| | | | “They have a full hand right now. They know they won't for long, so they might just play it,” executive director at Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law Jennifer Weiss-Wolf said on a recent call.
Weiss-Wolf was referring to the Republican approach to the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which has played a vital role in supporting reproductive health, menopause research and preventive care for women across the country. Just a week after the election, uncertainty is already swirling around the future of this initiative under another Trump administration.
With the administration’s policies expected to shift toward abortion restrictions, immigration and the economy, many advocates—including Weiss-Wolf—worry that women’s health programs could see their budgets slashed or their focus redirected.
“This is an administration that will have zero guardrails [since there is now a Republican majority in Congress]," Weiss-Wolf says. “They have no reason to cater to anything but their agenda, other than the fact they have to be elected again in two years.”
For programs like the White House Initiative on Women’s Health, it’s unclear whether advocates and healthcare leaders will be able to protect and preserve critical women’s health resources. The coming months could decide the future of health access for millions of women across the country, especially those navigating the challenges of menopause.
While Weiss-Wolf says she’s concerned, she’s also optimistic that Republicans might overlook the initiative, as she believes it’s relatively low on their list of priorities. Either way, these are certainly unprecedented times to navigate in women’s health policy, with every decision potentially shaping the future of healthcare access and equity for women across the country. |
| Meet the Neuroscientist Redefining Women's Brain Health Dr. Jennifer Garrison is shifting the focus from merely extending lifespan to promoting healthy aging. She believes that by targeting the fundamental processes of aging, we can tackle multiple age-related disorders at once—a transformative approach to health.
Her research zeros in on neuropeptides, vital amino acids that influence changes in both normal and aging brains. Originally inspired to find a cure for AIDS, Garrison discovered her true passion in neuroscience, where she now explores the brain’s complex circuits and behavior. As co-founder of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality, she’s driving breakthroughs in reproductive and brain health.
In this edition of the newsletter, Garrison shares what inspires her and her vision for the future of neuroscience—especially for women. |
What inspired you to address reproductive aging specifically, and how does this issue intersect with broader questions of gender equality and lifespan? I'd like to begin with an important paradigm shift: we need to move beyond the reductive term 'reproductive organs' when discussing ovaries. These are sophisticated endocrine organs that orchestrate health at every age—I call them the architects of health in female bodies. The narrow ‘reproductive’ terminology has led to viewing women's health primarily through the lens of fertility, when in reality, we're talking about the fundamental well-being of half the population.
Our work on ovarian aging began quite unexpectedly. While studying how the brain uses 'WiFi' signals to communicate with different organs to influence aging, we discovered that ovaries were key players in this conversation. As it turns out, females experience shorter health spans than males, primarily because ovaries age faster than other organs. This raises compelling questions: What's driving this accelerated aging? What are the underlying mechanisms?
Here's why this matters so much: if we're truly committed to advancing healthy longevity in humans, we need to understand and address ovarian aging. It's not just about reproduction—it's about ensuring women have the same opportunity for a long, healthy life as everyone else. This work really sits at the intersection of gender equity in healthcare, longevity research and our fundamental understanding of aging.
If you could give people a “superpower” related to reproductive longevity and aging, what would it be, and why? The superpower would be to simply sync up aging in ovaries with aging in the rest of the female body to extend health span. See above!
Fast forward 20 years—what’s something you hope brain science has achieved by then? Any wild or exciting predictions for how our understanding of neuropeptides and aging might change? Looking ahead 20 years, my greatest hope centers on unlocking what I'd call the brain's second map. While we've made remarkable progress in mapping the physical architecture of the brain—the 'connectome' that shows us how neurons are physically wired together—there's an equally crucial but less understood dimension: the biochemical map of neuromodulators.
Think of it this way: if the connectome is like a city's road network, then neuromodulators are like the traffic control systems that can completely transform how that network functions, without changing any of the roads themselves. This biochemical layer operates orthogonally to the anatomical structure, essentially creating a parallel map that can dynamically alter neural circuit function without changing the physical architecture. Neuropeptides are the most abundant and most diverse class of neuromodulators, so they play a critical role in this dimension.
What makes this particularly exciting is that understanding the interplay between these two maps—the physical and the biochemical—would represent a quantum leap in our comprehension of brain function. It's not enough to know the roads; we need to understand the rules and signals that govern the flow of information along them. In 20 years, I hope we'll have deciphered this intricate dance between structure and chemistry, giving us a complete picture of how our brains truly operate.
How do you find flow? I remove distraction and noise, even if that means wearing headphones or earplugs, and close my eyes. I take a deep breath and then another deep breath, and as I do, I imagine energy flowing up through my feet and out through the top of my head. Then, I think about how what I’m about to do is the most important thing that I could possibly do right now, and I open my eyes and… Begin. |
Managing Stress During Times of Uncertainty Stress is an unavoidable part of life, but chronic stress—feeling constantly on edge—can lead to a host of health problems. In the current divisive political climate, many people might feel heightened stress, making it more important than ever to manage it effectively.
Stress, after all, has always served a purpose: it helped our ancestors make quick decisions in dangerous situations by triggering the body’s fight-or-flight response. Yet research shows that stress affects women and men differently, with unique impacts on women’s health and well-being.
What’s even more interesting, two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are postmenopausal women, and new evidence suggests that chronic stress might be a risk factor. |
SHOPPING these ultra-comfy "barefoot shoes" that TikTok creators are calling “life-changing.” Designed to mimic the feeling of walking barefoot, these shoes have a unique shape that promotes natural movement. They’re also crafted to support good posture, encouraging a healthier walking style. READING a new study from the Menopause Society that examines the link between women entering menopause later in life and an increased risk of developing asthma.
CELEBRATING the recent amendments passed in the 2024 election which protects women’s health across the country. In New York, Proposition 1 was passed to safeguard individuals against unequal treatment based on reproductive healthcare choices and personal autonomy. Meanwhile, Colorado’s Amendment 79 expanded the right to abortion and broadened access to health insurance coverage for reproductive services.
ANTICIPATING the release of Apple's free Hearing Aid software, which received a green light from the FDA last month and effectively can turn Apple's AirPods Pro 2 earbuds into hearing aids for those with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Research shows that hearing aid use slows the risk of cognitive decline, yet only 16% of adults aged 20 to 69 who could benefit from hearing aids have ever used them. That number could drastically change in just a few weeks for iPhone users with iOS 18 or later. Talk about a chic and discreet innovation.
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