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Nelson Pill Hearings
In 1970, Barbara Seaman brought the dangers of combined oral contraceptive pill use to the attention of Senator Gaylord Nelson with her book ''The Doctors Case Against the Pill''. Nelson, who at the time was also busy organizing the first Earth Day, called Senate hearings in January 1970 to investigate the problems Seaman's book addressed—that many women experienced severe side effects such as decreased sex drive, weight gain, heart problems, blood clots, and depression, but did not know that oral contraceptives were the cause. Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, and other women who had been involved in abortion demonstrations, decided to attend the hearings on Capitol Hill. At the hearings, these women were struck by the complete absence of testimony from anyone who had actually taken the pill, as only men testified on the safety of the pill. During the proceedings, Wolfson jumped up and asked why no women were testifying. The media immediately turned its focus onto her. She de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Seaman
Barbara Seaman (September 11, 1935 – February 27, 2008) was an American author, feminist activist, and journalist, and a principal founder of the women's health movement. Early years Seaman, whose parents, Henry J. Rosner and Sophie Kimels, met at a Young People's Socialist League (1907) picnic, grew up in a politically progressive milieu. (Pete Seeger sang at her nursery school when she was four years old).''Personal Communication'', October 2007 When she was in high school, Seaman won a writing contest. The prize was dinner with Eleanor Roosevelt, according to a 1997 interview of Seaman by author/attorney Karen Winner. The death of her aunt Sally from endometrial cancer at age 49, in 1959, sensitized Seaman to women's health issues at an early age. Her aunt's oncologist attributed her death to Premarin, which her gynecologist had prescribed for the relief of menopausal symptoms. Writings and activism When the birth control pill came on the market in 1960, Barbara was w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill
The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be Oral administration, taken orally by women. It is the oral form of combined hormonal contraception. The pill contains two important hormones: a progestin (a synthetic form of the hormone progestogen / progesterone) and Estrogen (medication), estrogen (usually ethinylestradiol or Estradiol, 17β estradiol). When taken correctly, it alters the menstrual cycle to eliminate ovulation and prevent pregnancy. Combined oral contraceptive pills were first approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1960, and remain a very popular form of birth control. They are used by more than 100 million women worldwide including about 9 million women in the United States. From 2015 to 2017, 12.6% of women aged 15–49 in the US reported using combined oral contraceptive pills, making it the second most common method of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaylord Nelson
Gaylord Anton Nelson (June 4, 1916July 3, 2005) was an American politician from Wisconsin who served as a United States senator and governor. He was a member of the Democratic Party and the founder of Earth Day, which launched a new wave of environmental activism. Early life and education Nelson was born in 1916 in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, the son of Mary (Bradt), a nurse, and Anton Nelson, a country doctor. He had Norwegian and Irish ancestry. He grew up and was educated in the local public schools. In 1939, he received a bachelor's in political science at what is now San Jose State University in San Jose, California. In 1942, he received an LL.B. degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison and was admitted to the bar. He practiced as a lawyer before serving in the United States Army, during which time he saw action in the Okinawa campaign during World War II. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant. Politics In 1948, Nelson was elected to the Wisconsin S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth Day
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. In 1969 at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell (peace activist), John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the Spring (season)#Astronomical and solar reckoning, first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later, United States senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970, and hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the national coordinator. The name "Earth Day" wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Clots
A thrombus ( thrombi) is a solid or semisolid aggregate from constituents of the blood (platelets, fibrin, red blood cells, white blood cells) within the circulatory system during life. A blood clot is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis in or out of the circulatory system. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of cross-linked fibrin protein. The substance making up a thrombus is sometimes called cruor. A thrombus is a healthy response to injury intended to stop and prevent further bleeding, but can be harmful in thrombosis, when a clot obstructs blood flow through a healthy blood vessel in the circulatory system. In the microcirculation consisting of the very small and smallest blood vessels the capillaries, tiny thrombi known as microclots can obstruct the flow of blood in the capillaries. This can cause a number of problems particularly affecting the alveoli in the lungs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clinical Depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM-III), and has become widely used since. The disorder causes the second-most years lived with disability, after lower back pain. The diagnosis of major depressive disorder is based on the person's reported experiences, behavior reported by family or friends, and a mental status examination. There is no laboratory test for the disorder, but testing may be done to rule out physical conditions that can cause similar symptoms. The most common time of onset is in a person's 20s, with females affe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice Wolfson
Alice Wolfson is an American activist and attorney who specializes in women's health care. A Barnard College graduate and former Fulbright Scholar, she is a veteran political activist in women's reproductive health issues, a lawyer, and a co-founder of the National Women's Health Network. Activism Wolfson gained prominence for her role at the Nelson Pill Hearings on Capitol Hill, where she and other soon-to-be prominent health feminists were galvanized by their success at warning women of the Pill's dangerous side effects. Wolfson invited fellow feminist Barbara Seaman to testify at the hearings, and worked with her to eventually form the National Women's Health Network. Wolfson's activism is credited with opening up the FDA to consumer observers in order to better ensure that women's health would be addressed. Her efforts also led to the FDA requiring medication package inserts with birth control pills, the first ever prescription drug insert in the United States. In 1968 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnancies. Deliberate actions to end a pregnancy are called induced abortion, or less frequently "induced miscarriage". The unmodified word ''abortion'' generally refers to induced abortion. Common reasons for having an abortion are birth-timing and limiting family size. Other reasons include maternal health, an inability to afford a child, domestic violence, lack of support, feelings of being too young, wishing to complete an education or advance a career, or not being able or willing to raise a child conceived as a result of rape or incest. When done legally in industrialized societies, induced abortion is one of the safest procedures in medicine. Modern methods use medication or surgery for abortions. The drug mifepristone (aka RU-4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler (born October 1, 1940) is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She is a renowned second-wave feminist psychologist and the author of 18 books, including the best-sellers '' Women and Madness'' (1972), '' With Child: A Diary of Motherhood'' (1979), and ''An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir'' (2013). Chesler has written extensively about topics such as gender, mental illness, divorce and child custody, surrogacy, second-wave feminism, pornography, prostitution, incest, and violence against women. Chesler has written several works on subjects such as anti-Semitism, women in Islam, and honor killings. Chesler argues that many Western intellectuals, including leftists and feminists, have abandoned Western values in the name of multicultural relativism, and that this has led to an alliance with Islamists, an increase in anti-Semitism, and to the abandonment of Muslim women ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belita Cowan
Belita Cowan was a women's health activist during the 1960s and 1970s. She was born on June 1st, 1947, and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She worked part-time at the University Hospital while finishing her master's degree in English. Cowan started her research as a result of how horrified she was by the false advertising of the morning after pill. She was invited to present her research findings at the Senate hearing on DES in 1974. This made her the first women's health activist to ever testify as an expert witness. Early research and activism In 1969, when Cowan was working at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she began researching the effects of diethylstilbestrol (DES), which was also known as the "morning after" pill. The goal of her research was to look into the side effects that were caused by this drug. Many scientific articles that wrote about DES claimed that it was completely safe and effecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Howell
Mary Catherine Raugust Howell (September 2, 1932February 5, 1998) was a physician, psychologist, lawyer, mentor, musician and mother. She was the first woman dean at Harvard Medical School (1972–1975) and led the fight to end quotas and open medical schools to women. Biography Dr. Howell was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She attended Radcliffe College, and received an M.D. and PhD. in psychology in 1962 from the University of Minnesota, then received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991. Career and advocacy She was one of five co-founders in 1975 of the National Women's Health Network, along with Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, and Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., and a contributor to ''Our Bodies, Ourselves''. Her book, ''Why Would a Girl Go Into Medicine?'', started as a collection of the experiences of women medical students – documenting the flagrant discrimination against women – and became instrumental (in synch with the feminist movement) in helping to fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Women's Health Network
The National Women's Health Network (NWHN) was a non-profit women's health advocacy organization located in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1975 by Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, Mary Howell, and Phyllis Chesler. The stated mission of the organization was to give women a greater voice within the healthcare system. The NWHN researched and lobbied federal agencies on such issues as AIDS, reproductive rights, breast cancer, older women's health, and new contraceptive technologies. The Women's Health Voice, the NWHN's health information program, provided independent research on a variety of women's health topics. In December 2024, the NWHN sunset their operations and shut down after 50 years of advocating for women's health. History The NWHN was founded in late 1975 as the ''National Women's Health Lobby'' by Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, Mary Howell, and Phyllis Chesler. It was created to be both a lobbying organization and to monitor federal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
