The gloves are off
Greetings from the bottom of the fertility cliff
Salutations hags!
We have some incredible news for all the wizened crones reading today. That’s right! Women over 35 – congratulations! Society still has a use for your ancient uteri.
Turns out fertility does not “drop off a cliff” after 35, and that number was basically pulled out of someone’s (18th-century) arse. As if women don’t get enough grief over their reproductive choices. Have a baby too young, you’re feckless. Wait too long, you’re a selfish, career-obsessed geriatric mother facing a risky pregnancy. It’s almost as if there isn’t a perfect age where society won’t judge your reproductive choices. And lord help you if you have the brazen cheek to be (gasp) happily child-free.
So, blow the dust and cobwebs off your antique ovaries, give a cheer, and then… do whatever you like with this information. Or don’t. We’re not here to tell you how to live your life. Although we humbly invite you to spend the next few minutes of it reading about some COVID science, BMI nonsense, and bizarre menstrual gloves. Because knowledge is power.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Come on Barbie, let’s go… donate to BLM
In this series of photos, ‘Let’s Talk About Race’, artist Chris Buck flips key stereotypes involving white women and women of colour. We thought this one in particular had a brilliant 'smack you in the face' simplicity to it. And you know how we like smacking people in the face. Sadly, while Black women are underrepresented in many areas, in others, they are horribly overrepresented – more below.
TIT BITS
Keeping abreast of the latest news, views, and research
BMI, ya basic
As the Women and Health Equalities Committee calls to abolish the use of BMI, here are some handy reminders of how BMI is absolutely fucking useless as a marker of health.
People with eating disorders and people in larger bodies are being denied treatment
People in “obese” and “overweight” categories can be metabolically healthy
*Mic drop*
Feel our pain
Yet another study adds to a mountain of evidence that women’s pain is taken less seriously than men’s. Asked to watch videos of patients with shoulder pain, participants rated women’s pain as less severe and were more likely to suggest psychotherapy rather than medication. It’s the end result of our old friend gender stereotyping, programming us from birth to believe in the myth of stoic men and emotional women. The scary thing is that these messages affect how health professionals treat patients. We agree with Caroline Criado Perez that attention should shift from proving this problem exists to figuring out what we can do about it. Oh, and the next guy to question if our agony stems from female hysteria will be feeling more than just emotional pain. You’ve been warned.
Diversity matters, episode 2
We’re fairly sure we’ve mentioned this previously (many, many times), but it never fails to enrage us when medical studies forget that people other than white dudes exist. This graph on COVID mortality stats (more on the study here) starkly illustrates why taking sex and race into account is important….
The gulf in COVID mortality rates between groups is massive. Though it’s been widely reported that men are at more risk than women overall, Black women are at significantly higher risk than white or Asian men. Join us as we scream into the ether "SEX AND RACE MATTER IN SCIENCE!!"
HEX EDUCATION
Is it a clot of risk?
OK, there is a risk of a rare type of blood clot with the AZ vaccine. But it is a very small one at 4 in 1 million (0.0004%) and 1 in 100,000 in young adults (0.001%). The main thing is, it’s a MUCH smaller risk than the incidence seen with the virus itself (2% to 35% depending on the type of clot). The real pisser? While the news bangs on about the risk of a rare blood clot with the AZ vaccine, this is WAYYY less than the risk of blood clots for those taking hormonal contraceptives, which is around 50 to 120 per 100,000 people taking them for a year (around 0.05% to 0.12%). You know, those pills that have been used by millions of women for decades. Nothing to see here, move along.
So while Aunty Mavis and Pete next door declare that they won’t get that awful, dangerous vaccine, perhaps a handy reminder that millions of women are at greater risk every day might help? Or slap a sticker on their car windscreen reminding them that travelling in a car carries around a 1 in 6,700 risk of dying…
TO THE KRAKEN 🦑
Bros and stupidity: hand in glove
This week, the Kraken was baffled and enraged in equal measure by three German dudes who are attempting to launch a new menstrual hygiene product – the “Pinky Glove” – and are being (rightly) flattened by women on social media. These ex-soldiers are apparently so repulsed by period blood that they think every woman’s wish is for a hot pink oversized hair dye glove to remove and stash the horrifying evidence of their monthly curse.
This product truly raises more questions than it answers: Why is this even a problem that needs solving? Why not just use the packaging/some toilet paper to wrap your menstrual products in? Does anyone need another disposable plastic product? Why do men think anything marketed to women has to be pink? What is that dark shadow lurking under the water? Whose slimy tentacle is that wrapped around my neck? How can anything have so many teeth?
More things dusting off our ovaries this week:
500 years of women’s self-portraits – from oppression to transgression | Hangover dishes chosen by chefs | Escapism and female friendship with The Bold Type | “Sentimental Garbage” podcast on the joy of “chick lit”| Do you have enough ‘Real Friends’? | Game-changing bra alternatives! | Fun feminist illustrations
The HEX Science team
🧬Jean Splicer | ☢ Marie Fury | 🧠 Rorschach Tess | 🔬 Rosalind Frankly