My courses are settling into what they’re going to be, which is a smooth-ish and pretty amiable set of class meetings on topics I’m into and the students are enjoying/tolerating (so far).
I’m organized enough to vary my going-to-work footwear more than usual, color coordinating it (yes, I have shoes in many colors– sue me) with my more-colorful-than-the-average-person’s clothing. And jewelry, too. Ain’t I fancy…
I acquired three baby spider plants from my FB Buy Nothing group. They are joining my indoor aspiring jungle and appear to be getting along well with everyone.
On Wednesday morning, I went to yin yoga with my friend Kathy, joining Norah, who goes (almost) every week. I usually sign up for the zoom recording, leaving it for later (or not), but I thought to myself, I can make time for this. So I did.
Afterwards, eating sandwiches with Kathy, I got a preview of what it might be like to be a lady who lunches (well, I am a lady who has lunch but you know what I mean). It’s pretty damn good.
On Saturday I went swimming with Rachel and her 3-year-old Teagan. We (Rachel and I) traded off hanging out with Teagan in the kids’ pool so the other could do some laps in the lane pool. It worked out well, each of us doing 4 laps (8 pool lengths). Rachel said afterwards that it would be nice to work up to 50 laps. I corrected her, saying 20 laps was a more pleasant-sounding goal. She agreed (for now).
The swimming was at a local indoor pool and it cost the three of us $10 total. A bargain.
I’d really like to a) re-establish a weekly in-person yoga class; and b) go swimming once a week. Both feel really good. Can I do this? Yes, I think so. Okay, let me rephrase that:
Yes We Can.
Bob says “yes we can!”
By “we”, I mean me plus my friends, who support me in most/all of my social and physical activities. It’s much more fun and happens more often when I enlist the company of others. Of course you all know this. But it doesn’t hurt to remind oneself from time to time.
Who are you heading out the door with this week for physical activity, fun, or frolic?
Honestly, I checked and rechecked the date on this research article blurb, making sure it wasn’t from April 1. Vice magazine broke the news about a new study out of the University of Oulu (in Oulu, Finland, of course) with the results that higher coffee intake groups showed lower total and visceral fat and higher skeletal muscle mass, among other desirable metabolic features (although BMI didn’t change between coffee drinkers non-drinkers). Here’s how the Vice folks put it:
Vice headline saying “Study Finds Coffee Drinkers Have Less Fat, More Muscle, and Are Better Than You in Every Way”. Whoa.
Could this be true? Who wants it to be true?
Me– I do, I do! Thanks Naomi H from Unsplash for the picture.
The researchers noted a bunch of sex-specific hormonal effects, although many of them were transient. Which just goes to show that steady consumption of coffee throughout the day and night might just be the ticket to some improved health metrics… 🙂
Might as well set out enough for the next couple of hours to avoid too many trips back to the coffee machine. Thanks again Unslpash for image.
Hmmm. So does this mean all the tea-drinkers out there will need to throw it into the nearest harbor (sorry, that’s a Boston joke) and embrace the bean instead? Not really. What the researchers concluded was what is often (read virtually always) concluded after a finding like this: it merits further study.
No food or beverage can actually work miracles on our health, fitness, appearance or mood. Coffee has its place and its devotees, among them a bunch of folks in Finland and me. We should feel free to drink it or not, given the information we have about it and about us and about its effects on us. And if it makes us feel very very good on occasion, we should feel free to do a little coffee dance.
I’d be dancing if I had that fancy coffee machine in my kitchen. Thanks Travis C from Unsplash for the pic.
I’m a sucker for animal memes. I mean, aren’t we all? This week I happened on a FB page (this one) with familiar-yet-new-feeling animal advice for getting through life, or the next meeting, or the next minute. I think we can all use this from time to time. So herewith life coaching from domestic animals.
First, let’s hear from the sheep on getting through difficult days.
You don’t need to feel inspired; rather just let yourself get through things without throwing yourself into the hedge.
Let stubbornness help; spite can carry you surprisingly far at times.
The cow is here to remind you that you don’t have to do everything now, or all the time.
Some things can wait; the field will still be here tomorrow.
Also, you needn’t keep chewing on (or ruminating, if you will) on the same thought. The cow knows from this.
And finally, the goose has things to say to all of us.
Every day we are bombarded with new advice on how to dial in our exercise regimen for optimal efficiency. This advice include things like exercise snacks, short duration workouts, combining strength with cardio, not worrying about cardio but making sure to get the strength workouts in, and for the love of all that’s holy, don’t forget to balance on one foot 4–5 times a week!
Yes, there’s new-new research coming out, but honestly, I think we don’t know exactly what sorts of movements are best for us, other than the fact that movement itself is good.
So, in honor of throwback science, here’s a post I wrote two years ago, comparing measured steps counts vs. measured-time workouts. Check it out, and then do whatever works for you.
Maybe you’ve heard (or more likely seen) actor Sydney Sweeney featured in a new one-minute ad for Novig, a sports betting app. She’s not wearing jeans this time (read here for a peek at the 2025 American Eagle ad and the controversy surrounding it), but appears (in the company of sports equipment) in her birthday suit. That is, butt naked.
Let me state for the record that we here at Fit is a Feminist Issue are nothing if not body positive. We’ve written about boudoir photography, being naked in locker rooms and other fitness spaces, the experience of women with larger bodies wearing tiny bathing suits (TLDR: it can be freeing and fun), to name a few.
What makes me grit my teeth about this ad (I’m not linking to it, but you will not be able to enter the Internet without tripping over a story about it) is three things:
Thing one: It’s using sex to sell, or rather a particularly narrow notion of sexiness in women to gin up business for a sports betting app.
Yes, sex has been selling all kinds of things effectively since time immemorial. And sexy images are fun, sometimes provocative, and yes, actually sexy. Also, sexy images get used to sell many decidedly non-sexy things. This 1929 ad was considered sexually provocative, using a woman to sell shampoo:
This ad said loveliness would ensue after application of shampoo. Wow.
Of course, the ad folks have come a long way, baby, since then, using very particular images that promote particular body types, exploiting racialized notions of beauty or sexiness for the purpose of commerce. Doing so sends all sorts of negative messaging about who is sexy or attractive and why. Honestly, it’s unimaginative and kind of mean, and ultimately not very interesting or creative.
Thing two: this ridiculous ad is selling out women in sports by presenting a set of caricatured images (of Sweeney e.g. posing naked with footballs against her breast, or perching atop a basketball goal), ignoring the rich, beautiful and magnificent array of women who actually participate in sports at all levels. And the women athletes are responding in force. Here’s Gracie Kramer, a former gymnast, from this New York Times article:
On Friday, Gracie Kramer, a former gymnast, posted a video montage on social media with the caption: “idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like.” It inspired waves of others in a range of sports to do the same.
“I’ve been over-sexualized my whole career, I’ve dealt with men only focusing on how I look and not what I’m capable of,” Kramer, the former gymnast, said in an interview, referring to comments some had made about the size of her legs or arms. “Women put in hours and years to build something that they’re proud of, and when you’re reduced to the way that you look, it’s dehumanizing.”
Her response video, which was viewed millions of times, became a kind of rallying cry for other female athletes to post videos of themselves too, skiing, running, playing basketball, water polo and more. On Monday, the British sprinter Amy Hunt, after finishing a 200-meter final, addressed Sweeney on the BBC, adding that “this is what women in sport look like.”
Yes, companies get to decide how to design ads for their products, and they make choices within legal boundaries. And in a society where there are outlets for voices to be heard, women in sports are raising those voices, expressing their displeasure and offering good reasons why they’re so displeased.
Thing three: let’s take a moment to turn to what the Sweeney ad is selling: sports betting using a phone app. I’m not going to mince words here: sports betting apps promote gambling addiction and result in disastrous economic effects for lots of people. Here’s an article from Johns Hopkins school of public health about the public health risks posed by sports betting apps.
“We’re referring to it as the largest and fastest explosion of gambling the country has ever seen,” says Cait Huble, MA, MBA, director of public affairs for the National Council on Problem Gambling . “We’re a decade behind other addictions in terms of public understanding, which is going to lead to a lot of real-world harm.”
I’m going to say it: shame on you, Sydney Sweeney, for associating yourself with a sports betting app. I think you should explore nicer options for your career. Shame on you, Novig (sports betting app company), for creating this publicity-grabbing ad to raise your market share at the expense of vulnerable consumers. Shame on you, Novig, for existing at all– in my view, your founders ought to rethink their business plan and maybe sell shoes instead of facilitating widespread addiction. And thank you, women athletes and sports writers and commentators, for staying out there, doing your work and play, and reminding us that sports are fun and open to all of us.
CW: Fat-shaming/Fat-phobic image shown and fat-phobic messaging discussed with attempts at biting sarcasm.
It’s September 2026. Who knew that The Weather Channel was going to 1) pile on with the fat-shaming; and 2) eschew the traditional headless fatty image, replacing it with the new and not-improved faceless fatty? Not me. But here we are, in September 2026, a time when everyone should know better and act better. But no– the Weather Channel, in the course of offering bland advice for maintaining health during cold weather, blasts us with a picture of a faceless fat person, apparently to convey seasonal fat-despair.
A fat person in a white T shirt, sitting at a table, their hand over their face. I am confused and displeased. Maybe they are, too, about having been used as weather warning message.
So, what is going on here? Why did the Weather Channel folks think this was an apt illustration for a content-lite article about what to do to maintain health as seasons change? By the way, the advice offered (from an ICU doctor, who, while no doubt well-meaning and skilled, is NOT a fitness expert for non-hospitalized people) includes 1) eat a bunch of protein (with a photo of dead animal parts– they’re not missing any opportunities here); 2) get enough sleep– oh right, thanks Weather Channel; and 3) walk outside, because “walking is magical”!
Yeah, it might be magical if you can walk here.
A magical golden-lit forest path. Good luck finding parking nearby. By Johannes P for Unsplash.
Back to the faceless fatty photo. I wonder, what message is intended by this image in this article? After extensive analysis, I came up with three possibilities:
Because they are fat AND the seasons are changing, they know they’re facing certain death;
They forgot to tell their friends and family that they’re fat, so want to remain unidentifiable in the picture– hence the hand over the face;
They’re really mad at their agent for sending them to such an absurd photo shoot, so they’re rebelling by shielding their face from view. Litigation is pending.
Here’s the thing: we know that images matter. They convey norms about what’s good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, cool, uncool, what we should aim for, and what we should avoid like the plague. Being fat doesn’t fall into any of these categories, any more than having brown hair or brown eyes. It’s just a feature of some people at some point in time. As a fat person, it’s a feature I have. Having brown hair is a feature I used to have, and now I have grey hair. Also a value-neutral thing.
So Weather Channel– enough with the underhanded attempts to connect being fat with current or impending refusal to follow your third-rate attempts at health and wellness advice! Do what you’re supposed to do– tell us if it’s going to rain tomorrow. That is messaging we would find eminently useful, at any size.
This person didn’t forget their umbrella for a nice, if non-magical, walk in the rain. By Habib I for Unsplash.
This fall marks my 58th year of back-to-school transitions from summer. I started out with elementary, middle and high school. Then on to university and graduate school. After that, work as a professor since 1993. My plans are to continue for the next five years and probably, maybe, possibly retire in 2031. But we will see how things go. I like my job and feel good, for which I feel very fortunate.
Also, I can’t imagine what life will be like when I don’t have to pull myself away from the slower, more indulgent routines of summer in order to begin a schedule of class prep, teaching, and seasonal increase in email and admin. As much as I love summer, it’s always deeply satisfying to return to the pleasures of new syllabi, new students, and well-worn and reliable work routines. It’s a little like pulling out fall clothing– I am happy to get reacquainted with favorite sweaters and jackets that I temporarily forgot about during warmer weather.
For me, fall transitions have meant arranging my physical activity around my work schedule and the seasonal light changes. This year feels different, though.
For a while now, I’ve been less active than in previous years. I struggle with an anxious brain even when life is general is fine, and it’s not been fine lately. My mother is declining, and helping her is difficult and complicated and extremely stressful. My sister and I are working together, but it’s hard.
This summer, I found that I needed quiet for than anything else. Quiet for meditation. Quiet for reading. Quiet for just being. My activities have been lower key– walking and yoga, a little easy cycling, a little swimming, often with friends or family. I went for a meditation retreat where quiet was explicitly on the agenda.
I thought, given how much quiet I needed and wanted and lived in this summer, that transition to the much louder days of fall would be hard. I’m happy to say that I’m really loving September so far. Here are some highlights:
Lily from my logic class loves plant cuttings, so I’m bring her some small jades this week. We talked for 20 minutes about our home plant communities, and I’m looking forward to more chat.
Already, I’ve got students following me out of the building and to my car, continuing discussions about philosophy. I find this so endearing and sweet and also nice for me.
I went to my friends Martin and Andrew’s 40th anniversary party in New York (I’m still here in the Big Apple, as it was last night). It was loud and fun and filled with friends and family and food and festiveness.
Today I’m walking around New York, through Greenwich Village, a place not known for sedate quietude. I’m looking forward to stimulation for all my senses, and hopefully not too many impulse purchases.
After Labor Day on Monday, I resume teaching on Tuesday, and start to settle into a fall routine. Which I actually love.
What does my activity look like for fall? Probably more of the same as I did in summer, although I’m looking forward to more cycling in cooler temperatures. I’ll go back to Friday night yoga classes with Norah and whoever else wants to come. Walks with friends and swimming (indoors, but that’s okay too) with friends and kids are always a pleasure. I’ll be traveling some to see my mother and helping her with what she needs and seeing my sister and kids and other family, too.
So life will be busy. And louder. And I’m glad.
Dear readers: what is your fall transition looking like? And how are you feeling about it? I’d love to hear from you.
This week, Diane posted about the newest Ottawa-Gatineau open-water swim spots. If you missed it, you can check it out here. I’ve always been attracted to the idea of swimming in an urban environment. It feels adventurous and a little subversive. You are in nature, but also adjacent to architecture, machinery, roads, cars– all the features of the modern city.
This is no news to European city dwellers, who have their choice of open-water swim spots that have been designed for ease of access and are monitored for safety. The New York Times did a splashy (forgive the pun) spread featuring several of these swimmable cities, which you can see without a paywall here. I can’t resist sharing some of their photos below.
Diving and hanging out in Copenhagen.Leaping from a dock with sauna in Oslo. Lining up to plunge into the water in Basel.
One of my fantasy vacations would be to do an open-water European swim tour. All I’d need would be my Speedo, a towel, and a public transport pass. Imagine that.
In the US, there are loads of lovely wild swimming spots in national and state parks and also more out-of-the-way but well-known-to-locals spots. I’ve enjoyed refreshing dips in Black Creek in Darlington, South Carolina and Oak Creek in Sedona, Arizona, to name a couple. Our friends at the NYT also covered cool US wild swimming holes are here.
However, if urban open swimming is what you’re looking for, the US is not the best place to find it. There are a handful of city beaches in coastal cities, and some places organize open-water urban swim events, but in general, access to urban waters is not legal or reasily accessible or safe here. Boooo…
In Boston, my hometown, there’s a yearly event called CitySplash, where people can sign up for a time slot to jump into the Charles River from a dock and paddle around with other enthusiastic urban swimmers. Some years, however, the bacteria levels are too high and the event gets canceled. I blogged about my own CitySplash experience here.
The dedicated people at the Charles River Conservancy have big plans to transform parts of the urban riverscape to allow swimming and splashing for people of all ages and swimming abilities. Here’s a rendering of what they envision, with public transport access, shallow and deep swim areas and places to hang out.
A possible future swim park in Boston, hopefully in my lifetime.
But it’s certainly not happening this week. Intermittently this summer, the Charles River has been the site of a cyanobactera alge bloom. And this week, that bloom expanded. You can see it below.
An aerial view of the Charles River in Boston, the orange area a cyanobacterial bloom.
The Cambridge public health department explains more here.
Algae and cyanobacteria (also called blue-green algae) are plant-like organisms that live in water. They can quickly grow out of control, or “bloom.” Some of these blooms produce toxins (poisons) that make people and animals sick. If you, your child, or your pet comes in contact with the water, rinse off immediately. Contact can cause skin and eye irritation, and inhalation or ingestion can cause respiratory irritation and other illness. If the blue-green algae are producing toxins, the health effects can be serious.
Practically speaking, cyanobacteria blooms mean no swimming, boating, paddleboarding, or fishing in the affected areas. Pets should be prevented from drinking the water, as it is harmful to them, too.
What causes these bacterial infections of our urban waters? A bunch of things, including pollution, runoff from hard rains, and increased temperatures. You can read more about it on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website here (which still mentions climate change, miraculously– don’t tell anyone…)
This is a pretty big problem for the planet, the environment, our water supply, and also our access to the joys of urban swimming. There are some things we can do to mitigate and respond to the causes, and I hope we can claim and reclaim some spaces in our cities for swimming and splashing.
Readers, have you done any urban swimming? Where was it? How was it? I’d love to hear from you.
A friend of mine just got back from a vacation on Long Island with his family and in-laws. He writes for a weekly newsletter, and shared this about his investigations at local farm stands:
At my favorite stand they sell “sugar plums,” a small, sweet fruit I haven’t seen anywhere else. Each one’s about the size of a fig. They’re more pit than fruit, but absolutely full of juice. When they’re ripe, the skin will peel off in your fingers. You can eat three or four of them in a row, ideally standing over the kitchen sink. (You’ll need a mop to clean up if you eat them anywhere else.)
I wasn’t familiar with sugar plums, and you might not be, either. Check them out.
These are what we might think are sugar plums, but aren’t. These are fresh sugar plums.
Last summer I spent a week or so in Ontario, visiting Goderich, where my friend Norah had rented a cottage on Lake Huron, and then Guelph to visit Samantha, Sarah and the whole crowd there. At Guelph I learned about musk melons, which were in peak season exactly when I was there.
Musk melon was a new term for me. Turns out it’s what Canadians call cantaloupe. The term also refers to a family of melons that includes honeydews and persian melons. We bought what looked and tasted almost like cantaloupe, and I made melon agua fresca with mint for everyone. Yum.
I have not had very satisfying melon experiences in New England. Nor peach encounters, either. Luckily, there are options, all of which involve going right to the source.
I traveled to South Carolina about two weeks ago and, on my way to my mother’s house from the airport in Charlotte, stopped at McLeod Farms in McBee (pronounced MAC-Bee). They have many varieties of perfect peaches (forget Georgia– SC has the best peaches, says the great-granddaughter of a SC peach farmer). But there are hidden treasures to be found in their supply of the fresh and limited supplies of hyper-local produce. That included large, perfect, not-expensive cantaloupes.
I squeezed and sniffed candidates until I found one that suited me. It rode the rest of the way to my aunt’s house, sitting on her counter for a couple of days until it achieved cantaloupe perfection. I then cut it in long, thin wedges to serve to happy family members.
Some add salt, which they say enhances the flavor, but I prefer to take my cantaloupe straight up, no salt.
Musk melons from Ontario.South Carolina cantaloupe– my hometown melon.
At my McLeod’s stop, I also bought muscadine and scuppernong grapes. They have tough outer skins, and very sweet green flesh, with seeds. They make you work for it. But the work pays off in a combo of sweet, juicy, and bitter that brings me back to my childhood.
My great aunt Mae used to make a scuppernong cordial that was (once I was old enough to taste it) absolutely vile. But the grapes themselves (grown in an arbor outside her kitchen) were delicious.
A disembodied hand holding purple muscadine grapes.A disembodied hand holding green scuppernong grapes.
Boiled peanuts were a staple of my childhood in SC, and they don’t travel well, either practically or gustatorally– I’ve brought them back to Boston a few times and people were notably underwhelmed. Hmphf. Their loss.
I bought green peanuts (different from raw peanuts) fro McLeod’s and boiled them for 75 minutes in an InstaPot with a lot of salt and a little Cajun spice (I recommend the Slap Yo Mama brand). They are basically Southern edamame, great warm and perfectly good cold as well. The best way to eat them is in the backyard, throwing the shells into the bushes. We forbore, though, and disposed of them more responsibly.
Fresh green peanuts (different from raw).Boiled peanuts– soooo gooood.
Fresh green peanuts and freshly boiled peanuts have a very minimal shelf life. They should be cooked right away, and then eaten right away. I always comply.
Now that I’m back in New England for the time being (school starts in two weeks), I’ll be keeping an eye out for concord grapes– the locally grown ones with seeds and tart outer skins. They are available generally late August to early October, depending on the weather that year.
I couldn’t find a picture of a disembodied hand holding New England concord grapes, but I think this will do.
Pretty much all of hyper-local and hyper-seasonal produce is like this– available for short period of time and good for eating NOW, not later. This means we have to stop what we were doing and turn to the preparation and subsequent massive enjoyment of these tasty treats of nature. And can you think of a better pastime for mid-late August? I can’t.
Dear readers, what are some of your late summer produce delights? Or other seasonal pleasures? I’d love to know and file away the info for when I’m at the proper time and place to enjoy them with you.
NOTE: a number of the articles cited have paywalls, so I linked them to open archive.is sites. You can click and get there from here…
For decades (well, centuries, really), menopause was not considered a topic for discussion, much less an issue to be addressed medically for half the world’s population that goes through it. Menopause brings with it a lot of physical and emotional changes and health risks that have not been acknowledged, understood or treated. Women have had to suffer with little or no support. No news there.
Fast-forward (very fast–past the development, backlash, misinformation and correction periods for the use of hormone replacement therapy — HRT; read more about it here and here) to now: 2026.
Menopause and perimenopause are now the hot topics for social media influencers, podcasters, writers, and telehealth companies. You can look here for a list of the top 70 (Why 70? no idea) “menopause influencers of 2026”. Tressie McMillan Cottom, social scientist and NY Times critic wrote here last month “Ladies, we’re entering our Crone era. It’s about time.”
Our society’s approach to menopause and perimenopause reflects the deep flaws of a health system that has long treated women as an afterthought. Consider the staggering fact that, according to one survey, less than a third of American OB-GYN residency programs offer a menopause curriculum of any kind.
We need a menopause revolution in this country. Better training is an obvious place to start. By including menopause care in both foundational and continuing education for health care practitioners, we can equip more of them to support their patients. Medical schools and residencies need to embed menopause care in their curriculums, and accreditation bodies and licensing boards need to make it a required part of training — not just for OB-GYNs, but for anyone who treats women in midlife.
And Cottom readily concurs, pointing out the intersectional health disparities experienced by non-white women:
Unfortunately, those greater expectations [of increased research and clinical care] have not necessarily resulted in a consistent, effective women’s health care system. Most women experiencing menopausal symptoms still do not receive any medical treatment for them. As is often true, that bad news is even worse for Hispanic and Black women. Despite entering menopause earlier and having more health-related consequences (like fibroids), Black and Hispanic women are least likely to have medical support for menopausal symptoms.
So, isn’t it a good thing that the podcasters and the social influencers are spreading the word? Isn’t it a win for healthcare equity and access that telehealth companies are offering a variety of new treatments and approaches to managing the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause?
Well, it’s complicated.
But with research and training and actual interest in women’s health and well-being, it needn’t be so complicated. By Jon T for Unsplash.
In a JAMA Women’s Health article from last month (newsflash: JAMA started a Women’s Health journal. In September 2025. Uh, better late than never?) Kate Schweitzer writes that the “explosion of products and providers following decades of neglect represents a long-overdue investment—a gold rush fueled by growing awareness and demand for better care.” But, she warns that it has”created a rocky menopause landscape akin to the lawlessness of the Wild West, in which bold claims often reach patients before clinical evidence does.”
I couldn’t agree more. We are being pummeled with ads for products that promise no more hot flashes, less fatigue and brain fog, easier and better sex, and (Content Warning here) even no weight gain (as if that’s the worst thing that can happen to a 40- or 50-something year-old woman).
Using another favorite Wild West theme, Stephanie Faubion, MD, MBA, medical director of the Menopause Society and director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health, cautions us:
“The pipeline has expanded significantly, and that’s a good thing,” Faubion said. “But you have to consider when it’s not actually creating value for these women.…You’ve got a lot of people out there selling snake oil, too.”
Wikipedia image of 19th-century snake oil.Snakes IN oil, not to be confused with the former.
I’m happy to report that snake oil was outlawed after the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (thanks, Wikipedia, for the info!), but for reasons way above my pay grade, not in my area of expertise and utterly beyond my ken, current US telehealth companies are not regulated such that we can trust that the products they market are 1) tested; 2) effective, or 3) safe.
Hence the Wild Wild West talk.
If you’re interested in a deeper dive into current and emerging interventions for menopause, read the JAMA article; it’s got evidence-based information on what we do and do not know about them.
Here’s my bullet-list takeaway:
In addition to the much-tested HRT, there are compounded hormones, testosterone therapy, and loads of untested supplements on the market.
Influencers are out there extolling the virtues of every potion you can imagine, backed by slim to no evidence.
Telehealth is offering to fill the gaps created by lack of access to primary care, offering similar potions from non-medically-trained folks with little to no evidence basis.
Dr. Nanette Santoro, an investigator on many studies over decades with the Women’s Health Initiative, summed it up: “What this [boom in menopause treatment products] does is it tells people, ‘You can get ahead of this curve,’” she said. “But because we don’t have enough good evidence, it’s really saying that you are being part of an experiment.”
All I’m saying is, watch your back out there, okay, pardners?
With researchers and clinicians sidelined by lack of evidence, the influencer and telehealth gunslingers are everywhere. Watch your backs.
