Tia’s 2018 Year in Review
The Top 10 Moments that Changed the Game for Women’s Health
2018 was *a year* for women to remember.
From the boardroom to the bedroom… from the courthouse to the laboratory… it was a year of making our voices heard, loud and proud.
It was a year of new narratives and new connections… of glass ceilings boldly broached, but all-too-few shattered. From major wins to major blows, here’s our recap of the top 10 monumental moments that changed the game for women’s health in 2018.
#10: Two new birth control methods hit the market in the US
In an unexpected move, the FDA greenlit two new forms of contraception; it gave its tough-to-get stamp of approval to Annovera — a vaginal ring that you can use for up to one year — and Natural Cycles — a popular European birth control app that prevents pregnancy through the Fertility Awareness method.
If you’re all about the NuvaRing, but hate the headache of getting a new ring every one or three months, Annovera may be a great, longer-lasting upgrade for you!
While critics argue that the Fertility Awareness Method of tracking your fertile window and associated symptoms leaves too much up to chance and room for error (even with a fancy app), Natural Cycles reports a 93% effective rate with “typical use” — on par with birth control pills when accounting for human error. For the rapidly growing non-hormonal BC community, Natural Cycles is a great option and a win for contraceptive choice advocates who believe that women need both more access and better birth control options.
#9: Breast cancer research gets more preventive
While it sometimes can feel like the list of all-things-carcinogenic never stops growing, this year brought a bounty of good news in the form of easy lifestyle tweaks shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer. Adopting the Mediterranean diet was found to reduce breast cancer rates by 20%, while early-morning wake-up times were found to offset the risk by 40%. Though more research is needed to clarify the various underlying mechanisms, the findings provide easily actionable research for policymakers and everyday people alike.
#8: Femtech funding is at an all-time high
Five years ago, “fem” and “tech” were rarely in the same sentence, and global femtech funding had barely cracked $100 million total. This year, femtech funding is at an all-time high, with more than $400 million in venture dollars invested in companies that support women’s health — from period-tracking apps to smart breast pumps to new sexual wellness products. What’s more, analysts project the femtech market could be a $50 billion by 2025!
While it’s great that femtech companies (like yours truly!) are finally catching the eye of the venture community, we’ve still got many mountains to climb.
Two male-focused health companies (Hims and Roman) have raised nearly $200 million more financing than — more than any handful of femtech companies by a long shot, despite the fact that women control 80 percent of the U.S. healthcare dollars. Moreover, significant barriers to operating and growing a femtech business remain, with outdated morality clauses and newly adopted social media adult content bans meaning that apps aimed at the sexual wellness of women and non-binary people must contend with increased funding obstacles, payment processing bans, and digital and real-world ad censorship alike.
#7: Womb transplants went next-level
For the first time ever, a woman gave birth to a live, healthy baby after receiving a transplanted uterus from a deceased donor. While a reported 11 women had previously given birth via transplants from live donors, this breakthrough is expected to majorly boost the availability of viable organs for women who want to become pregnant, but lack a womb. This includes transgender woman, as well an estimated 1.5 million cisgender women worldwide who suffer from infertility due to uterine damage or congenital conditions. Bring on the babes!
#6: Abortion wars raged around the country and the world
Abortion rights continued to be eroded, with restrictive laws proposed (and some passing) in conservative states across the country from Iowa and Missouri to Kentucky and Indiana. Of particular note is Iowa’s “heartbeat” abortion bill, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically by the sixth week of pregnancy before many women even know they are pregnant. Additionally, this bill puts in place serious criminal penalties on doctors who perform the procedure after that time.
Our anti-choice administration’s impact was also felt abroad due to the Trump’s reimplementation of the global “gag rule” last year, which prohibits U.S. funds to international aid groups that perform or even discuss abortions. Meanwhile, various longstanding and emotional efforts came to a close, with Argentina’s Senate rejecting legalized abortion, while (in rare positive news) the Irish took to the polls to legalize abortion for the first time in its history.
#5: We turned “It’s All In Your Head” upside-down
Clinical gender bias took center stage this year, sparking important public conversations about women’s pain, misdiagnosis, and barriers to quality care. This must-read, tear-jerker New York Times Magazine piece explored why black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts. And Vogue’s cover story detailed Serena Williams life-threatening pregnancy, further highlighting the issue of systemic discrimination in the healthcare system.
Healthcare “gaslighting” really went mainstream with the Atlantic’s “The Doctor Won’t Listen To Her. But the Media is Starting To,” and diverse outlets from Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge to women’s medical mystery podcast Bodies featured stories of women fighting to have their undiagnosed medical crises taken seriously. Meanwhile, Feministing editor Maya Dusenbery penned an eye-opening history of clinical gender bias with her book “Doing Harm.”
#4: When our rights came under attack, we fought back in the midterm elections
This year was full of many political lows, and a domino effect of consequences for women and other minority groups. The federal budget proposal for 2019 aimed to gut Affordable Care Act funding, and Republicans threatened ACA tenets like preexisting condition protections that ensure women can’t be charged more than men. A leaked memo further revealed the Trump administration’s intent to classify “sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with” — a devastating blow to transgender anti-discrimination rights created by the ACA. And SESTA/FOSTA — two bills ostensibly aimed at regulating sex trafficking — seriously undermined the safety of consensual sex workers, causing many to relinquish personal control and turn to the streets in the wake of crackdowns on personal ad site like Backpage and Craigslist.
But, these blows only fueled us to take action… with a record number of women running and winning primaries — including a 75% increase in women of color nominees. This means more voices at the table on the local and national level, and a stronger fight for women’s rights in the 2020 election.
#3: Women’s rights took top honors at the Nobel Peace Prize
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize went to two individuals on two different continents fighting to end sexual violence against women: Dr. Denis Mukwege — a renowned surgeon who has dedicated his career to treating rape survivors the Democratic Republic of Congo — and Nadia Murad — a 25-year-old activist from the persecuted Yazidi religious minority in Iraq, who has fought to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.
In 2014, Murad and about 3,000 other Yazidi women were kidnapped and sold into sex slavery by ISIS. After three months, she managed to escape, and chose to speak openly about her experience — a bold decision which led her to be named the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. The Nobel Peace Prize committee praised Nadia’s “[refusal] to accept the social codes that require women to remain silent and ashamed of the abuses to which they have been subjected.”
#2: Michelle Obama opened up about her fertility struggles
In her memoir Becoming, the former first lady opened up about her struggle to conceive, including her miscarriage, helping to break taboos and spark an important dialogue around miscarriage, a painful and misunderstood subject that affects as many as one in five pregnancies.
Psychologists and grief counselors were quick to underscore the emotional toll incurred by women who, far too frequently, suffer their loss in silence, and all-too-often blame themselves, despite the fact that the majority of miscarriages are a result of genetic factors. Obama also chronicled her experience with IVF — a courageous effort to normalize infertility struggles, especially for black women, who are nearly twice as likely to experience infertility as white women.
#1: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testifies on sexual assault
And last but certainly not least, the revolutionary #MeToo movement that swept the world reached a dramatic climax with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault testimony against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Though the Senate ultimately voted to approve his nomination, Dr. Ford’s courageous, vulnerable, and quietly determined testimony made her a hero to millions, drawing critical attention to the backlash experienced by those brave enough to come forward, and empowering new generations of women to change the world with their stories.
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Cheers to a new year and to continuing to make waves, together, in women’s health.
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Tia is a next-gen women’s healthcare startup that builds products, tools and services to help every woman be her own patient advocate and get meaningfully better healthcare. Learn more about Tia at www.asktia.com and follow along our journey on Instagram.
