August 2024: Selected Women’s Health Updates

Welcome to autumn! And let’s explore a few interesting updates in women’s health from the month of August.

January 2024 Women’s Health Updates?

February 2024 Women’s Health Updates?

March 2024 Women’s Health Updates

April 2024 Women’s Health Updates

May 2024 Women’s Health Updates

June 2024 Women’s Health Updates

July 2024 Women’s Health Updates

• Aug 1st, Bayer filed for approval in the US for elinzanetant as a non-hormonal treatment for menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, with a rival therapy from Astellas in its sights. The FDA submission is for the treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (VMS) associated with menopause, based on?three phase 3 studies?showing that elinzanetant significantly reduced their frequency and severity over 12 weeks compared to placebo.

The oral neurokinin (NK) 1 and 3 antagonist – if approved – will represent the first direct competition to Astellas' NK 3 antagonist Veozah (fezolinetant) which was cleared by the FDA in May last year and is now available in 14 countries worldwide.

• Aug 7th, Men of any background were 2 times more likely to survive compared to women in the event of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to the new study (American Heart Association Journals). The study analzyed data collected from more than 623,000 people who experienced cardiac arrests outside the hospital between 2013 and 2022. Nearly 58,100 people in that group, or 9%, survived.?In addition to sex differences, race differences were also striking: white people were 3 times more likely than Black people to survive the episode.

Earlier studies in the area found that women with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are less likely to receive bystander CPR in public locations than men.

• Aug 14th, a new longevity study was published in Nature Aging, and it has interesting implications for women.?

Based on the data from 108 subjects from 25 to 75 years old, the researchers demonstrated aging process has?two major waves of age-related changes at around ages 44 and again at 60. The findings introduce a non-linear concept of aging and could also explain why spikes in certain health issues, like musculoskeletal or cardiovascular, occur at certain ages.

Among the participants, 51.9% were female. Interestingly, while the mid-40s ageing spike was initially assumed to be a result of perimenopausal changes in women, the data revealed similar shifts were happening in men in their mid-40s, too. This suggests that the transition point observed at approximately 55?years of age is not solely attributed to female menopause but, rather, represents a common phenomenon in the aging process of both sexes.

It is now considered that 75% of age-related diseases are likely to be influenced by menopause in some way. It could have been easier to understand the relationship between the two if we had known more about menopause. Currently, 99 % of preclinical aging studies ignore menopause. One of the issues is the lack of reliable animal models of menopause: unlike humans, female rodents do not always have a persistent menopause phase.

• Aug 16th, Canadian startup?Fibra?closed its oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, raising $1.25 million USD ($1.7 million CAD). The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Fibra’s smart underwear technology designed to ease reproductive health monitoring for women. Fibra is developing a non-invasive wearable device that tracks conveniently tracks fertility data. The connected Fibra app will allow users easy access to reproductive health and fertility insights, aiming to improve their chances of conceiving.

Read here about other women’s health wearables.

• Aug 20th, Femtech Canada has officially submitted a request to the Canadian federal government, advocating for a $100 million investment to accelerate women’s health and femtech innovation across the country. This funding would support initiatives aimed at addressing longstanding gaps in women’s healthcare and driving advancements in the rapidly growing femtech sector. The proposal is part of Femtech Canada’s push to have women’s health recognized as a national priority, particularly in the context of the April 2025 federal budget.

What an amazing example of how powerful the bottom-up innovation initiatives can be!?

• Aug 27th, new research was presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024, revealing significant links between menopause and changes in cardiovascular health due to shifts in cholesterol profiles among women. There is an increase in 'bad' low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles and a decrease in 'good' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles during and after the menopause transition. This shift suggests menopause may usher women toward higher-risk profiles for cardiovascular disease, including conditions like coronary artery disease—often mistakenly thought to primarily affect men.

Researchers analyzed blood cholesterol levels in 1,246 women and 1,346 men. Compared to men, menopausal women had a 213% increase in “bad” LDL cholesterol.

Heart disease is the biggest killer of women, causing 40% of all deaths in females, researchers noted. Women tend to develop heart disease about 10 years later than men, with their risk rising dramatically after menopause. But until now, it’s been unclear why a woman’s risk of heart disease accelerates following menopause.

• Aug 31st, a new Harvard study (New England Journal of Medicine) suggested a single blood test that measures inflammation and fat can predict women's risk for cardiovascular disease 30 years later.

Researchers collected blood samples and healthcare information from 27,939 US medical providers. For 30 years, they followed participants who entered the study between 1992 and 1995 at an average age of 55.

During this time, 3,662 women experienced a heart attack, stroke, surgery to restore circulation or a cardiovascular-related death. Researchers measured high-sensitivity CRP, along with?low-density lipoprotein cholesterol?and?lipoprotein(a). When researchers assessed all three measures, participants with the highest levels had more than a 1.5 times increased associated risk for?stroke?and more than a three times raised associated risk for?coronary heart disease?compared to women with the lowest levels.

While the study only included women, researchers said they would anticipate comparable results in men.

Bonus: Read here about chronic pain and pain perception in men and women.