April ’24: Selected Women’s Health Updates
Anastasiya Markvarde
Women's Health | Driving healthcare innovation & strategy | Startup advisory | Innovation Director
Here comes my collection of April women’s health updates. Let’s check together what has happened this month!
In general, Canada has been pioneering a number of women’s health initiative lately, read here about the first self-screening cervical cancer plan launched in British Columbia and Femtech Canada launch.
Globally, in 2021, 31.2% of women had anemia compared with 17.5% of men. In the age group of 15–49, it’s 33.7% women versus 11.3% in men (The Lancet)
When present in pregnant women, it will most probably result in anemia in newborn children. Being anemic in the first years of life might cause neurological conditions, sleeping problems, delays in motor, speech and mental development.
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The results suggest that structural changes in the brain during menstruation may not be limited to those regions associated with the menstrual cycle (hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal-axis receptor-dense regions). As hormones fluctuate, gray and white matter volumes change too, as does the volume of cerebrospinal fluid. The result lay the groundwork for future studies around period-related mental health problems.
This advancement is notable as there has been very little research around women’s brain throughout the cycle. To give you an example: throughout the history, periods have been considered a shameful disease, debilitating all women 1 every 4 weeks, resulting into women’s ‘incapacity to work’. It was not until the 1930s that it started to be suggested that periods are not a disease and women’s mental capacity to perform is in fact not affected while on periods (hence, women might actually deserve equal pay at work compared to men).
Pre-eclampsia occurs in between 2% and 4% of pregnancies and is a leading global cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. It causes an estimated 46,000 maternal deaths, and half a million stillbirths and newborn deaths a year.
The findings show 8.15% of women treated by female doctors died within 30 days. This is compared to the 8.38% treated by male doctors. For male patients, the difference in percentage between female and male doctors was only .08%.
April 24th, the 8-week prescription DTx by Curio that provides symptomatic relief for postpartum depression got FDA 510(k) clearance. The FDA approved MamaLift Plus as a prescription‐only digital therapeutic for patients aged 22 years and older in conjunction with clinician‐managed outpatient care. Earlier this month, Curio demonstrated efficiency in a 141-subject study.?
April 26th, UK startup Elvie, which develops women’s health products including a breast pump and pelvic floor trainer, raised £9.6m. Since launching in 2013, the startup has now picked up $136m, from backers including BlackRock, Octopus Ventures and the Business Growth Fund.?
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7 个月Meaningful and well written update Anastasiya Markvarde! Marco Gullà Alessio Beverina Giovanni Rizzo