Newsletter

by Ahuva Segal

For seven weeks this winter, I was an outsider looking in on American government and society.

I had left the Australian summer to intern with NWHN and spend time with my sister, and from the minute I stepped off the plane I found myself constantly (and unconsciously) comparing everything. Food portions? Very big! Cars? Even bigger! Houses? Bigger yet! But another subject that I found myself comparing was universal health care — something Australia has and the United States desperately needs.

by Adriane Fugh-Berman, M.D.

Now that the FDA has banned ephedra in over-the-counter products, companies are touting an array of other herbs and nonherbal products claimed to speed weight loss. Are herbal weight-loss products safer than drugs? Not necessarily. Weight-loss supplements containing the plant ephedra - taken by an estimated 12 million people in 1999 - were associated with heart attacks, strokes, kidney stones and psychiatric problems, among other problems. (No adverse effects have been associated with the traditional use of ephedra to treat asthma.)

In light of the NWHN's goal of furthering the establishment of universal health care, we asked women's health activists around the world to share how health care is delivered in their countries. Following are excerpted responses of New Zealand's SANDRA CONEY, formerly executive director of Women's Health Action; Chile's DEBORAH MEACHAM, editor of the quarterly magazine of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network; and India's SUNDARI RAVINDRAN, who has been active in the international women's health movement since 1981.

by Leah Thayer

by Jennifer Cook, Linda Galib and Kiersten Hoskisson

Do you ever look in the mirror and adjust your fat to see what body shape you might miraculously morph into? Well, we do. Three otherwise proud feminists in our early 20s, we also spend more time than we care to admit tweezing our eyebrows, shaving our legs, obsessing before the mirror in search of zits, and torturing our feet into stiletto heels so the important people on Capitol Hill might catch a glimpse of our "intern potential."

by Teresa Harrison

A growing body of research suggests that covering the cervix may play a key role in preventing the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In a project now underway in Africa, members of the reproductive health community are evaluating cervical barriers such as diaphragms and cervical caps - - which have long proven effective as safe, effective, woman-controlled contraceptives for a dual role in protecting women against HIV and other STIs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new version of the oral contraceptive pill that changes a woman's bleeding pattern to produce only four "periods" each year. Marketed under the brand name Seasonale, the new pill is the first product approved for this combination of contraception and menstrual suppression.

by Eileen Schnitger and Christina Romero

In April, Women's Health Specialists sent two representatives to Cuba to explore health care and other aspects of everyday life for women there. As a feminist organization that strives to empower women to make their own medical decisions, we would seem an unlikely match for a country whose policies are famously top-down, with little tolerance for decision-making at the individual level. But we were impressed by much of what we saw.

by Georgana Hanson