The Vajenda

There is big news from the United Kingdom: two new diagnostic tests for endometriosis are likely to be introduced under NICE’s Early Value Assessment programme. This has been described as “game-changing.” And perhaps one day they will be, but there is an important distinction between a promising technology and a proven one.

JOSE LUIS CALVO MARTIN & JOSE ENRIQUE GARCIA-MAURIÑO MUZQUIZ/Getty Images I’ve noticed several questions here on The Vajenda from women on menopause hormone therapy (MHT) about bleeding and an endometrial biopsy that is reported as proliferative endometrium. They have been told this is normal and nothing else needs to be done; they also have not received an answer about their bleeding.

This claim that menopause is castration comes up repeatedly on social media. The analogy is rhetorically loaded, and while the shock value might be great for the attention economy, the argument is scientifically flawed and not helpful if the goal is education.

Thank you to everyone for tuning into my live video with Nanette Santoro! Here is the replay for those who could not make it. I will get the information on Dr. Santoro’s study that is recruiting and post about it this week.

This week in women’s health I have a few shorter topics to share. But first, I will be doing a Substack live with Dr. Nanette Santoro on Sunday, June 22 at 2 pm Pacific, 3 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Eastern time. Dr. Santoro is a titan of menopause. Please come with your questions, or leave them below if you can’t attend live. How did British Columbia and Manitoba Make MHT Free in their Provinces?

There is an internet claim making the rounds that there is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial that shows testosterone improves recovery after hip fracture, and yet this evidence is being ignored. But this is not a trial that justifies recommending testosterone for post–hip fracture recovery. The study in question is called Combining Exercise Training and Testosterone Therapy in Older Women After Hip Fracture: The STEP-HI Randomized Clinical Trial.

There is so much misinformation about testosterone online that I asked one of the world experts (if not THE world expert), Prof. Sue Davis if she would help me walk through what we know and what we don’t know. I’ve broken the conversation up into smaller pieces based on the topic. Let me know if you like this format instead of one long conversation podcast-style. I will post more from out conversation tomorrow. Prof.

Silver Place/Getty Images One thing that I am very proud of here at The Vajenda is how responsive the community has been in enrolling in and promoting the medical studies I have shared. Two doctors from two different studies have previously thanked me and the Vajenda community because their studies filled up faster than expected, which they attributed to posts here on The Vajenda.

I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Melinda French Gates to discuss her exciting expanded focus and additional funding for women’s health. She has already committed over $600 million dollars to women’s health in the last two years, but she knows there is so much more work to do, and so she is committing another $215 million. And part of that focus is midlife and menopause.

Results of a new study matdesign24/Getty Images There is an interesting new study on testosterone and other androgen levels, published by Wang et al. (Dr. Sue Davis’ group). This is an observational study from the Australian Women’s Midlife Years Study, a nationally representative, community-based sample of women.