the digital giraffe

All About Women

Our Woman of the Month Award for June, 2025, goes to the Statue of Liberty, a proud symbol of freedom currently residing in New York City. Let's hope that she is not arrested and sent to Guantanamo Bay for being born elsewhere.

Dr. Natalie Feldman, Board-Certified Psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and on staff at Harvard Medical School, has released a ground-breaking study on the symptoms and causes of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is often misdiagnosed as normal PMS. Dr. Feldman has identified shifts in hormones as the causative factor, revealed by having patients track their mood and menstrual cycle in a daily journal for 2 months. Dr. Feldman specializes in conditions related to the reproductive lifecycle (including menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and postpartum), as well as anxiety, depression, and OCD. This clinic is open to clients of any gender, and is an LGBTQ+ friendly practice. (1)

A decreased sense of smell has been identified as a marker for Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's. New studies indicate that restoring it could not only reduce the decline but reverse it as well. In fact, olfactory disfunction has been linked to over 100 conditions.

An all-female team has created a 3D-printed vest to help an injured Sea Turtle. Chestnut, the sea turtle, was hurt by a boat strike when she was young and has fought for more than 10 years against the results. She was found floating on the water's surface, unable to dive, swim, forage for food, or escape from predators. Although she can never return to the wild, the new vest allows her to have an improved quality of life.

A report from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reveals that a sharp increase in mortality occurs when a federally-funded prescription drug program is canceled. The program currently assists over 14 million low-income Medicare patients, mainly older Americans. When these vulnerable patients lost their Medicaid coverage, death rates were considerably higher, especially for those needing more expensive medications.

Many women have experienced the pain of in-office gynecological procedures like IUD insertions. Now the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is calling for an "urgent" need to change. Among the suggestions are stronger pain relievers, like a local lidocaine injection, rather than ibuprofen. The discussion includes upfront conversations with patients to explain the options, and the efficacy of lidocaine cream and spray.

When the Talban took over Afghanistan in 2021, 150 women were able to escape on a civilian flight from Kabul, not knowing that they were headed to the United States. Now 6 of them are graduating at Cornell University. 5 of the 6 are planning to continue advanced degrees.

Discussions are taking place in the design and architecture fields about how to make safer spaces for women and girls. Most of the talk centers on lighting, but one journalist points out that the problem is far deeper and embedded in the culture. In 2023, for example, in the U.K., only 31% of architects were female, with a 16% gap in the hourly wages between men's and women's hourly pay. Architects appear to suffer higher amounts of sexual misconduct and discrimination than other professions world wide. As the author writes, "violence against women and girls isn't just a design problem".

Bill Gates writes about a new synthetic therapy that can be administered through a nebulizer that can save babies born with respratory distress syndrome (RDS). The disorder shows up within hours of birth in premature babies. Currently a life-saving procedure is available but it can cost up to $20,000. USD and requires a highly-trained specialist to administer it. According to Gates, the new nebulizer being developed by the Gates Foundation is easier to administer and will cost sigificantly less. Apparently 2.3 million newborns don't live past their first 28 days worldwide. Another innovation in the works is a new kind of ultrasound the size of a phone that can be administered by a nurse or midwife. The device weighs less than a pound and can instantly process scans.

NPR discusses symptoms of perimenopause and when treatment might be necessary. The symptoms are similar to normal troubles of midlife and include mood swings, memory loss, hot flashes, fatigue, anger, itchy ears hair thinning. weight gain, depression, night sweats and incontinence. Perimenopause can be difficult to identify and may require a medical specialist in order to distinguish it from the aging process itself. A group called the Menopause Society may also be able to help.

Recent actions by the government seem to be an attempt to write women out of history. It appears that names, faces, and accomplishments of women on federal websites have now become broken links or blank pages. At the same time, women are being eliminated from essential leadership roles. Some agencies, like the National Institutes of Health, have been urged to eliminate words like feminism, female, and women. Censorship and invisibility serve to erase role models from young people and has been called "an act of violence that is very subtle but can really destroy the psychology of people".

The sport of racing has typically been associated with men, but now more and more women are embracing it. The playing field is fairly inexpensive, cars don't care who is driving them, talent is gender neutral. If objections occur, they come from a cultural bias that shows up in hatred, but organizations like Women in Motorsports North America are working to eliminate these prejudices.

It has been discovered that female bonobos rule by using gangs. This process seems to give the females higher status and strength in dealing with with larger and stronger males, and differs from the male-dominated norms in most other apes. Chimpanzees, for example, share 99.6 of their DNA with Bonobos, yet the Chimps have a male-driven hierarchy. The female Bonobos studied could get pretty vicious when necessary. One explanation for the female dominance in Bonobos speculates that the these mothers strongly guide their sons' social lives, even standing guard while their sons mate.

Ms. Magazine has published the names of organizations that boast of supporting women's and children's welfare but in fact have publicly supported the House budget bill that devastates many programs dedicated to ending hunger. You may (or may not) be surprised at the names here.

(1)Dr. Feldman is my granddaughter.
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Last updated June 1, 2025 - 31 years of monthly Web publication

Corinne Whitaker - Artist, Editor, Author, Poet, Sculptor, Publisher, Composer, Betaphysician, Chief of the Newanderthal Tribe

Best of Foster City 2016
Best of Palo Alto 2013

Golden Web Award, 2001 and 2000

Artist of the Month, Artisan Bazaar, 2000

Best in Cyberart Award, 1999

winner of BATech's "Catch of the Day"

winner of Fractal Design's "Artist of the Month"and "Image of the Day"

Featured Master Artist, Shadowart Galleries, 1997 and 1998

Guest Artist of the Month, Hampton Click Salon Online
Exhibit below from Virtual Gallery online