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Wednesday, December 03, 2025

Survey: Nearly all Americans not aware midwives provide care beyond pregnancy, birth

The benefits of a certified nurse-midwife that most people don’t know

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

The Midwife Misconception — video:
A new survey by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center reveals 93% of people think midwives only deliver babies and are surprised to learn they can be a trusted partner in all aspects of women’s health.
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Credit: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the United States is expected to face a significant shortage of OB-GYNs in the next five years. It’s vital for women to have access to highly trained health care providers for all stages of their lives, from the first menstrual cycle to menopause and beyond. Certified nurse-midwives offer this kind of care, but most Americans don’t realize it.

A new survey by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center reveals 93% of people think midwives only deliver babies and are surprised to learn they can be a trusted partner in all aspects of women’s health.

“We take care of women across the lifespan,” said Michaela Ward, APRN-CNM, a certified nurse-midwife at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. “We are highly trained and we're highly skilled. We can take care of you even if there is something more complex about you or your health.”

Survey results
The Ohio State survey of 1,006 Americans shows only 1 in 5 are aware midwives can provide women’s annual gynecology exams. The survey found that while some services, such as pregnancy and birth support and water births were identified correctly as midwife services by over half of adults, other services, like medication management, menopause care and annual women’s health exams are known by far fewer.

Among those lesser-known services, there are no significant differences by gender, meaning both men and women are equally unaware of the full breadth of women’s health services provided by midwives.

Survey respondents’ knowledge of women’s health services provided by midwives:

Pregnancy and birth support (93%)
Water births (69%)
Medication management, including birth control (26%)
Menopause care (23%)
Annual women’s health exams including pap smears and STI testing (20%)
C-sections (13%)
Don’t know (1%)

Ohio State has 17 certified nurse-midwives on staff, the largest midwife program in central Ohio. Maternal fetal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology specialists are only a phone call away from midwives to provide support and care to patients with complex pregnancies.

“If I need to consult with one of our physicians at Ohio State, I can call them right away and discuss the patient’s case,” said Ward. “We all work together to provide the best care possible for our patients.”

Multimedia elements available for download: https://bit.ly/3LtvNtM

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Struggling with your 40s? For many women, it’s perimenopause

The most notable changes a woman faces physically at this time are weight gain, a deteriorating skin texture, and exhaustion.

The Daily Star | ANN

Published November 25, 2025

The forties may have gained a reputation for being the age when bad things happen to a woman’s body, but there is no magic to this number.

Every woman goes through these physiological changes in their own time. The 40s is, however, the age when perimenopause is most likely to hit women, and it is good to know what changes to expect and how to combat them.

Perimenopause can be loosely defined as the prep time that a female body takes to transition into menopause, and it is here that hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone start to destabilise.

The most notable changes a woman faces physically at this time are weight gain, a deteriorating skin texture, and exhaustion. Doctors have noted that this particular weight gain is not just visible on the scale — it settles distinctly on the hips, giving the body a more rotund look.

The loss of oestrogen and progesterone is directly responsible for saggy and more dehydrated skin, fine lines and the loss of skin suppleness due to decreasing collagen.

Dr Kazi Azmiri Hoque, RMO at the Obs Gyn Department of Meditech General Hospital, mentions, “Women can sometimes lose the softness of their face, and even the litheness of their build during this process, and gain some facial hair.”

Women hitting this age also often complain of losing hair volume, but this is not common to everyone.

One of the most important jobs of oestrogen is to keep young joints greased — women losing this hormone in their 40s, therefore, often complain of joint stiffness, bone and back pain over time, especially if they have a BMI on the higher side.

Women also lose muscle mass and strength by up to 15 per cent during this time, increasing the risk of fractures and osteoporosis.

Other effects of hitting pre-menopause include vision changes and dry eyes, a weak pelvic floor, especially for women who have given birth, sleep challenges, fatigue and consequent brain fog.

These, however, are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg of perimenopause.

Oestrogen provides a buffer against cardiovascular ageing and even insulin sensitivity. A decrease in the hormone could therefore render women more vulnerable to cardiovascular risks and strokes, and increase the risks of Type 2 diabetes.

Wild fluctuations of hormones before the last period may cause irregular periods, hot flashes and night sweats, vaginal dryness, and wild mood swings in women.

“One of the reasons women dread menopause is because they feel that this would mean the end of sexual desire and physical love, but this is far from the truth,” shares Azmiri. “In fact, libido remains unchanged and sexual relations can continue well into menopause.”

Vaginal dryness may be an issue during this time, but lubricants can help make things better. While these are all intimidating factors to consider, not every woman goes through all these factors, and definitely not all at once.

“Oftentimes, women find themselves dealing with teenage children in their 40s, or ailing parents,” confides Azmiri. “These are stressors which may manifest themselves in the form of aches and pains. Most doctors group these ailments under menopause, making it a villainous stage in women’s lives.”

However, there are several ways in which a woman can combat the negative effects of perimenopause in her 40s. She can choose to switch to a healthy lifestyle, incorporating a balanced diet, for instance.

A dietician will be especially beneficial here, as they can chalk out a phytoestrogen-rich diet including foods like flaxseeds, soy, and lentils, balance blood sugar levels, and order a reduction in nicotine, caffeine, and alcoholic beverages.

Women can also take up regular exercise, leaving behind a sedentary way of life, and practice stress management techniques such as yoga or meditation. A good sleep hygiene, such as a solid eight-hour shut-eye and a no-screens rule an hour before bedtime, can help counter fatigue and brain fog.

More than anything else, having a good sense of awareness of what is going on in your body means that half the battle is already won. Knowing and expecting, and to some extent perhaps even combating the signs of perimenopause, can make your 40s much less daunting, allowing you to embrace this milestone age as a special number, not a dreaded one.

Header Image: The image is created via generative AI.

This story was originally published on The Daily Star, an ANN partner of Dawn.

If you're over 60 and playing with sex toys, you're not alone

New study suggests that many older women use sex toys to promote orgasm, which may promote positive health outcomes

The Menopause Society

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Nov 26, 2025) –Although research on sexuality in older adults has been growing in recent years, most of the studies are focused on partnered sexual activity and not on solo sexual behavior, including masturbation or the use of sex toys. A new study specifically investigated sex toy use during partnered sex and masturbation in older adult women. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.

Women are less likely to masturbate than men, and masturbation tends to be negatively associated with age. Women are more likely to use masturbation as complementary to partnered sex, whereas men use it to compensate for lack of partnered sex. Although there has historically been a stigma associated with masturbation and the use of sex toys, especially for women, the reality is that there are a number of positive health outcomes that may be related to masturbation in older adults. There is also evidence that such behavior is associated with improved cognitive function, specifically better word recall.

During the COVID pandemic, there was a spike in the sale of sex toys. One U.S. study found that one in five respondents reported expanding their sexual repertoire by adding new activities, including using a sex toy with a partner, during the pandemic. There is also evidence that older women are engaging in more varied sexual acts, including sex toy use. Because penetrative sex may become more painful and difficult because of menopause and erectile problems in men, alternative modes of sexual expression, including sex-toy use, may be replacing intercourse.

Another contributing factor is that an increasing number of older women are living alone, either because of divorce, widowhood or an intentional choice to remain single. In response, sex-toy companies are increasingly designing and marketing sex toys for older adult women, including toys specifically targeting those in menopause.

In a new, one-of-the-first-of-its-kind studies involving more than 3,000 women aged 60 years and older, researchers confirmed that there was a growing prevalence of masturbation and sex-toy use in this population and that such use led to a higher frequency of orgasm. More specifically, participants reported much greater use of sex toys during masturbation than during sex with a partner. Those who reported almost always or always using sex toys during masturbation were significantly more likely to report always or almost always having an organism. The most frequently used sex toys were an external vibrator or a dildo/penetrative toy.

Of those who had partner sex, more than one-third (38.7%) reported using sex toys during partnered sex at least sometimes. Because of the prevalence of masturbation and sex-toy use, as well as their relationships to orgasm and possible improved health outcomes and well-being, the researchers suggest that older women could benefit from receiving more information from their health care professionals on these topics.

Study results are published in the article “Sex toy use among a demographically representative sample of women 60 and older in the United States.”

“Lack of understanding of female anatomy, the sexual response cycle, and underlying factors resulting in orgasm is common among both older and younger women. The physical and mental benefits of fulfilling sexual function are well known. By initiating conversations around sexuality in routine healthcare encounters, healthcare professionals can destigmatize the topic and provide valuable instruction on how to achieve an orgasm. Many women believe something is wrong with them because they can’t achieve orgasm with a partner, when the truth is that most women don’t reach orgasm with penetrative intercourse alone. This simple knowledge has the potential to significantly impact the high prevalence of female sexual dysfunction,” says Dr. Monica Christmas, associate medical director for The Menopause Society.

For more information about menopause and healthy aging, visit www.menopause.org.

The Menopause Society is dedicated to empowering healthcare professionals and providing them with the tools and resources to improve the health of women during the menopause transition and beyond. As the leading authority on menopause since 1989, the nonprofit, multidisciplinary organization serves as the independent, evidence-based resource for healthcare professionals, researchers, the media, and the public and leads the conversation about improving women’s health and healthcare experiences. To learn more, visit menopause.org.

Journal

Menopause

DOI

10.1097/GME.000000000000002679

Method of Research

Survey

Article Title

Sex toy use among a demographically representative sample of women 60 and older in the United States

Article Publication Date

26-Nov-2025

Monday, November 24, 2025

‘Big Tech sexism must end’

Emily Darlington 21st November, 2025

The technology, the method, may be new, but the issue, sadly, is not.

Women’s health has always been marginalised, questioned, deprioritised. Victorian doctors dismissed women’s distress as ‘the vapours’ leaving space for quacks to prescribe dangerous remedies. Today, Big Tech firms see fit to ‘downrank’ content related to female health on the weird and spurious grounds that it uses anatomically correct terms. Again, leaving the way clear for grifters and scammers to take advantage of, and even endanger, women.

This shadow banning is nothing shy of Big Tech sexism. It has to be addressed.

This week I brought together activists and parliamentarians to understand the scale of this new iteration of an age-old problem and to seek solutions. The Big Tech companies – TikTok, Meta which owns Facebook and Instagram, Google and X – are all aware of this issue. We must make them understand the damage it is doing and urge them to fix it. They have the money and the expertise, they only lack the will.

And it is a clear and growing problem.

Earlier this year Essity – owners of period product brands like Bodyform and ModiBodi – surveyed 4000 adults on the issue. Nearly two thirds of all respondents said they look online for health advice, and half cited social media as an important source of health and wellbeing education.

The same study revealed many find it difficult to source information on women’s health topics in the places they are active. The highest proportion was among the youngest – 34% of 18-24-year-olds said it was difficult to source information on women’s health topics via social media.

They found that 77 % of 18–34-year-olds were aware of “shadow banning”, defined as posts being restricted, hidden or de-prioritised without explanation. That practice is impeding their approach to health and wellbeing.
When women’s health terms such as “periods”, “menopause”, “vagina” or “endometriosis” are used, posts may be mis-flagged as adult or sexual content and thereby receive dramatically lower reach. (This speaks to another age-old problem – the default sexualisation of women’s anatomy).

Users don’t want this. Eight in 10 adults (77 per cent) said words like ‘vagina’ or ‘periods’ should not be restricted on social media when used in an educational context. If the platforms want to be responsive to their customers’ wants and expectations they ought to take note. If their algorithms are unable to spot context they need rewriting and upgrading.

The issue also impacts charities and women’s health businesses, both of which rely on the modern world for reach via social media.

Campaigners CensHERship have found that 95% of women’s health content creators, educators, charities, and brands, had experienced censorship of women’s health content over the past year. This has serious consequences.

Female-led businesses and femtech innovators report major financial losses, some of up to £500,000 a year, due to blocked campaigns. Charities say their ability to reach women with vital health information has been severely curtailed. This form of online censorship prevents women and girls from accessing reliable information about their own bodies.

And it’s biased against women. One study found a 66% drop in non-follower views and 69% fewer comments for women’s-health posts compared with men’s-health posts.

Women’s health is being censored by the algorithms. It has to stop.

We need the government to force platforms to come to the table. Big Tech must publicly explain themselves and their processes; listen to the concerns of women and girls; understand the damage that is being done; and recognise and remedy that.

We are still up against the historic tendency to diminish and dismiss women and their wellbeing. But we have the knowledge and the power now. There is no excuse for this invisible filtering and algorithmic bias and for Big Tech to continue to fail women.

Emily Darlington

Emily Darlington is the MP for Milton Keynes Central.

View all articles by Emily Darlington

Sunday, November 23, 2025

When it Comes to Women’s Health, The Trump Admin’s Hypocrisy is on Full Display

President Donald Trump and his cronies are peddling lies about abortion care while touting their farce advancements for women’s health.

(Photo by Shuran Huang for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Nikki Sapiro Vinckier
Nov 22, 2025

Common Dreams

Earlier this month, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made an announcement regarding the removal of broad “black box” warnings from Hormone Replacement Therapy products for menopause.

As an OB-GYN PA with more than a decade of experience in reproductive care, I know what decisions women and patients are grappling with when it comes to their health and maternal care. I also know first hand the devastating consequences of denying patients critical care when they need it the most and stripping access to care that’s been proven to be safe and effective after decades of research.

The Republican Health Care Apocalypse

President Donald Trump and his cronies are peddling lies about abortion care while being hypocrites when touting their farce advancements for women’s health. Right now, Trump and his anti-abortion administration are pulling every string possible to ban abortion and that includes banning abortion medication.

Ironically, Commissioner Makary said in a statement that “women and their physicians should make decisions based on data, not fear,” and anti-abortion extremist Kennedy Jr. said that the administration is “returning to evidence-based medicine and giving women control over their health again.”

Contrary to their assertion of trusting research and doctors, right now, the Trump administration is working to roll back access to mifepristone and reproductive care, with Makary and Kennedy Jr. at the helm.

At the press event for this announcement, while responding to a question from a reporter, Makary said that the administration is “sticking with our philosophy that the government is not your doctor.”

So, which is it? Does this administration trust women and patients to consult their physicians for what’s best on making personal medical decisions, or is that only convenient messaging when it’s pushing forward their extreme agenda?

The healthcare crisis in America is a dire one, and yet, the Trump administration continues to play political games and feign ignorance as to how their efforts to ban abortion nationwide will have a catastrophic impact on women and patients across the country.

It has been 25 years since the FDA approved mifepristone, a safe, effective medication that has reshaped abortion care in the US.

Contrary to their assertion of trusting research and doctors, right now, the Trump administration is working to roll back access to mifepristone and reproductive care, with Makary and Kennedy Jr. at the helm.

At the urging of anti-abortion politicians and junk science, the FDA has agreed to revisit its approval of mifepristone, because extremists condemned the FDA approving a generic abortion pill just last month.

We must continue to call out this hypocrisy, because Republicans know that imposing Project 2025’s abortion agenda risks significant political backlash, particularly in battleground states where abortion is either legal or popular. More than 6 in 10 Americans support keeping medication abortion available. Even many Trump voters oppose new restrictions.

Let’s be clear—this administration’s attacks on mifepristone are a national abortion test.

Project 2025, spearheaded by Trump, Kennedy Jr., and Makary, would dismantle access to one of the safest, most widely used medications in the country. Medication abortion accounted for nearly two-thirds of all US abortions in 2023.

Will women and families retain the ability to make private medical decisions—or will patients have their rights ripped away and be forced to jump through unimaginable hoops just to receive care?

If Republicans were actually committed to prioritizing women’s health in their agenda, they would invest in healthcare so expecting mothers across the country have access to the most comprehensive care available, including abortion care.

If Republicans were actually committed to protecting women and advancing medical research, they wouldn’t pull funding from clinics and hospitals dedicated to providing care for women and patients nationwide, especially in rural communities where resources are already sparse.

I’m not buying this feigned effort toward showing allyship toward women, when everything that this administration has done since January has been an assault on women’s health and the care we undoubtedly need. Physicians and providers like me spend years in schooling and training so we can provide the best care to our communities, and yet this administration undermines those years of dedication and expertise to appease an extreme anti-abortion minority.

If Trump, Makary, and Kennedy Jr. want to walk the walk in advancing women’s healthcare, they should start with looking at themselves and acknowledging the harm that they are doing across the country to the detriment of the American people.

Lives are at stake, and we are waiting for them to mean what they say.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Nikki Sapiro Vinckier
Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, PA-C, is an OB/GYN physician assistant, reproductive health strategist, Free and Just storyteller, and founder of Take Back Trust—a national platform providing tools, education, and advocacy to help people navigate reproductive care in all 50 states. With over a decade of clinical experience and a growing digital presence, she works at the intersection of medicine, media, and movement to defend reproductive freedom and build patient power.
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Monday, November 17, 2025

Physician responses to patient expectations affect their income

Findings may help explain lower incomes for women, racialized, immigrant physicians

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Physician responses to patient expectations can affect physician incomes and may help explain lower incomes for many women, racialized, and immigrant physicians, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250665.

Researchers from McMaster University aimed to understand persistent identity-related income differences among physicians practising in Canada. They conducted a qualitative study that included interviews with 55 Ontario family physicians.

“Pay disparities related to gender, race, and immigration status persist among Canadian physicians, even within specialties and after adjusting for hours worked,” says Dr. Meredith Vanstone, professor, Department of Family Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Ethical Complexity in Primary Care at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. “This is seen in family medicine, even though physicians are typically paid via standardized fee schedules. Our study demonstrates that physician responses to the expectations they perceive from patients may contribute to these pay gaps. They told us that patient expectations differ depending on their identities and the identities of the patients.”

“Physicians respond to perceived patient expectations by adjusting their practice and behaviour, including the way they interact, the length of an appointment, and the services they provide,” says Dr. Monika Dutt, PhD candidate at McMaster University and family physician. “These are decisions that may ultimately impact income.”

As more women and international medical graduates are practising medicine in Canada, income inequalities are important to understand and address, particularly as incomes for medical specialties with high proportions of women physicians have been declining relative to incomes in other specialties.

Key points:

Physicians perceived that their identities and the identities of their patients influenced the expectations patients had of them. For example, patients expected women physicians to spend more time with them and to provide more emotional support. This additional time per visit can reduce the number of patient appointments and, thus, income.
Study participants reported that patients often preferred physicians of the same gender for certain types of care, including pelvic exams, pregnancy, menopause, erectile dysfunction, and prostate exams. In Ontario, billing fees for intrauterine device (IUD) insertion and cervical cancer screening are low compared with fees for other services.
Many patients preferred care from physicians from the same cultural or linguistic background. Generally viewed as positive by the physicians in the study, this could pose challenges if patients expected preferential care or services similar to those offered in their home country. As well, racialized physicians described sometimes needing to spend extra time educating patients or engaging in advocacy; this reduces time spent with other patients and affects income.

“Since providing longer, more comprehensive patient interactions limits the number of appointments or services that physicians can provide, women may experience financial disadvantages in compensation models that depend on roster size or patient volume,” the authors write.

To address pay disparities, the authors suggest that compensation models could adjust for extra time required for some types of care. The fee schedule should be examined to make sure that services associated with female anatomy (e.g., pelvic exams, IUD insertion) are not underpaid.

“Ontario family physicians are responsive to the expectations of their patients. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is likely to result in satisfied patients whose needs are well met,” Dr. Vanstone emphasizes.

“These findings may be relevant to physician workforce planning and ensuring team-based care that accounts for physician backgrounds and skills to improve patient outcomes,” the authors conclude.