#fertility women's health

[ivflondon]

Comprehensive Fertility Testing in London | Assess Your Fertility Today

Discover comprehensive fertility tests and investigations for both men and women at IVF London. Gain insights into your fertility health and identify potential issues with our in-house services.

[redditreceipts]

"we like young women because biologically, that means they're fertile"

then why do you find periods disgusting? those are the single most indicative sign of fertility. by that logic, you must be incredibly attracted to a women who speaks openly about her period, right?

[femmefatalevibe]

Essential Feminist Texts Booklist

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

A Vindication of The Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by Bell Hooks

Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics by Bell Hooks

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution by  Shulamith Firestone 

Sexual Politics by Kate Millett

Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner 

Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape by Jessica Valenti

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez 

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women by Alicia Malone

Girlhood by Melissa Febos

The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel

Is This Normal?: Judgment-Free Straight Talk about Your Body by  Dr. Jolene Brighten

Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski, Ph.D

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Dr. Jennifer Gunter

The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women by Anushay Hossain 

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn 

The Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion by Diana Greene Foster, Ph.D

Regretting Motherhood: A Study by Orna Donath

[daportalpractitioner]

holistic womb healing tip:

aim to keep your womb warm by avoiding or limiting the amount of cold you put into your body and replacing it with warm foods + liquids. this increases blood flow to the uterus and aids in fertility! even if you're not trying to get pregnant, on a spiritual level, having a fertile womb allows you to naturally magnetize the things that you want in life with ease.

[eclipsewilliam]

Endometriosis is a chronic condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, causing symptoms like pelvic pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, pain during sex, and infertility. Treatment for endometriosis depends on the severity of the symptoms, your overall health, and whether you want to have children in the future. Here are the main approaches that can help manage endometriosis:

1. Pain Management

• NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs): Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen or naproxen can help reduce pain and inflammation associated with endometriosis.

• Prescription Pain Medications: For more severe pain, doctors might prescribe stronger painkillers or opioids for short-term use.

• Heat Therapy: Applying a heating pad or warm compress to the abdomen can help relieve pain and muscle spasms.

• TENS Therapy: A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit, which delivers electrical impulses to the skin, can sometimes help with pain relief.

2. Hormonal Treatments

Hormonal therapies are often used to reduce or eliminate menstruation, as periods can worsen endometriosis symptoms.

• Birth Control Pills: Combined oral contraceptives (the pill) can help regulate periods and reduce pain by suppressing ovulation.

• Progestin-only Treatments: Progestin injections, implants, or intrauterine devices (IUDs) can help control the growth of endometrial tissue.

• GnRH Agonists: These drugs, such as Lupron or Zoladex, work by shutting down ovarian hormone production and inducing a temporary menopausal state, which can help shrink endometrial tissue and reduce pain. However, they often have significant side effects, including hot flashes and bone thinning.

• Danazol: This synthetic male hormone can reduce estrogen levels and shrink endometrial tissue, but it has side effects like acne and weight gain.

• Aromatase Inhibitors: These medications decrease estrogen production and can be used in combination with other treatments.

3. Surgical Treatment

Surgery can be considered for women with severe symptoms or if other treatments haven’t worked.

• Laparoscopy: This minimally invasive procedure allows the surgeon to remove or destroy endometrial tissue. It’s commonly used to treat endometriosis when other treatments aren’t effective.

• Hysterectomy: In cases where endometriosis is severe and other treatments have not worked, a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) may be considered, sometimes with removal of ovaries. However, this is typically only recommended for women who no longer wish to have children.

• Excision or Ablation: Surgeons may remove endometriotic lesions or use laser or heat to destroy the tissue.

4. Lifestyle and Complementary Therapies

• Diet: Some studies suggest that a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods (such as omega-3 fatty acids from fish or flaxseeds, and antioxidants from fruits and vegetables) may help alleviate some symptoms. Reducing intake of red meat, trans fats, and processed foods may also be beneficial.

• Exercise: Regular physical activity can improve overall well-being, reduce inflammation, and potentially help manage pain.

• Acupuncture: Some women report pain relief and improved symptoms with acupuncture, although more research is needed to fully support its effectiveness.

• Stress Reduction: Practices like yoga, mindfulness, or meditation can help manage stress and may contribute to pain relief.

• Supplements: Some people find that omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, curcumin (from turmeric), and magnesium help reduce pain and inflammation, though it’s important to talk to a healthcare provider before starting any supplements.

5. Fertility Treatments

If endometriosis is affecting fertility, treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be recommended. Fertility-preserving options like egg freezing may also be considered for women who want to preserve their fertility before pursuing aggressive treatments.

6. Alternative Therapies

• Herbal Remedies: Some women explore herbal treatments like chamomile, ginger, or vitex (chaste tree), which are believed to help with menstrual regulation and pain. However, their efficacy is not well-established, and some herbs can interact with other medications.

• CBD Oil: Some women report relief from pain with CBD oil, though more research is needed.

7. Support and Counseling

• Support Groups: Connecting with others who have endometriosis can provide emotional support and practical advice on managing symptoms.

• Counseling or Therapy: Chronic pain conditions like endometriosis can lead to mental health struggles, such as anxiety or depression. Therapy or counseling can help you cope with the emotional impact of the condition.

Managing Endometriosis in Daily Life

• Track Your Symptoms: Keeping a symptom diary can help you and your doctor understand your condition better and tailor treatments accordingly.

• Work-Life Balance: It can be challenging to manage work, school, or social activities when you’re in pain. Finding accommodations at work or school and giving yourself permission to rest is essential for managing the condition.

• Educate Yourself: Knowledge is empowering. Understanding your condition and the available treatment options can help you make informed decisions about your health.

Consultation with a Healthcare Provider

Since endometriosis varies widely in its severity and impact on different individuals, it’s important to work closely with a healthcare provider to find the most appropriate treatment for your specific case. In some instances, a specialist in gynecology or reproductive health may be necessary for optimal care.

[pro-birth]

I'm all for women choosing to not have kids but y'all need to stop demonizing fertility, or acting like mentioning it as a part of women's health is a problem.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Tessa Stuart at Rolling Stone:

KRISTA HARDING’S DAUGHTER was eight weeks old when that police cruiser pulled behind her on the interstate and hit the lights in September 2019. She called her boss at the Little Caesars in Pinson, Alabama, where she’d just been promoted to manager: I’m going to be a little late, but I’m coming in! Don’t panic. Harding’s registration tag was expired. She figured the officer would write her a ticket and she’d be on her way, but when he came back after running her driver’s license, he had handcuffs out. There was a felony warrant out for her arrest, he said: “Chemical endangerment of a child.” Harding used her most patient customer-service tone to ask the officer if he’d please check again. But there was no mistake, the cop confirmed: He was taking her to the Etowah County Detention Center, almost an hour’s drive away. “I’m in the back of the cop car just bawling my eyes out, like, ugly-face-snot-bubbles crying,” Harding remembers. She was worried about being away from her newborn, and she was confused: Chemical endangerment of a child? “I think of somebody cooking meth with a baby on their hip,” she says. 

She’s right to think that: The Alabama law, passed in 2006, was intended to target those who expose children to toxic chemicals, or worse, explosions, while manufacturing methamphetamine in ad-hoc home labs.  Harding says it took at least eight hours to be booked into a cell that night, and it was more than a week before she was finally allowed to see a judge. She was still leaking breast milk, and desperately missing her two daughters. Her family wasn’t allowed to bring her clean underwear, so every day she washed her one pair, saturated with menstrual blood, in the cell sink, then hung them to dry.

Harding says she eventually learned the warrant for her arrest had been issued because of a urine test taken at a doctor’s visit early in her pregnancy. Sitting alone in her cell, she conjured a vague memory of her OB-GYN warning her local authorities had begun to crack down on weed. The comment had struck her as odd at the time: Nine years earlier, when she was pregnant with her first child, the same doctor at the same hospital had told Harding, who’d smoked both pot and cigarettes before she was pregnant, that she’d rather Harding kick the nicotine than the weed. (Studies are unequivocal about the fact that cigarettes contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes, but the research on weed is less conclusive, with some doctors arguing it at least has therapeutic benefits, like helping with morning sickness.)

But in the years between her first child and her second, something had changed in certain parts of Alabama. In Etowah County, in 2013, the sheriff, the district attorney, and the head of the local child-welfare agency held a press conference to announce they intended to aggressively enforce that 2006 law. Instead of going after the manufacturers of meth, though, they planned to target pregnant women who used virtually any substance they deemed harmful to a developing fetus.

“If a baby is born with a controlled-substance dependency, the mother is going to jail,” then-Sheriff Todd Entrekin said at the time. Police weren’t required to establish that a child was born with a chemical dependency, though — or even that a fetus experienced any harm — a drug test, a confession, or just an accusation of substance use during pregnancy was enough to arrest women for a first offense that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. One public defender would later call these “unwinnable cases.” Over the following decade, Etowah County imprisoned hundreds of mothers — some of whom were detained, before trial, for the rest of their pregnancies, inside one of the most brutal and inhumane prisons in the country, denied access to prenatal care and adequate nutrition, they say — in the name of protecting their children from harm. 

[...]

In the past two decades, Alabama has become the undisputed champion of arresting pregnant women for actions that wouldn’t be considered crimes if they weren’t pregnant: 649 arrests between 2006 and 2022, almost as many arrests as documented in all other states combined, according to advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, which collected the statistics. Across the U.S., the vast majority of women arrested on these charges were too poor to afford a lawyer, and a quarter of cases were based on the use of a legal substance, like prescription medication.

Today, Marshall is the attorney general of Alabama, and just a few months ago, the state’s Supreme Court used the same logic — that life begins at conception, therefore an embryo is legally indistinguishable from a living child — in a decision that was responsible for shutting down IVF clinics across the state. The ruling was a triumph for the fetal-personhood movement, a nationwide crusade to endow fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses with constitutional rights. Personhood has been the Holy Grail for the anti-abortion movement since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, but outlawing abortion — at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason — is just the start of what legal recognition of embryos’ rights could mean for anyone who can get pregnant. Experts have long warned that elevating an embryo’s legal status effectively strips the person whose body that embryo occupies of her own rights the moment she becomes pregnant.

Across the country, this theory has led to situations like in Texas, where a hospital kept a brain-dead woman alive for almost two months — against her own advanced directive and the wishes of her family — in deference to a state law that prevents doctors from removing a pregnant person from life support. (The hospital only relented after the woman’s husband sued for “cruel and obscene mutilation of a corpse.”) Or in New Hampshire, where a court allowed a woman who was hit by a car while seven months pregnant to be sued by her future child for negligence because she failed to use “a designated crosswalk.” Or in Washington, D.C., where a terminally ill cancer patient, 26 weeks pregnant, requested palliative care, but was instead subjected to court-ordered cesarean section. Her baby survived for just two hours; she died two days later.

Or in Alabama, where, in 2019, Marshae Jones walked into the Pleasant Grove Police Department with her six-year-old daughter expecting to be interviewed for a police investigation. Months earlier, Jones, four and a half months pregnant at the time, had been shot by her co-worker during a dispute. In the hospital after the shooting, Jones underwent an emergency C-section; her baby, whom she’d named Malaysia, did not survive. Rather than indicting the shooter, though, a grand jury indicted Jones, who they decided “intentionally” caused the death of her “unborn baby” because she allegedly picked a fight “knowing she was five months pregnant.” The charges were ultimately dismissed, but Jones’ lawyer says her record still shows the arrest, and Jones, who lost her job after the incident, struggled to find work after her case attracted national attention.

The threat this ideology poses to American women is not contained to Alabama: Recognition of fetal personhood is an explicit policy goal of the national Republican Party, and it has been since the 1980s. The GOP platform calls for amending the U.S. Constitution to recognize the rights of embryos, and representatives in Congress have introduced legislation that would recognize life begins at conception hundreds of times — as recently as this current session, when the Life at Conception Act attracted the co-sponsorship of 127 sitting Republican members of Congress.

[...]

Taking inspiration from Black Americans’ fight for equal rights, the anti-abortion movement began thinking of its own crusade as a fight for equality. “The argument that the unborn was the ultimate victim of discrimination in America was really resonant with a lot of white Americans, a lot of socially conservative Americans — and it was vague enough that people who disagreed about stuff like feminism, the welfare state, children born outside of marriage, the Civil Rights Movement” could find common ground, Ziegler says.  By the time the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in 1973, the idea that a fetus was entitled to constitutional protections was mainstream enough to be a central piece of Texas’ argument that “Jane Roe” did not have a right to get an abortion.  

The justices rejected that idea. “The word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn,” Justice Harry Blackmun wrote. But he gave the movement a cause to rally behind for the next half-century by adding: “If this suggestion of personhood is established, [Roe’s] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.”  Making that happen became the anti-abortion movement’s primary focus from that moment on. One week after Roe was decided, a U.S. congressman first proposed amending the Constitution to guarantee “the right to life to the unborn, the ill, the aged, or the incapacitated.” It was called the Human Life Amendment, and though it failed to make it to a floor vote that session, it would be reproposed more than 300 times in the following decades.  By 1980, the idea had been fully embraced by the Republican Party: Ronald Reagan’s GOP adopted it into the party platform — where it remains to this day — and in 1983, the Republican-majority Congress voted, for the first and only time, on the idea of adding a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That vote failed. 

After their 1983 defeat, activists turned their attention away from the U.S. Capitol and toward the states, where they sought to insert the idea of fetal personhood into as many state laws as possible: everything from legislation creating tax deductions for fetuses or declaring them people for census-taking purposes, to expanding child-endangerment and -neglect laws.  Activists pursued this agenda everywhere, but they were most successful at advancing it in states that share certain qualities. “You could draw a Venn diagram of American slavery and see that what’s happening today is in common in those states,” says Michele Goodwin, a Georgetown University law professor and author of the book Policing the Womb. “Some would say, ‘Well, OK, how is that relevant?’ Slavery itself was explicitly about denying personal autonomy, denying the humanity of Black people. Now, clearly, these laws affect women of all ethnicities. But the point is: If you’re in a constitutional democracy and you found a way to avoid recognizing the constitutional humanity of a particular group of people, it’s something that’s not lost in the muscle memory of those who legislate and of the courts in that state.”

Rolling Stone has a solid in-depth report on the war on women and reproductive health in Alabama, going into detail the fetal personhood movement.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Anyone remember how in Mass Effect 2 it's revealed that Miranda hooks up with random men from dating apps, with the explicit purpose of getting pregnant and never seeing them again?

The Doylist explanation for this is obviously that this is Mass Effect and the writers either didn't know, or didn't think about artificial insermination. Like Miri babe, you can entirely skip paying for tinder gold and just use your exorbitant salary as an unethical scientist/assassin working for the proud boys, to have a licensed professional get you pregnant in the sort of strictly business relationship you're looking for.

However, for a Watsonian explanation, I think it's much more funny to imagine Miranda just has a huge breeding kink she refuses to acknowledge as such; and the reason you never see her drink is because she knows she will start rambling about how every woman secretly desires to spend her whole life pregnant and make everyone uncomfortable.

[tomorrowusa]

^^^ Be careful how you word things in Alabama!

Be even more careful how you vote. The only way to protect reproductive freedom is to Vote Democratic.

Spending all your rent money at a casino is a better bet than voting for a third party. At least at the casino you have a remote chance of success.

[violetskies65]

A PCOS Girl's Guide to Period Tracker Apps

I have had a phone by my side and in my hand for years now, since the age of 13. In today's day and age, that even seems old, but it was the age I received my first phone. I have been menstruating since age 11, and tracking since perhaps, my junior year of high school. Throughout all these years, I have dealt with acne, poor body image, and semi-irregular menstruation. What was a fun way to track how my body felt, prevent (or now, PREPARE!) for pregnancy, now sort of consumes my entire life, right next to that handy MyFitnessPal app in my health tab. From traditional apps like FLO, built in trackers like Apple Health, and then Clue, these apps help me deal and manage my symptoms with hidden perks.

Flo

Flo was ideally my first app, I have used logged and documented everything from my sexcapades, crippling moodswings, and now more sensitive subjects such as ovulation and vaginal discharge. I will admit, at that age I wasn't perfect at logging everything, and while it tries to reprogram the predicted period and ovulation based on your latest previous cycle (Not good for PCOS Girlies!), it holds the secrets to my confusing and moody reproductive system. The Flo App is actually the first app that merely suggested my irregular cycle patterns may present PCOS, of course with me brushing it aside, as my periods would become and stay consistent and regular as I went along. While it does notify you of cycle patterns and keeps data of every cycle, as with many apps, menstural trackers or not, there is a monthly fee to the added insights and help they offer. I paid for it for a month, it is a neat feature, but even to me, not even worth it.

Some extra features with the Flo app are the different modes, changing from normal period tracking, optimizing your chance of pregnancy, and to track your pregnancy. With each cycle tracked, I'd say Flo becomes somewhat more accurate. My personal PCOS journey is due to weight flunctuations. I have ovulated and have had periods semi regularly my entire life, until this year unfortunately. I have had (a guestimate, as you are unsure if you ovulate every cycle.) one to two ovulatory cycles. Sometimes it just isn't about becoming pregnant, as it is extremely unhealthy to go 3-4 months without a period, natural or medically induced. It is better for your body to have a period, from my personal stance, and Flo will be there to remind you how abnormal your cycle trends are, and what they mean.

I would give Flo a 8/10, and I find it very PCOS friendly!

Stardust

Stardust is the second app I have ever used, as I remember ads on Facebook & TikTok. Stardust is a period tracking app for the spiritual gals, although many of the quirks are added for fun. Based on your cycle type (the periods in which your experience ovulation and menstruation) you are organized a specific witch type with some insight on yourself, and yes, mine changes all the time due to spontaneous ovulation and delayed menstruation. So again, just for fun. Although Stardust will organize you into a percentage group based on your witch group. Despite the overall quirkiness of the app, there is a neat little wheel lined with each day of your cycle and the corresponding predicted phase, with differing colors. The app works to highlight your ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual phases. Unlike Flo and other apps, it will simply tell you your cycle day and each month has the same predicted ovulation and menstrual pattern.

The app does not have any mode to help enhance pregnancy chances, although you can still log your pregnancy test and ovulation test, although you can only log one type of ovulation test result, and you cannot log both a pregnancy and ovulation test. This seems like it would be common knowledge, but when you have gone a couple months without a period, or there are conflicting hormonal signs, sometimes you just gotta multitask! The app will also let you know upon opening that your period is late, but it doesn't bombard you with texts or digital guides about PCOS, Endo, etc, so I always preferred Flo, and even deleted Stardust at one point in time.

The app seems to be difficult to toggle, with Flo you can change your ovulatory prediction and tracking by logging tests. Upon logging a test, your little blue days will shift. Stardust does not let you do this, whether you log a test at all. The app has a quirky spiritual theme, but a bit too spiritual, that it appears to try to be more in tune with your body than you. Although certain antibiotic usage and normal PCOS irregularities make ovulation hard to predict, with the help of tests and being in tune with discharge changes, I hate how I can't toggle ovulation and menstruall dates.

Throughout the updates and expansions, the Stardust app lets you mark many symptoms and changes throughout your cycle phases, log exercise, and even log cycle stressors such as trauma, stress, and even travel. Perhaps my favorite feature is the ability to log marijuana, adderal, alcohol, or even psychedelic usage. although it does not document any trends or reports to your cycle if you continiously log these potential cycle disruptions or health changes, so you'll have to make some assertions yourself. I really applaud them for adding a stimulant and marijuana (which is so common nowadays next to alcohol).

Overall, I would give the Stardust a 6/10. This is a very fun and creative app, but I am not counting on it for any particular cycle or health related insights, so personally for me, it is merely for fun. Perhaps with time the app will continue to expand and add more observatory features and cycle tracking insights. It is not really PCOS friendly, as it doesn't seem to work or move around or put effort into altering any cycle predictions. It is set in stone until of course you log your menstrual period yourself.

Clue

The Clue app works to give you (somewhat) of a Clue about your ever so changing menstural cycle. Like Flo, it attempts to move your cycle patterns to fit current trends and give a prediction of ovulation. I must admit, I am a new user to Clue, and I have logged ovulation tests (just pregmate LH strips for now, I did out of curiosity) but they were all negative, and I am not exactly sure if the ovulation time moves with you and I have not done a false log as I do not want to risk messing up my cycle, but it is much more customizable than Stardust, although a lot of features I feel would benefit those suffering from PCOS, are locked behind a pesky monthly paywall, one that is very tempting at that.

Similar to Stardust, Clue is complete with a wheel that you can spin through and observe your different cycle phases. Red representing the dreaded (or if you have PCOS, the heavily missed, long anticipated) arrival of aunt flow, or a nice crisp blue part of the ring signaling potential ovulatory days, With the Clue app, you can log exercise, and potential cycle stressors such as alcohol, cigarettes, or even simply being hungover. However, no specific medications such as Adderal, Concerta, or anything else mental health related, You have the ability to log medications such as HRT (Hormone Therapy), OTC/Prescribed Painkillers, allergy meds, antibiotics, cold and flu meds, the morning after pill, and different hormone therapy pills, such as estrogen, progesterone, and testerone. Cycle Stressors under the "Ailments" tab can also be logged, ranging from a simple cold, to UTI's and STI's. It seems to be the only tracker to log all forms of birth control and administration dates, the a simple pill, to the IUD. They offer insights into the birth control ring, implant and patch. I feel this is a very neat feature to offer, as birth control & clomid are ready to be prescribed to women dealing with PCOS, with birth control being pushed extremely heavily.

Like other apps, you can log both pregnancy and ovulation tests, but there is no built in LH strip analyzer, you simply make your own evaluation and click positive, or negative. Although there seems to be no cycle trends and specific insights, you are able to log differing appointments in regards to your health, and trust me, I have a lot of those. You digestive data, hair texture, skin concerns and a daily analysis of your social life and mood can also all be logged and tracked underneath their specific tab. There is a tab to check your discharge, but in comparison to other apps like Flo, there are only four different discharge textures displayed, and the app doesn't explictly state whether they are in regards to ovulation or not. Behind the paywall and subscription service, you can log pregnancy experiences, your journey into menopause, vulvar feelings, urine changes, breast changes, and the daily supplements you take.

Clue is a very well thought of app with unique analysis to your cycle and potential stressors to said menstrual period, whether you suffer from PCOS or not. I really look forward to growing with this app more and making sure to continously log and track everything However, it would appear as if all the good PCOS-centered features, like the supplements tab are locked behind a monthly subscription. I would have to give Clue a 7.5 out of ten, very user accesesible with in-depth symptom and data tabs, but everything else helpful is behind that damn pay wall!

Apple's Health App

From my Macbook air to my iphone, I'm pretty much Apple-pilled. However, no Apple watch over here. I just have a cheap fitbit to help me along with more insights into my fitness journey. So the cycle tracking feature that was added in the health data tab is damn near the only thing I use. I know Apple has a specific knack for simplicity and smooth easy accessible apps and services, but the menstural tracking is a bit lacking. It is actually on-par with Fitbi's Menstrual tracker that is horribly laid out. I find myself even forgetting to log any symptoms, as if you simply hit "No Flow", and close, nothing will show you even logged that day. Now Apple, you know damn well I'm not having debilitating symptoms everyday. You simply click if your period began or not, you go through a generalized symptom list that contains slight issues like acne, to fatigue and hair-loss. You can log an ovulation test result, a progesterone test result (the only unique feature), a pregnancy test result, the quality and state of your cervical mucus, and your potentially changing basal body temperature. That is is really, and it is good for what it is, while also trying to be more by offering different testing tabs. Based on my current cycle that I am supplementing with Progestin, Apple's calendar was actually the MOST off.

I give Apple Health's tracker a very simple 3/10.

Last but not least, we have the Pregmate app, to partner with their ovulation and pregnancy testing strips. Their testing methods are just simply buy-in-bulk strips found at your local CVS, but for some in the TTC community are a tried and true cheap and easy method for either getting pregnant, or general cycle tracking. The app however, is not cheap at all, and is actually similar to Flo in looks and design. It pretty much has all the same logging features that Flo does, and it seems to be damn near identical. Although they push for you to download the app and log photos of your ovulation and pregnancy strips, there isn't anything particularly special about said app, but nothing bad either. I have not used this app, but I don't think it is one I could depend on personally for managing and tracking my current PCOS symptoms and journey, but defintely fun for those looking to actively concieve.

I would give the Pregmate app a 5/10. Very user friendly and an encouraging way to get pregnant, but as the name would suggest, it does not give very detailed hormonal insights.

[willowreader]

This thread lists 20 articles along with a great explanation of the consequences of Covid on women's reproductive health. I have seen posts of women who were concerned the vaccines would damage their reproductive systems. These studies show evidence that Covid certainly can.

Click on View on Twitter to see the full post.

[dailybehbeh]

Behbeh

[femmefatalevibe]

i wanna get in2 feminism. where should i start?

Music to my ears! So excited for you to begin this pivotal journey in your life. I suggest starting out with my Essential Feminist Texts Booklist. Also, I would check out Melanie Hamlett on TikTok/Youtube and Jessica Valenti's TikTok page (@auntiekilljoy) in addition to her amazing books.

Hope this helps xx

[gayathrifeme01]

Health benefits

[lemonbombsfjl]

The only way to defeat Donald Trump and his attacks on reproductive health care is to elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.

IWillVote.com

[pro-birth]

In addition, melatonin is a free-radical scavenger and antioxidant. Free radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons that are produced as by-products of normal reactions in the body. Too many free radicals cause oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can damage healthy cells by destroying DNA, breaking apart cell membranes, and accelerating cell death. Antioxidants bind to free radicals to prevent this damage, acting like a molecular shield. Because of melatonin’s protective role in the body, ongoing research is looking into melatonin to help manage cancer, immunological disorders, diabetes, and viral infections [1]. 

Here, we will look specifically at melatonin and the work it performs to ensure a healthy cycle and maintain fertility.