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The Women's Health Blog Turns One!

In April the Women’s Health Blog had it’s first birthday and we’re proud of our accomplishments. Read this announcement to see an overview of topics we’ve covered, how many readers we engaged and where we’re heading next. Thank you to Arrthy Thayaparan and Alex Lukey for being the driving force behind this project.

Women's Health Seminar Series

April also marked the end of our second Women’s Health Seminar Series. Click here to read about where our viewers are from, how this series represents our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and who received a certificate for attending 90% of the seminars!

She’s a registered nurse, she’s a PhD student and she works tirelessly in under-resourced facilities in Ghana to improve the health of women in rural communities. Click here to read about Eunice’s journey as a healthcare provider and academic.

“The medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth has led to significant innovations in care. It has also problematized the experience in ways that privilege medical expertise and suppress pregnant people’s agency.” Read on to learn how anxiety and depression are addressed with pregnant people.

“There is a host of factors that influence if exposure therapy will benefit an individual. One aspect that might be highly relevant for women is the level of sex hormones at the time of treatment.” Click to learn more about this research.

It is National Nursing Week and our World Health Day blog couldn’t be more relevant. Read about the personal experiences of several nurses throughout the pandemic. We want to give a big shout out to our Blog Co-Coordinator Alex Lukey who is completing a MSc in Nursing while also practicing as a Registered Nurse every week. Thank you for your dedication and care.

May 17: Hot Topics Symposium



The last symposium in our Women’s Brain Health Virtual Conference Series will take place next Monday from 9-10:45 am PDT. Register to hear four speakers discuss the impact of birth control on the brain, the effects of estrogen on memory and menopause, the relationship between postpartum estrogen withdrawal and anxiety, and how to incorporate intersectionality in the Allostatic Load Model. Read more. 

Funding

Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund

The Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund (IPRF) is an Indigenous-led effort to respond to urgent community needs while taking a long-term view on building community resilience. Any Indigenous-led organization working to foster resilience in Inuit, Metis and First Nations communities anywhere in Canada can apply for resiliency support ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. The fund is open for monthly intakes. Read more. 

AI for Humanitarian Action 

Microsoft created this funding program to address global humanitarian issues by providing funding for organizations, institutions and labs that develop AI solutions in four focus areas including the needs of women and children. Projects that improve operational efficiency, enable new capabilities, increase beneficiary engagement, or involve rich data analysis for classification and prediction modeling could receive up to $300K of products and support from Microsoft. Due May 31st. Read more. 

Stars in Global Health

The Stars program is seeking bold ideas that will improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, adolescents, children and LGBTQI+ people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The bold ideas are expected to improve the access, use and quality of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education and services and to be resilient to pandemic control measures like those introduced to control COVID-19. 100K/project. Due June 3rd. Read more.

Discovery Horizon Grants

NSERC announced the official launch of the Discovery Horizons grants. The objective of this pilot funding opportunity is to support investigator-initiated individual and team Discovery research projects that broadly integrate or transcend disciplines to advance knowledge in the natural sciences and engineering (NSE). Letter of Intent due June 15. Read more.

Job Market

BC Women's Health Foundation
If you’re looking for a senior-level position that will allow you to oversee public education and awareness projects, you should check this job out. Applications will be accepted until the role is filled. 
 

University of Colorado

The Centre for Women’s Health Research and the Department of Psychiatry are looking for an Associate Professor or Full Professor to become the Director of Research for the Colorado Women’s Behavioral Wellness unit in the Department of Psychiatry. The incumbent will receive 2M as an endowed Chair in Women’s Integrated Mental and Physical Health. Read more. 

Research

Journal of Women’s Health special issue on Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

Stop 'controlling' for sex and gender in global health research (Shapiro, Klein & Morgan, 2021)

Moving beyond “algorithmic bias is a data problem” (Hooker, 2021)

Inadequate reporting of COVID-19 clinical studies: A renewed rationale for the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines (Palmer, Ross, Ovseiko & Heidari, 2021)

News

The Canadian Federal Government takes steps towards supporting women better. (Government of Canada)

How a COVID-19 vaccine can (and cannot) affect menstruation, mammograms and more (CBC)

They Call it a ‘Women’s Disease’. She Wants to Redefine it.  (New York Times)

Report Watch

Resetting Normal: Gender, Intersectionality and Leadership

“...there continues to be an important gender gap in leadership at all levels of government in many countries. There is also an increasing backlash and, in some cases, trends are reversing. There are fewer women heads of government today than there were five years ago: 10 out of 193 countries, down from 15 in 2014 (UNDP, 2020, p.1).”—Canadian Women’s Foundation and Platform. Read more
 

In Her Circle

The BC Women’s Health Foundation recently released this report, which tells stories about Indigenous women’s experiences with healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and outlines promising practices for improved health experiences.

Award Winner

One of our Cluster Co-Leads, Dr. Suzanne Campbell, was recently named an Open Educational Resource Champion for her efforts to develop an open educational resource for lactation education.
 

Award Winner

Danica Chang, a MSc student at the University of Calgary, received a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarships Masters Award to continue her work on reproductive care of young women with chronic kidney disease. Way to go!

Video: Sex, Gender and Sexual Orientation in Stress Research 

Dr. Robert-Paul Juster from the University of Montreal published his first YouTube video, which focuses on cortisol, allostatic load, and mental health.

PCOS Publication

Dr. Kendall Soucie recently co-authored a paper entitled “The Diagnostic Experience of Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) in Ontario, Canada”. Soucie and colleagues found that Canadian women with PCOS experience lengthy diagnosis timelines, recount recurring dismissive encounters with medical providers, and are concerned about the impact of PCOS on their future.

We’d like to formally welcome the following new members to our cluster. We’re happy to have you working alongside us to support women’s health!

• Magdalena Martínez-García, PhD student at the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón of Madrid (Spain)

• Bhairavi Warke, PhD student at Simon Fraser University (Canada) 

• Stephanie Koebele, PDF at Arizona University (USA)

• Nesma Hashem, Professional working at Health Canada (Canada)

• Farah Dehmouni, Founder of IAMENO. (UK)

• Emily Kamma, PhD student at the University of British Columbia (Canada)

• Dr. Alexandra Ycaza Herrera, Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California (USA)

• Mya Johnson, undergraduate student at Carleton University (Canada)

• Raneen Abdul-Rahman, Masters student at the University of Calgary (Canada)

• Safra Malik, undergraduate student at Carleton University (Canada)

• Emily McKay, Masters student at the University of British Columbia (Canada)

• Brianna Bristow, Lab Technician at the University of British Columbia (Canada)

• Romina Garcia de leon, Masters student at the University of British Columbia (Canada)

If you feel passionate about the work we are doing and are in a position to give, consider making a one-time or monthly donation. 100% of proceeds will be used to promote women’s health research across public, government and academic domains.