Why is Abortion Essential Healthcare?
📺 Watch our full panel discussion + updates from my latest PCOS lab workup
On June 13th, we hosted a panel on why abortion is essential healthcare with Planned Parenthood Greater New York’s (PPGNY) Action Fund, featuring Dr. Navya Mysore, Women's Health Medical Director for Nurx, Chelsea Leyland, co-founder of Looni, and Dipal Shah, Chief External Affairs Officer of PPGNY. We had over a hundred registrations for the event! If you missed it, I’m excited to share the full panel recording here as well as our MyAdvo Abortion Guide here.
That same day, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed abortion pills to remain available under existing FDA rules. With Dipal's legal and civil rights expertise, we discussed the implications for the future of abortion access. Dr. Mysore helped us understand what are the medical reasons for an abortion, while Chelsea bravely shared how she’s come to understand abortion across her pregnancies. Listen to some of my favorite quotes from the evening here.
“Abortion gave me my life.” - Chelsea Leyland
“No one should have any functional limitations or external limitations put on them when they’re making decisions for their health or their body.” - Dr. Navya Mysore
“No one is asking or preventing people from cancer treatments, abortion is no different.” -Dipal Shah
MyAdvo Abortion Guide
As a follow-up to our panel, we put together a comprehensive MyAdvo Abortion Guide with key takeaways on abortion as an essential medical procedure, state and federal legislation to watch, and how you can take action. (If you downloaded the guide at the event, we updated it so take a look!)
Just this past month, there’s been a lot of movement on the political landscape for abortion access:
U.S. Supreme Court Abortion Pill Ruling: The Supreme Court upheld the availability of mifepristone under current FDA rules, rejecting a challenge that could have limited access. However, this decision did not validate the legality of abortion pills, leaving room for future legal challenges in lower courts.
U.S. Supreme Court EMTALA & Idaho Ruling: The Supreme Court dismissed a case on whether Idaho’s abortion law aligns with the federal EMTALA, leaving access to emergency abortions in Idaho unchanged. The court did not resolve how state abortion bans interact with federal emergency healthcare directives.
Texas Supreme Court Decision: The Texas Supreme Court refused to clarify the state's abortion ban, dismissing claims from over 20 women denied abortion care during medical emergencies.
Louisiana Abortion Pill Drug Classification: Louisiana reclassified mifepristone as a controlled substance, complicating its distribution and access within the state.
Iowa Supreme Court and 6-Week Abortion Ban: The Iowa Supreme Court allowed a six-week abortion ban to proceed, significantly limiting access to abortion in the state.
Abortion shouldn’t be political, but it is. It can be hard to relate when abortion is stigmatized as a single event, but 1 in 4 women will experience an abortion by age 45. How do we accept that abortion is common? Regardless of how much we restrict abortion, history proves that abortions are prevalent. How do we learn to see it as a medical event, no matter the reason why? It can feel like a distant issue, especially if you don’t believe it can happen to you. But the reality is, if 1 in 4 women have an abortion, it’s likely you’ll at the very least know someone who experiences it in your lifetime. You can make a difference by educating yourself and just talking about abortion. When we don’t talk about the realities that lead a pregnant person to abortion, it becomes too easy to demonize. Abortion is so taboo that even those of us who are most open-minded about it likely have misconceptions or don’t really know what it entails. Start with the MyAdvo Guide, and let me know what you think.
My Quick PCOS Update
For newer readers, I was diagnosed with Adrenal PCOS in March and have been working with a functional medicine provider to improve my symptoms and bloodwork. Good news—my cycle has normalized to an average of 31-34 days over the last three months! Previously, I was experiencing irregular cycles of up to 40 days. Going gluten-free is the most consistent lifestyle change I’ve adopted, and I very much believe it’s helped my cycle regulate.
Another assurance is that I am indeed ovulating! Confirmed through my progesterone levels and finally mastering ovulation test strips. Below are other PCOS labs I’m monitoring and my most recent results. I’ve bolded the ones that still need work (feel free to use this as a cheat sheet of PCOS labs to request from your doctor):
Hormones:
Total Testosterone: 48.9 — still high but came down 20pts since February!
Free testosterone: 2.4 — still within range
Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH): 8.51 — still high, actually ~1pt higher than when I first got it tested before freezing my eggs in November 2021. Women with PCOS tend to have higher AMH but egg quality may be poorer.
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG): 131 — high and went up 10pts from February
DHEA-Sulfate: 321 — still within range
FSH & LH: 3.6 & 5.2 (luteal phase of my cycle) — Within range
Progesterone: 4.1 (luteal phase) — Within range
Insulin Resistance
Hemoglobin A1C: 13 — Still within range
Fasting Insulin: 4.5 — Still within range
Glucose: 91 — Still within range
Inflammation:
Cortisol: 11.7 (before 9am) — Still within range
C-reactive protein: <0.15 — Still within range
Thyroid
TSH: 1.45 — Still within range
Free T3: 3.4 — Still within range
Reverse T3: TBA — Within range last time
Free T4: 1.39 — Still within range
Thyroid antibodies: TBA — Within range last time
Nutrients:
Vitamin D: No longer deficient!
Vitamin B12: 640 — Still within range
Iron: TBA — Within range last time
High testosterone seems to be the main culprit. Despite improvement, I still experience symptoms like severe mood swings/irritability, hirsutism (for me it’s pesky hairs on my chin), b-acne (back acne like when I was in high school), and a lot of hair shedding. I’m going to try the supplement Inositol and spearmint tea, as recommended by my provider, before we redo labs at the end of summer.
All in all, I’m feeling optimistic but there are still some contradictions I had questions about, which my provider helped clear up:
Q: My fatigue isn’t as severe, but it persists. If my cortisol is in range, why is this happening?
A: It’s actually not always a 1-to-1 correlation of high cortisol = adrenal fatigue. It’s possible that my adrenals are completely tapped out, which makes it hard for them to actually produce much cortisol at all. A DUTCH test can help us learn more.
Q: We’d hypothesized that high estrogen levels, or estrogen dominance, could contribute to my recurring fibroids. Turns out my estrogen is in range, now what?
A: Not everyone with fibroids experiences estrogen dominance. A DUTCH test of sex hormones will help us uncover more about what can be at play.
I’ll be doing the DUTCH test to delve deeper, so stay tuned for more updates towards the end of the summer. I’ve never done one before, so I’m eager to learn more. If you have any insight or recommendations about them, let me know!
MyAdvo Monthly Reads
(policy, podcasts, research, trends & more to advocate for yourself)
⚖️ US Southern Baptist church, the largest protestant denomination, votes to oppose IVF
⛔️ Social media companies censoring abortion-related content
📚 First case of 6 year old patient diagnosed with endometriosis before menstruation
🧴 Male birth control gel proving safe and effective in clinical trials
🤰 Childbirth deadlier in US than any other high-income nation, especially for Black women
🇺🇳 UN urges companies to improve employee reproductive health
⭐️ Janel Parrish from TV show Pretty Little Liars has surgery following endometriosis diagnosis
⭐️ Grand slam tennis champion Sloane Stephens freezes eggs so she won’t have to choose between tennis and motherhood