The Gyno Gazette

Gunter's Greatest Menopause Hits in 13 Minutes, Abortion on the Line in Canada, and More.

Here’s a rundown of some things I’ve been doing and information that might interest you. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that. Think is Jeopardy! style potpourri, not dried petals, and spices. 

Dr. Jen Plus The Big Think

I am so pleased with this video, The Science of Menopause in 13 minutes, that I did in collaboration with the folks at The Big Think. It received a lot of positive feedback on social media, so I thought I should also share it here. Different people absorb information in a variety of ways–deep dives are great, sometimes fast facts do the job, and other times, the video format is Queen. If you enjoy this, please share it with your friends. 

Twitter’s Gynecologist Calls It a Day

I’ve been actively debunking health misinformation on Twitter since 2010. I know! Yikes, 14 years is a long time, but all good things, as they say. At one point, Twitter was like the best cocktail party in the world! In less than 10 minutes, you could get into a deep conversation about reproductive rights, ask what “fan” means in a UK recipe, admire some art, catch the breaking news, and delight in experts discussing the nesting habits of Western Barn owls. It was a magnificent public square. While there were trolls, the good far outweighed the bad, and I made some amazing friends. 

And then, an awful person bought the venue and started playing music that drowned out the good conversations while giving microphones to ogres, fascists, and racists. Like many, I hung on thinking people needed a beacon and a place, but it became clear that the stench of musk had become so thick that no light or facts or common sense could penetrate that pollution. And so, on November 10, 2024, after seeing yet another venom-filled threatening tweet, I sent out my last. What was this tweet that pushed me over the edge on which I had been teetering (tweetering?)? Was it a real, live, disgusting human or a bot? It really didn’t matter because Twitter had de-evolved so much that the two were indistinguishable, much like the pigs and humans in Animal Farm (which, by the way, I encourage everyone to re-read because we are not living Orwell’s 1984, we are living Animal Farm, in fact, we’ve been dropped at the point in the story where Napoleon has driven Snowball away). 

As a reader of The Vajenda, you are not missing out on anything by my absence from Twitter; I post all my best content here! But if you are interested in my on-the-fly response to articles, random baking photos, and other spur-of-the-moment musings, you can find me over on Bluesky @drjengunter.bksy.social. I am committed to more posts with a newsletter feel here at The Vajenda, like this one, where each topic is limited to a paragraph or two, so I get more info to you, and you then don’t have to worry about missing any valuable content I may be posting on social media. Hence, the title of this post is the GYNO Gazette.

ConsumerLab.com Does Not Recommend Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s Supplements

I get asked a lot about Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s supplements, and apparently, so does ConsumerLab.com. They did not analyze her products, but they didn’t need to as her supplements are significantly overpriced and, based on the labeling, have no verifiable third-party testing for purity or dosing (despite her claims of transparency). One of her supplements contains vitamin K, which ConsumerLab.com said: “Most people don’t need to take.” In addition, her vitamin D supplement is likely too high a dose and could pose safety concerns. If you believe Dr. Haver’s supplement schtick, then you can get better products elsewhere that have been verified by a third party, are in more appropriate doses, and are for far less money. However, I would advise caution in taking advice from Dr. Haver about supplements as that is no different than Pfizer dispensing advice about one of their pharmaceuticals, like Duavee (although in Pfizer’s defense, their product has been adequately studied on humans in peer-reviewed literature, is FDA-approved, and recommended by leading menopause societies, whereas Dr. Haver products are not and her “research” reveals a fondness for rat studies). 

You can find the ConsumerLabs.com report here. 

Creepy Dr. Fischbein Brags About Being Nominated for the Make American Healthy Again Campaign

Hmmm, you are thinking, that creepy AF dude looks familiar? If you are a reader of The Vajenda, you may have read my piece about him from last year (click here). He is the OB/GYN who started grooming a patient while she was recovering in the hospital from major endometriosis surgery that he performed. Then, 12 days after the surgery, he went to her house and had sex with her. And then went back three days later to have sex with her again. He was appropriately reported to the Medical Board of California and put on probation for seven years. He completed a course that was supposed to help him learn things like it’s bad to have sex with a patient. He petitioned to get his probation lifted sooner but was unsuccessful as the Medical Board was aware that he tried to make a film called Bedside Man, painting himself as the victim. Yes, you read that correctly, and no, there are not enough vomit emojis. What could possibly go wrong with this miscreant getting involved with the Department of Health and Human Services? 

If you look at the list of people who have been nominated, it’s a veritable Who’s Who of medical misinformation and conspiracy theorists, such as Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, Dr. Christiane Northrup, and Dr. Simone Gold. Sadly, Dr. Creepy AF received a lot of votes. Oh yeah, he is also anti-vaccine. 

Seriously though, if you are due for any vaccines, get them now. 

My Book, Blood, is Nominated for the Goodreads 2024 Reader’s Choice Awards 

Some good news.

This was a complete, but very welcome, surprise. Blood: the Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation is a comprehensive and evidence-based guide to all things menstrual, and books like this typically don’t get nominated. If you would like to vote, the link is here. It’s wonderful to see books about women’s health making it onto lists like these, and even getting nominated means more people will see it.

Considering how reproductive health is currently under attack, now, more than ever, we all need to be informed. The book also has detailed information on being careful of your digital footprint with menstrual tracking apps, post-coital contraception, and abortion, and this could be especially relevant for people who want this information but who don’t want to look it up online. It’s also going to be available as a Black Friday Deal on Amazon from November 29-Dec 2, so you should be able to pick it up then on sale!

Canada: You Are One Bad Election Away from Losing Reproductive Rights

Never has it been more important to have accurate information about your body and about politics because, let’s face it, many politicians are obsessed with controlling the uterus. I believe that forced birth legislation is an early sign of fascism because it means that those who can get pregnant will have fewer human rights and need to be controlled by the government. When politicians see that the populace accepts restricting the rights of one group, it gets easier to target the next. And the next. Also, hating women gets votes.  

In Canada, we are seeing the same warning signs that were evident here in the United States. The Conservative Party of Canada is following the Trump/MAGA playbook and has a platform to erode abortion rights. In addition, they want to dismantle the free press (the CBC is the most trusted news source in Canada, so it is a major threat to fascism, which needs chaos and disinformation, so the Conservative party is itching to replace the CBC with American billionaire-run media) and bring in the Robber Barons. I will be writing more about what could happen in Canada should the Conservative Party be elected so people are informed and, hopefully, they can mobilize. 

Did you know that the Liberal Party requires that anyone standing for election in the party must be pro-choice? This means all of the Liberal caucus is pro-choice. In contrast, clause 10 of the Conservative Party of Canada policy document (see below) allows Conservative MPs free votes on abortion. They pass this off as if they are enabling their MPs the freedom to choose to vote their conscience when it is, in actuality, a strategy to hide the fact that the majority of conservative MPs are hypocritically forced birth. With the Conservatives, it’s choice for me and not for thee. Fuckers. 

Living through the attack on reproductive rights in the United States has sadly provided me with a lot of insight into the playbook about what is in store for Canada and what is at stake. It’s my ethical duty to speak up. Don’t let me be an abortion Cassandra (a Trojan priestess fated to utter true prophecies, but when she turned down advances from the God Apollo, he cursed her so that no one would believe her).   

In my lifetime, abortion in Canada has gone from being illegal to being restricted and only available with the approval of a three-member panel to not being in the criminal code, i.e., simply a medical procedure. I still remember riding my 10-speed bike when I was 16 years old in Winnipeg in 1983 to picket for abortion rights, incensed that three strangers could decide what I did with my body, and I remember the absolute joy when the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the law in 1988.

I will not see it go backward. 

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