The term “woman of childbearing ages” can be problematic in research and health advice

In the past two decades, more effort has been put into including people with ovaries or uteruses as part of clinical research. We still have a way to go. The US Environmental Protection Agency has stated that the official guidelines for how much mercury-containing seafood is safe for women of childbearing years can differ. In 2021, World Health Organization also used the same terminology to describe the people who should be the focus of policies aimed at reducing alcohol consumption. Cattapan says that the message to take away is that women should think about fetal wellbeing. Not the companies that produce these chemicals, or the regulatory agencies. Even men do not contribute to pregnancy. Women who are at risk of becoming pregnant, regardless if they want to or not. She says, “It places the responsibility for the future health of generations on women.” Women between the ages of 15 and 44 are usually included in “women with reproductive age”. The women at either end of the spectrum will have very distinct bodies, and very different health risks. The term does not include people who are able to become pregnant, but do not necessarily identify as women. For example, in the case of Zika, not all women aged between 15 and 44 should have taken precautions. Cattapan says that the travel advice did not apply to women who had undergone hysterectomy or those who hadn’t had sexual relations with men. She says that precision is important. In cases like this, more nuanced advice on health would be useful. She says that guidelines are often written as if they were for people who are assumed to be stupid. “I don’t think that needs to be the case.”

Another thingOn Thursday, president-elect Donald Trump said that he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. The news was not entirely a surprise, given that Trump had told an audience at a campaign rally that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health, “the foods,” and “the medicines.”

The role would give Kennedy some control over multiple agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medicines in the US, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which coordinates public health advice and programs.