequate understanding of women’s physiology. It is women’s organisations – for example, Women’s Voices for the Earth – that continue to monitor and advocate for the safety of menstrual products. Because it’s women who are affected. Not men. If the word ‘Women’ is left out of an article about tampons, these whole dimensions of the issue are left out as well.

Are tampons toxic?

I don’t know. But I do know that what’s toxic is the ABC’s allegiance to gender-identity ideology,
an ideology harmful to women.

Source: Tampons: ABC News ignores the bleedin’ obvious – Women’s Cooee

Eggs from men, sperm from women: how stem cell science may change how we reproduce

It may soon be possible to coax human skin cells into becoming functional eggs and sperm using a technique known as “in vitro gametogenesis”. This involves the creation (genesis) of eggs and sperm (gametes) outside the human body (in vitro).

Animal studies have been promising. In 2012, scientists created live-born baby mice using eggs that began their life as skin cells on a mouse tail.

More recently, the technique has been used to facilitate same-sex reproduction. Earlier this year, scientists created mouse pups with two genetic fathers after transforming skin cells from male mice into eggs. Mouse pups with two genetic mothers have also been created.

Scientists have not yet managed to adapt these techniques to create human gametes. Perhaps because the technology is still in its infancy, Australia’s legal and regulatory systems do not address whether and how the technology should be used.

First, in vitro gametogenesis could streamline IVF. Egg retrieval currently involves repeated hormone injections, a minor surgical procedure, and the risk of overstimulating the ovaries. In vitro gametogenesis could eliminate these problems.

Second, the technology could circumvent some forms of medical infertility. For example, it could be used to generate eggs for women born without functioning ovaries or following early menopause.

Third, the technology could allow same-sex couples to have children who are genetically related to both parents.

If we took skin cells from each male partner and created an embryo, that embryo would still need a surrogate to carry the pregnancy. Unfortunately, Australia has a shortfall of surrogates. International surrogacy provides an alternative, but carries legal, ethical and practical difficulties. Unless access to surrogacy is improved domestically, benefits to male couples will be limited.

In vitro gametogenesis also raises questions about who are the future child’s legal parents. We already see related legal debates surrounding non-traditional families formed through surrogacy, egg donation and sperm donation.

In vitro gametogenesis could theoretically also be used to create children with more than two genetic parents, or with only one. These possibilities likewise require us to update our current understandings of parenthood.

Finally, in vitro gametogenesis could revolutionise prenatal genetic selection. We’d have many more embryos than available during regular IVF to screen for genetic diseases and traits.

So it would be urgent to discuss “designer babies”, eugenics, and whether we have a moral obligation to conceive children with the best chance of a good life.

Source: Eggs from men, sperm from women: how stem cell science may change how we reproduce

International Conference about Surrogacy at the Czech Parliament

On November 21, 2023, an international conference on surrogacy was held at the Parliament of the Czech Republic, on the initiative of three female members of parliament: Ms. Romana Bělohlávková, Ms. Nina Nováková and Ms. Pavla Golasowská.

Olivia was born of a surrogacy performed by French parents in the United States. Based on her own story, she explains how she has always suffered from the wound of abandonment caused by the separation from her birth mother.

• For her, surrogacy is always harmful to the child, even in cases such as hers, where the surrogacy went “well” in terms of the criteria considered to be those of a “good” surrogacy: a surrogacy carried out in the United States, well-off intended parents able to provide their daughter with good educational conditions, no disputes either during the pregnancy or at birth between the surrogate mother and her intended parents.

• And yet, Olivia, the child born of this “successful” surrogacy, has suffered a lifetime of anxiety, depression, and addiction caused by this abandonment, and now finds that the weight of this burden is being passed on to the next generation, not sparing her children.

• Her message to members of parliament is clear: there is no such thing as a good surrogacy, and there is never any justification for forcing a child to be born to separate it from its birth mother.

• It doesn’t matter whether or not the birth mother is genetically linked to the child, because the child doesn’t have the capacity for this kind of reflection: the woman who bore him is the only one he knows, and separation leaves him with an unfathomable void that the intended parents are unable to fill, no matter how devoted they may be.

Source: International Conference about Surrogacy at the Czech Parliament

‘We are sorry’: PM leads apology to Thalidomide survivors

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has issued a national apology to all Australians affected by the “thalidomide tragedy”.

Wednesday’s statement in the House of Representatives came 50 years after the global pharmaceutical disaster that caused distress, disability and death for so many families.

There are 146 known registered thalidomide survivors in Australia, although the exact number affected by the morning sickness drug in the 1950s that caused birth defects is unknown.

Babies were born with deformities including shortened limbs, blindness, deafness or malformed internal organs.

Many women miscarried or lost their newborns soon after birth.

A national apology was one of the recommendations from a Senate report into thalidomide that was handed down in 2019.

The report found if the government at the time had acted more quickly when thalidomide was linked to birth defects, 20 per cent of survivors may not have been affected.

In November 1961, when the link was established, federal and state governments took no action to ban the importation or sale of the drug.

“Today as we express our sorrow and regret, we also acknowledge the inescapable historical facts,” Albanese said.

McManus, the director of Thalidomide Group Australia, said the formal apology on behalf of the government had been a long time coming.

“We have just dragged federal governments [to issue an apology] kicking and screaming like naughty boys out of the sandpit,” she said.

[Ed:  Way overdue and shouldn’t sorry mean we won’t do it again? If the government acted now to stop the sex change industry in its tracks they could could save a lot of young people from this current ‘global pharmaceutical disaster’.]

Source: ‘We are sorry’: PM leads apology to Thalidomide survivors

Too hot to handle: Women’s health still taboo in Australia | New Daily

What took me aback the most were two things; how significant a condition menopause is, and the fact that we lose more than 10 per cent of women from the workforce prematurely because of it.

How are we not up in arms about this statistic?

If only menopause affected men, I thought to myself. There would be millions of dollars thrown at it quicker than you can say Adelaide 500.

Menopause typically affects women aged between 45 and 55, an age when many men really hit their prime. In fact, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency found that while a greater proportion of men move into leadership positions as they age, the proportion of women who occupy leadership roles increases between 18 and 44 years and then significantly decreases.

Women become invisible as they age. While women are literally disappearing from the workforce due to menopause, women over 50 are also the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people, and First Nations women and those with disabilities are particularly vulnerable.

Women I know experiencing menopause also face the double burden of responsibility of care for both their children and elderly parents. These women are not only making valuable contributions to the workforce but are also playing important (unpaid) roles in the lives of others.

Women’s bodies are unique in that they are regulated and legislated in a way that men’s are not.

If some policymakers put the same attention and effort into promoting policies that address health inequities as they currently put into trying to control women’s bodies, we would be so much closer to gender equality.

[Ed: Sadly this article degenerates into an advertisement for HRT and thereby pathologises menopause. Is it really menopause that causes loss of women from the workforce or is it the toll of juggling care responsibilities in an inflexible work environment and unreasonable expectations on women maintaining a permanently youthful appearance?]

Source: Too hot to handle: Women’s health still taboo in Australia

Twins separated at birth: Dr Peter Neubauer’s study.

The girls were adopted through an agency called Louise Wise Services, which told the respective adoptive parents that their daughter was part of a child development study. Until they were about 13 years old, a psychologist had visited their homes every few months to ‘test’ and ‘study’ them.

The real purpose of the study was kept secret. What the identical twins and parents didn’t know was they were essentially guinea pigs in a long-term study, designed by famous New York Psychiatrist Dr Peter Neubauer, aimed at answering the age-old ‘nature vs nurture’ debate.

The girls had been secretly separated at birth as part of the experiment, along with several other twins and triplets -–including Eddy, Shafran and David, who made worldwide headlines when they were reunited in 1980.

But whilst they were each thrilled to find their long-lost sibling, it was a dark discovery they had made.

The women had been deprived of what should have been one of their most salient relationships, and they feel the sadness of that to this day.

“We were human guinea pigs. We were treated not like humans, but like animals,” Carbone said on 60 Minutes.

“She should’ve been the closest person to me in the world. And she wasn’t,” Mertzel reiterated.

Despite the long-term study, and the horrific lengths taken to answer the question, no scientific paper on this topic was ever published by Dr. Newbauer. He passed away in 2008 and had commanded the records of his study on twins to be kept confidential.

Source: Twins separated at birth: Dr Peter Neubauer’s study.

Tampon designed for trans men faces backlash from trolls

A Finnish sanitary product manufacturer is getting hate online for launching a tampon aimed at trans men and non-binary folks.

Vuokkoset launched the product during Transgender Awareness Week as a means of addressing the gender dysphoria trans men and non-binary people feel around menstruation, with the aim of changing perceptions of periods and reducing the distress it can cause.

In a press release as part of the campaign, the brand cited research which shows 93 per cent of trans men have experienced menstrual-related gender dysphoria.

“No, they haven’t invented something new for a bodily function men do not have,” anti-trans account Two Genders One Truth – which has 5,000 followers – also wrote, “They put tampons inside a box that says “for men.” Companies like Vuokkoset perpetuate a belief in “transgenderism” out of pure self interest. They profit from creating a market of mutilated, medicalized, and confused women.”

Source: Tampon designed for trans men faces backlash from trolls

Your Body, Our Data: Unfair and Unsafe Privacy Practices of Popular Fertility Apps by Katharine Kemp :: SSRN

Fertility apps collect the kind of intimate data consumers would only usually share with their partners, doctors or very closest friends and family: detailed information about menstrual cycles, pregnancies, health conditions, emotions and sexual activities. They may be used by consumers at vulnerable moments in their lives, when they are trying to conceive, manage unexpected health conditions, or monitor concerning developments in their pregnancy.

This research analyses the privacy policies, messaging and settings of 12 popular fertility apps, and provides evidence of serious privacy flaws. Unfair and unsafe privacy practices of the apps include:

• confusing and misleading privacy messages;
• pervasive tracking of the consumer’s online behaviour, without clarity about whether inferences drawn from this will be treated as sensitive information;
• lack of choice about further uses of their data, including pervasive tracking for advertising businesses and research uses;
• inadequate de-identification of sensitive data shared with other organisations;
• use of the consumer’s sensitive data for poorly defined “research” purposes, which do not depend on HREC approval; and
• retention health data for years after the consumer stops using the app, creating entirely unnecessary risks of data breaches.

These unfair and unsafe practices underscore the urgent need for updated privacy laws to address the data privacy risks consumers too often face, including amendments to clarify and improve: the scope of information covered by the Privacy Act taking into account the realities of modern data practices; what choices consumers can make about their data and how; what data uses are prohibited; what security systems, including technical and organisations measures, organisations should have in place; and a test based on fairness and reasonableness, rather than spurious and mechanistic concepts of notice and consent which organisations have used to disadvantage consumers for too long.

Source: Your Body, Our Data: Unfair and Unsafe Privacy Practices of Popular Fertility Apps by Katharine Kemp :: SSRN