Women's Health Updates — August 2022

Learn about recent developments in women's health as well as SWHR's activities that promote the study of sex and gender influences on health and serve our mission to improve women's health through science, policy, and education.
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AUGUST AWARENESS TOPICS
NATIONAL BREASTFEEDING MONTH
Three out of four mothers in the United States start out breastfeeding, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 2010 Breastfeeding Report Card. Including breastfeeding mothers in clinical research is crucial to ensuring all individuals have access to high quality health care options. Read more about SWHR's policy work in this space: SWHR Statement on Bipartisan Effort to Address the Needs of Pregnant and Lactating Women
IMMUNIZATION AWARENESS MONTH
August is National Immunization Awareness Month, which seeks to highlight the importance of vaccination for people of all ages to protect across a variety of diseases, from COVID-19 to influenza and more. Learn how to engage in immunization conversations with SWHR's roadmap: Crucial Vaccination Conversations: A Roadmap to Engage Women and Their Communities.

Pregnant or breastfeeding? Learn more about the vaccines that are safe for you and your baby in this maternal immunization guide: Maternal Immunization: Quick Guide.
PSORIASIS AWARENESS MONTH
Psoriasis Awareness Month in August seeks to raise awareness about the skin condition and share resources and stories about care management. An estimated 10-30% of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a type of inflammatory arthritis linked to psoriasis. Learn more about diagnostic and treatment options for PsA and its tie to psoriasis in this fact sheet: Psoriatic Arthritis: Diagnosis and Management in Primary Care Fact Sheet.
What are you observing this August? Share your women's health story with SWHR. SWHR is seeking stories about diagnoses, seeking care, and living with narcolepsy, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease, managing your bone health, undergoing prenatal screening, or other women's health conditions. Visit swhr.org/shareyourstory or click the link below to learn more.
LATEST SWHR RESOURCES
Little is known about why many autoimmune and immune-mediated skin diseases are more prevalent—and often more severe—in women. To inform care and policy around autoimmune skin diseases in women, read SWHR's commentary in Women’s Health Issues' July-August 2022 issue: Addressing Autoimmune and Immune-mediated Skin Disease Burden in Women.

The rate of autoimmune diseases and conditions in the United States is rising—and women are disproportionately affected, making up 80% of patients diagnosed with autoimmune disorders.
SWHR published an overview of autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases and how they are impacted by utilization management policies in this fact sheet: Utilization Management Policies and Autoimmune Diseases: A Women’s Health Issue.

Learn more about autoimmune resources and research on social media at #SWHRtalksSkin and #SWHRtalksAutoimmune.
Women outnumber men as both Alzheimer's patients and as caregivers. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease is growing quickly, with the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s expected to more than double by 2050.

Hear from experts across policy, caregiving, and clinical care about solutions for addressing the Alzheimer's disease crisis in the recording of "Taking Heed of Alzheimer’s Disease: Recognizing and Responding to a Coming Crisis."
Learn more about Alzheimer's disease and women:

Check out the discussion on social media at #SWHRtalksAlzheimers.

What is SWHR reading? "Predicting the future: A quick, easy scan can reveal late-life dementia risk" in ScienceDaily explores research linking vascular health and late-life dementia. The majority of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/RD) patients in the United States are women.
An estimated 1.3 million women enter the menopause transition each year in the United States, but many women don't know the signs, symptoms, or treatment options available. In "Menopause Mindfulness: A Personal Toolkit for Menopause Preparedness," SWHR spoke with menopause experts and care advocates about feeling empowered throughout the menopause journey.
Check out more tips and information on menopause in this women's toolkit: Menopause Preparedness Toolkit: A Woman’s Empowerment Guide.

Register for the rest of the Menopause Mindfulness events this year:

Join the discussion on social media and share your own menopause wellness tips by using #SWHRtalksMenopause.

What is SWHR reading? "Women's Health In Focus at NIH: Research on Menopause" by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) explores all sides of the menopause journey, from health changes to research opportunities.
UPCOMING EVENTS

Register to join us on Thursday, August 11, 2022, 1:00 p.m. ET to hear from women about their own menopause journeys. See more on social media at #SWHRtalksMenopause.

In this "Value of Diagnostics within Women’s Health" public forum, ovarian cancer experts will share screening and care options. Register to join us on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, 12:00 p.m. ET or on social media at #SWHRtalksCancer.

The Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research is hosting the 3rd biennial National Conference on Women’s Health and Sex Differences Research, titled "Sex Differences Across the Lifespan: A Focus on Metabolism," on October 12-14, 2022 in Colorado Springs, CO. Learn more.
Check out SWHR's event calendar for more SWHR and other women's health events.
POLICY
Catch up on SWHR's latest policy work:

What is SWHR reading? "Reimagining Career Paths, an Opportunity for Disruptive Change, and Supporting Reentry and Reintegration into Research" by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Director Dr. Janine Austin Clayton explores the reentry of women into the health, medicine, science and larger STEM workforce following the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about diversifying the STEM workforce on SWHR's blog.

See more of SWHR's recent policy work online here.
FROM THE BLOG

SWHR convened an interdisciplinary working group of clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates to discuss women living with lupus. Read their insights today.

Christine Thomas, author of Unbreakable: A Woman’s Triumph Over Osteoporosis, shares her bone health story with SWHR.

Share your own women's health story with SWHR at swhr.org/shareyourstory

In this closed-door network meeting, Dr. Paul Yong presented on how women with endometriosis and related pelvic pain may face high incidence of abnormal sleep. Read the meeting takeaways.
Read all of SWHR's most recent blogs online here.

What's new in Biology of Sex Differences? Read the latest on the effect of nicotine-containing products and fetal sex on placenta-associated biomarkers. Find more at @BiologySexDiff.

What is SWHR reading? "Why Is There a Gender Disparity in Migraine?" in SELF includes expert conversations about why women are more likely to experience migraines and what hormones may have to do with it. Learn more in SWHR's migraine care toolkit.

Do you have a women's health story to share with SWHR? SWHR is asking women to share their personal health journeys or stories of serving as a caregiver. Your story can help educate and inform other women who may be going through a similar experience. Visit swhr.org/shareyourstory to learn more.
Did someone forward you this email? Looking for more news on women's health research?