Thread by @WhitneyEpi

🧵1/

First, read @ShawnteJamesMD’s whole thread.

It’s informative and moving…

https://twitter.com/shawntejamesmd/status/1450967697089511426

🧵2/

Second, this thread especially grabbed my attention coming on the heels of yesterday’s @NIH_ORWH virtual conference on gaps in research about the health needs most particular to women orwh.od.nih.gov/research/2021-…

🧵3/ One of the most stunning (and maddening?!) slides was a #dataviz that used analysis from this paper: liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.10…

🧵4/ Here’s @LindaGGriffith1’s slide

with the #dataviz
(by @michiganstateu’s Ron Chandler)

showing how much conditions that primarily affect women are grossly underfunded for research by the #NIH

Note: The y-axis is on log-scale. It’s probably worse than it looks

🧵5/ Symptoms of conditions as varied as ovarian cancer, Crohn’s, colon cancer, #fibroids, #endometriosis, etc. can be similar

When these symptoms happen to women, US culture is quick to shove them into the box of menstrual-symptoms-you-just-need-to-deal-with-on-your-own

🧵6/ Even a highly trained MD initially thought of the sudden changes she observed as likely due to menstrual & lifestyle symptoms that could be self-managed

https://twitter.com/shawntejamesmd/status/1450967699249577986?s=21

https://t.co/ErUP6HiDvt

🧵7/ A lot of this ambiguity is bc we haven’t invested the research resources in even characterizing the range of what healthy menstruation looks like versus more serious conditions

We can do better and produce more actionable info for providers and everyday people

🧵8/ And I haven’t touched on the healthcare access issues in @ShawnteJamesMD’s story

Another big issue

🧵9/ We also wrote a paper about the specific work that needs to be done to advance the epidemiology of gynecologic health. We need to know more, and we can know more. #gynhealth
jech.bmj.com/content/75/4/3…