Women’s health

Abortion drugs — regulation is the responsibility of the FDA, for now

I am going to write about something that has never been an interest of mine, but abortion drugs moved into my line of sight since the US Supreme Court decided to set aside 50 years of precedent and overturn Roe v Wade. Some states, especially what we call red states (those that vote for the right-wing Republicans) are trying to ban the sale of abortion drugs that are legally obtained by women.

Since I am someone who is very aware of FDA regulatory responsibilities, I immediately thought to myself that there is no way that states can do such a thing. Now, I am not an attorney nor do I play one on the internet, but I think the law is on my side. On the other hand, I never thought Roe v Wade would be overturned, so what do I know about the law?

Let’s take a look at abortion drugs and FDA regulatory responsibilities. I want to warn you before you read this — I am not agnostic about abortion. I am 100% pro-abortion — I believe that there is an absolute right for a woman to choose what she wants to do with her body and her healthcare, and that includes abortion. From a scientific perspective, fetal cells are not “alive” until such time that they are viable outside of the woman’s womb, around 23-24 weeks of gestational age. Before that time, fetal cells are invasive, and as such a woman has an absolute right to do whatever she wants with those cells.

So, if you don’t like that, you’re not going to like what I’m writing here, but I’ll live without your support.

For those of you who live in civilized countries where women are not treated as chattel property, hopefully, this article will give you some indication of what is going on in the USA at this time. And it’s not good.

Fertility impacts of COVID vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infections

A new peer-reviewed article examined the effect of COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 on the fertility of men and women. Spoiler alert — the vaccine has no impact on fertility, but a COVID-19 infection lowers male fertility.

For some reason, one of the major tropes of the anti-vaccine world is trying to claim that vaccines have some effect on fertility. For example, I’ve written several articles debunking these claims about the HPV vaccine. I think they push these tropes about vaccines because it is an adverse effect that would strike at the heart of anyone thinking about the vaccine.

They have done the same thing with the COVID-19 vaccines — they want you to believe that they have some effect on fertility. But they’re wrong because we have even more powerful evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines do not have any effect on fertility.

COVID vaccines slightly affect menstrual cycles but do not affect menses

by Michael Simpson
2022-01-10
COVID-19, JNJ, Moderna, Pfizer, Vaccines, Women's health

A new peer-reviewed paper showed that COVID-19 vaccines slightly and temporarily increased the length of menstrual cycles. The research also showed that the vaccine did not change the number of days of menses. The effects are so minor as to not warrant concerns about these vaccines.

This brief post is just going to lay out the data from the article and try to show that if you are a woman considering the vaccine, this shouldn’t be a concern.