Category: Reproductive Rights

Girls ‘started puberty EARLIER during Covid’ as scientists blame unhealthier lifestyles in pandemic lockdowns | Daily Mail Online

A soaring number of girls started puberty early during the pandemic, which could be due to stress or reduced physical activity,

A study looked at 133 girls in Italy referred to a specialist paediatric unit because their chest had started developing before the age of eight.

There is a significant lack of knowledge about the causes of children going through puberty early, but some experts have suggested the blue light from screens and a lack of exercise could disrupt girls’ normal hormonal development.

Children generally enter puberty earlier than in the past because rates of obesity are higher, and carrying too much fat can disrupt the hormones which determine when a child becomes a teenager.

However the study did not find a significant difference in the weight of girls diagnosed as going through puberty early before the pandemic and during it.

Before the pandemic, just 41 per cent of girls referred to the clinic were found to have rapidly progressive early puberty, but that rose to 53.5 per cent during Covid.

Source: Girls ‘started puberty EARLIER during Covid’ as scientists blame unhealthier lifestyles in pandemic lockdowns | Daily Mail Online

Pregnant women and new mothers facing workplace discrimination

Pregnant employees and new mothers returning to the workforce are experiencing alarming rates of discrimination, sexism and exclusion, a new study from the  University of South Australia has found.

More than 60 per cent of new mothers returning to work said they experienced a range of workplace discrimination — including being excluded from projects, having their opinions frequently ignored, having their job altered without their knowledge while they were on leave, and forced to undertake unmanageable workloads.

Almost one in five women said they were refused requests to work flexible hours or from home.

Almost 40 per cent of respondents said they received negative or offensive remarks from colleagues for taking time off work to care for a sick child.

Despite legislation requiring workplaces to inform pregnant women of their upcoming leave entitlements, the survey found that a third of women had not received any information about their rights.

In fact, 13 per cent of women said they were treated so badly they decided to leave their jobs.

A similar study was undertaken last year in Victoria by Monash University, which found the common manifestations of pregnancy discrimination to be termination of employment, changes to terms and conditions of employment (such as salary reduction) and changes in employment status – from permanent full-time to casual.

Source: Pregnant women and new mothers facing workplace discrimination

The new science of motherhood shows it’s far more transformative than western culture allows | Lucy Jones | The Guardian

During pregnancy, cells are exchanged between the mother and foetus via the placenta. These fetal cells have been found to remain in multiple areas of the maternal body – organs and tissues including the liver, heart, brain, lungs and blood – and crucially in areas of disease and damage. Some studies point to a potentially benevolent role in repair – the presence of fetal cells in healed caesarean section wounds suggest they are beneficial. But they’re also found at sites of disease, and may play a detrimental role in maternal health, for example in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and pre-eclampsia.

Certainly, this transfer of cells has profound implications for maternal biology and health. It also troubles the philosophical idea of us as self-contained individuals. The intricate exchange creates what the geneticist Dr Diana Bianchi has called a “permanent connection which contributes to the survival of both individuals”.

The new science of pregnancy and motherhood is showing us just how dramatic the hormonal fluctuations are, as well as how seismic the cardiac, immunological, haematological, renal and respiratory changes – and their lifelong impacts on the body.

Did you know that if you have been pregnant and given birth, your brain will have changed shape in multiple areas? Changed actual shape?

In a landmark study published in Nature Neuroscience in 2017, researchers led by Elseline Hoekzema, a neuroscientist from the Netherlands, and Erika Barba-Müller, a neuroscientist working in Spain, provided evidence for the first time that pregnancy renders pronounced, consistent changes in brain structure.

This synaptic reorganisation and fine-tuning, it is thought, make the brain more efficient and streamlined in what it needs to do to care for a baby. Or as the neuroscientist Jodi Pawluski puts it, “to make sure we, and our child, survive parenthood”.

The new science of motherhood shows us what many feel: that becoming a mother is more of a big deal than western society allows.

The word that changed everything for me was “matrescence”. It means the process of becoming a mother and it’s a concept that exists in most societies on Earth, with special rites and rituals to hold and support the new mother. The neglect of this transition in western societies has devastating consequences but, in its illumination, critical social possibilities.

Source: The new science of motherhood shows it’s far more transformative than western culture allows | Lucy Jones | The Guardian

Plans to expand publicly-funded homebirth program in Victoria

The Victorian government is planning to expand a publicly-funded homebirth (PFHB) program to three additional hospitals in the state, including the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.

The expansion of the program, which already runs at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital at Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne, was confirmed to AAP yesterday by a Victorian government spokesperson.

“It’s so important that women have choice in the care they access,” they told AAP.

In the last year, 97 per cent of births in Australia took place in a hospital while just 0.5 per cent were home births, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In Australia, there are currently 17 publicly-funded homebirth programs, but Begnell said this is not enough.

Source: Plans to expand publicly-funded homebirth program in Victoria

Fury over ‘insane’ call to let pregnant trans men take testosterone despite risk to babies – as woke, Government-funded researchers claim gender-affirming care is more important than having a ‘normal’ kid | Daily Mail Online

Pregnant transmen shouldn’t be pressured to stop taking testosterone despite the risks it poses to babies, researchers have controversially claimed in a Government-funded study.

Current maternity care guidance for transmen — biological women who identify as the opposite gender — recommends they stop hormone treatment in pregnancy.

The NHS warns it could ‘affect the baby’s development’, with some studies linking exposure to the male sex hormone in the womb to genital abnormalities.

Testosterone is listed as a ‘category X’ substance in pregnancy in the US because of the dangers it poses to a foetus.

But a panel of experts, including three from Britain, said the current advice centres too heavily on preventing babies from developing birth defects.

High levels of the hormone in the mother’s body have been linked to problems with genital development, a process called masculinisation.

Studies suggest this can lead to incontinence and infertility, and trigger subsequent psychological consequences later in life.

Source: Fury over ‘insane’ call to let pregnant trans men take testosterone despite risk to babies – as woke, Government-funded researchers claim gender-affirming care is more important than having a ‘normal’ kid | Daily Mail Online

‘They’re all in sync together’: How the Matildas manage their menstrual health

Australia’s national team are closely monitored for symptoms which could affect their performance and overall health.

Many women swear the syncing of menstrual cycles is nothing more than an old wives’ tale, a spurious urban legend reserved for the superstitious. For the Matildas, though, anecdotal evidence suggests the phenomenon is very real.

“The girls all seem to get in sync with each other in terms of when their cycle is as soon as they come into camp,” says the national team’s physician, Dr Brandi Cole. “It is absolutely crazy. One will come to me for some meds for premenstrual pain and then the next minute half the team’s coming to me. It’s a known phenomenon.”

Dr Cole could not tell you the science behind a squad of players flying in from separate clubs around the world, at different stages of their menstrual cycle, and leaving after the 10-day international window with their bodies in harmony.

“But the girls swear by it and I have definitely seen that,” she says. “If we’re monitoring them out of camp, they’ll be out of sync, and then by the time we’re in a big camp they’re all in sync together.

Some players from other teams use hormonal contraceptives (the pill) to delay their periods so they can avoid symptoms around game time. On average, about 30-40 per cent of female footballers take the pill – for reasons ranging from contraception to symptom management of menstruation and endometriosis.’

The effect of hormonal contraceptives on performance is an area supported by little research. In any case, the uptake among Matildas is well below that average – about 10 per cent – which may be partly why teammates find their cycles sync.

The upshot to that could be that many in the team start their periods on the day of, say, a World Cup knockout game. Even that, however, is not necessarily an accurate indication of performance.

“You may have the whole team be on their period for the game, but some girls feel better on their period,” says Dr Cole. “Some have pain two weeks prior when they ovulate and then sluggish and heavy in the few days before their period, but then when the period actually comes they feel really light free and perform better.’

In short, it’s complicated. But vice-captain Steph Catley is a strong proponent of education and the recent creation of period-conscious kits. For the first time, Australia’s kit will feature period protection in the base layer under the shorts. Co-hosts New Zealand will swap their traditional white shorts for teal blue.

Source: 12ft | 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: How the Matildas manage their menstrual health

Communication by 10 UN Experts to US Government re reproductive rights

[W]e would like to bring to the attention of your Excellency’s Government information we have received concerning the grave and alarming deterioration  in the access of women and girls to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion, following the United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and the direct and indirect violations of international human rights law as a result of the decision. . . .

As it is our responsibility, under the mandates provided to us by the Human Rights Council, to seek to clarify all cases brought to our attention, we would be grateful for your observations on the following matters:
1. Please provide any additional information and/or comment(s) you may
have about any consideration being given to reviewing the current
legislation to ensure that the human rights of women and girls are
protected
2. Please indicate the steps being taken at the federal level to ensure that
women’s human rights, in particular their sexual and reproductive
health rights and their right to privacy, equality and non-discrimination,
are duly protected in compliance with U.S. constitutional safeguards
and international standards.

Reem Alsalem
Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences
Gerard Quinn
Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
Felipe González Morales
Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
Fernand de Varennes
Special Rapporteur on minority issues
Olivier De Schutter
Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Ana Brian Nougrères
Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
K.P. Ashwini
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance
Nazila Ghanea
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
Alice Jill Edwards
Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Dorothy Estrada-Tanck
Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls

Source: AL USA (11.2023) – DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile.pdf

How do you change a bad law? | Humanitix

In the May 2023 budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced an important change to the welfare payment for single parents: recipients could stay on it until their youngest child turned 14, up from the previous cut-off at 8 years old.

The campaign that took place leading up to the budget is a success story of how lived experience, independent research, media attention, and a government-backed task force combined to reform a harmful policy.

Join us in conversation with Dr Anne Summers AO (UTS), Laura Tingle (7.30), and Terese Edwards (National Council of Single Mothers and their Children) on how researchers, activists, policymakers, and the community sector can join forces to navigate complex politics to advocate for – and achieve – reform.

Source: How do you change a bad law? | Humanitix

New documents reveal transgender medicine and the use of puberty blockers was far from a settled matter among doctors | The Australian

 

The medical affairs committee of the nation’s peak endocrinology society opposed the prescription of hormones to children and expressed deep reservations over the lack of evidence underpinning transgender affirmative medicine standards of care adopted by children’s hospitals in explosive advice to a peak medical college.

The Medical Affairs Committee of the Endocrine Society of Australia – a subspecialty college of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians – did not support the endorsement of gender-affirmative standards of care developed by influential doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, pointing to concerns about the lack of evidence behind practices including placing children on puberty blockers at a very young age.
The views of the ESA’s medical affairs committee are contained in a letter to the RACP, which in late 2019 was consulting the profession at the request of then health minister Greg Hunt who had requested advice on the treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents.
The ESA’s letter reporting the position of its medical affairs committee advised that, after examining RCH policy documents, the specialist endocrinologists who made up the committee did not support giving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children and raised concerns that the ­effects of puberty blockers were not reversible.
It is understood the consultations leading up to the drafting of the advice were highly charges, with some committee meetings descending into screaming matches between experts amid ­accusations the RCH-dominated pediatricians faction was made up of activist doctors.
The external reviewer also challenged the RCH argument that parents who did not want treatment imposed on their children were raising their child’s risk of suicide.
“The RCH argument that non-treatment in the face of gender dysphoria is not neutral, uses an exaggerated risk of suicidality to make this unbalanced argument seem necessary.”

Source: New documents reveal transgender medicine and the use of puberty blockers was far from a settled matter among doctors | The Australian

Artist Klara Jones examines complex nature of motherhood in thought-provoking exhibition Our Mother – ABC News

Much of Klara Jones’s work is indicative of the juggling act of motherhood — the mental load of household, the management of children, the appeasement of partners and a life taken up by the needs of family.

Source: Artist Klara Jones examines complex nature of motherhood in thought-provoking exhibition Our Mother – ABC News