5 New Studies That Could Transform Women’s Health In The Years Ahead
In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting a few impactful examples of female-focused research from the last few months, complete with insights from our science and health team. Here’s to getting one step closer to discovering why women experience increased rates of autoimmune disorders, sleep disturbances, and more—and how we can change this in the future.
1- PMS symptoms are not benign. They’re linked to early menopause.
We’re often told that PMS symptoms just “come with the territory” of having a period. But a recently published study in JAMA Network shows they can have reverberating consequences throughout a woman’s lifetime. The study found that women with symptoms of premenstrual disorders tend to reach menopause about a year earlier than those who don’t. Their menopause symptoms—from hot flashes to changes in mood—also tend to be more severe.
As mindbodygreen’s assistant health editor Hannah Frye reports, “While researchers don’t have an explanation for the correlation just yet, it could have something to do with preexisting hormone levels or imbalances in women, given that PMS is believed to be caused by a dramatic drop in estrogen and progesterone… [It’s] critical for health care providers to take PMS symptoms seriously and consider working toward hormonal balance to address the root cause rather than just alleviating symptoms for the time being.”
2- Eight in 10 autoimmune disease cases are in women — and we’re getting closer to understanding why.
Autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, and multiple sclerosis disproportionately affect women, and nearly eight in 10 cases are in those assigned female at birth. Last month, researchers at Stanford School of Medicine got closer to untangling why—and it comes down to the XX chromosome.
Since women have two X chromosomes, as our bodies develop, we essentially need to “shut down” the cellular activity of one X chromosome to prevent overproducing certain proteins. Researchers found that RNA that regulates this process may be an important driver of sex-biased autoimmunity. (It’s worth noting that we are just learning this now because, for several decades, researchers used a male cell line as the standard of reference in autoimmune susceptibility.) This is a potentially groundbreaking finding, as it could improve our ability to predict autoimmune disorders—currently affecting 19 to 40 million women in America—before they occur.
3- We desperately need more sports & exercise focused on (and conducted by) women.
Women are severely underrepresented in sports and exercise research, and most of the studies that do focus on women are senior authored by men. (Sigh.) A new analysis, “Invisible Sportswomen 2.0,” digs into the urgent need for more sports research by women for women. It reiterated that between 2014 and 2020, as little as 6% of sports and exercise science research in the most popular journals was conducted exclusively in female participants. It also found the women’s sports studies that did have women authors tended to be of higher quality across all journals.
4-These two vitamin deficiencies are wrecking women’s sleep.
Women are more likely to suffer from sleep issues like insomnia than men, and new research suggests that vitamin deficiencies could be partially to blame. Research in nearly 10,000 adult women (20-49 years old) found that 20% of those surveyed had iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia, aka low iron and hemoglobin levels. (The blood loss during menstruation makes iron deficiency way more common in women.) Women who had these deficiencies were nearly twice as likely to have poor sleep quality as those who did not. Those who had insufficient or deficient vitamin D levels were also 22-26% more likely to sleep less.
This research on the unseen factors affecting sleep suggests that something as simple as upping vitamin D and iron intake could help premenopausal women achieve more restorative rest.
5 – Bundle up: Cold plunging might have bonus benefits for pre- and post-menopausal women.
When over 1,000 women in the UK filled out a survey on the benefits of their cold-water swimming routines, the majority of them (63.3%) reported that they swam specifically to relieve period or menopause symptoms. Menopausal women noted improvements in anxiety (46.9%), mood swings (34.5%), low mood (31.1%), and hot flashes (30.3%) after a chilly dip, while premenopausal women said swimming reduced menstrual symptoms like anxiety (46.7%), mood swings (37.7%), and irritability (37.6%). Cold plunging often has a macho biohacking connotation, but this research shows the unique ways women can benefit from braving freezing temps, too, both mentally and physically.
Editor’s note
When we refer to women in this article, we refer to those assigned female at birth (AFAB). The health-related correlations are exclusive to hormonal and chromosomal differences, not gender identity or expression.
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/international-womens-day-womens-health-news
mbg Sustainability + Health Director
By: Emma Loewe
Image by Susana Ramírez