Finish the year strong
After much gratitude and too much turkey and mashed potatoes, we’re back to wrap up a busy November and make the most out of the remainder of 2022.
One of the things Maggie is doing in December is taking a workshop in storytelling. You can read more about Masterful Storytelling in the Spotlight section below. Telling our personal journeys is core to the Eve Was Framed mission. We've seen firsthand when a well-told story about a woman's health is a transformative experience - we learn, we feel less alone, and we are more empowered.
Even more exciting than Maggie taking this workshop is you can join her using a discount code EWF25, which gets Eve Was Framed community 25% off the price of the course!
Looking forward to sharing this end-of-year season with you and continuing to share the health in 2023.
- Maggie Ruvoldt & Stephanie Majercik
P.S. Remember The Fall 2022 Eve Was Framed Swag giveaway is going on until December 18th. Share your unique code at the end of this email and you’ll get entry points for one of our three swag packages.
The Tasting Menu
Healthy Skin Month: Will My Acne Ever Go Away?
Family Building Through Adoption
Product Review: Embr Wave 2 Hot Flash Device
Will My Acne Ever Go Away?
To wrap up Healthy Skin Month, we wanted to cover one of the skin’s most frustrating conditions: acne. For many people, it’s the gift that keeps on giving – AKA it never seems to fully go away, rearing it’s ugly head at all times throughout our lives.
At its most basic level, acne happens when hair follicles underneath the skin become clogged due to the build-up of excess oil, dead skin, and/or bacteria in your pores. It can manifest on the skin in several different ways: from whiteheads and blackheads to pustules and nodules which are deep, painful lesions. There are also certain factors that can make you higher risk of developing acne:
Hormones - increase in androgens (male hormones), hormone fluctuations around your menstrual cycle or pregnancy can lead to acne
Family history of acne
Medications - certain medications, like corticosteroids, are believed to cause acne
Age - most common in teens but it can affect people of all ages
Keeping adult acne at bay
When Stephanie was a teen, she believed that her acne would magically disappear at the age of 17 when puberty was finally over. “Unfortunately for me, that’s when it started to get even worse. I developed severe cystic acne that I fought for years to get under control.”
Even women lucky enough to have escaped puberty without acne have experienced breakouts as they’ve entered their 20s and 30s. And unsurprisingly, women tend to experience adult acne more than men due to the hormone fluctuations we experience during our reproductive years.
Unfortunately, acne won’t go away unless the underlying causes are treated. This article indicates that 26% of 40-year-olds and 12% of 50-year-olds still experience acne. And most females who suffer from adult acne struggle with it from adolescence into adulthood.
Some common ways to help keep acne under control:
Oral contraceptives help keep hormone levels balanced and can keep flare-ups at bay
Washing your face twice a day (and after you sweat), and don’t go to bed with makeup on
Topical treatments like salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide
Examine your diet. Harvard reports that studies have indicated a link between dairy products and increased risk of acne among other foods as one example
If your acne is more severe or troublesome, a dermatologist may prescribe other medications and treatments to target those root causes and prevent it for good.
Family Building Through Adoption
We talk much about fertility journeys but have yet to talk about building a family through adoption. What better way to honor National Adoption month (November) than to remind us all how wonderful building a family through adoption can be?
While considering all of your options for creating a family, there are many reasons to make adoption part of the conversation. For some, the road to conception and a healthy full-term pregnancy can be too difficult, too expensive, or simply not the right decision. For others, building a family through adoption has always been part of their hopes. The adoption path has different options and choices to explore:
Foster-to-adopt
Adopting an infant
International adoption
Adopt a relative
Open or closed adoption
Just as people on fertility journeys benefit from mental health support, so do adoptive families. A research study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found specific training for adoption competency created better outcomes. There are mental health professionals who specialize in supporting the adoption and foster care community.
If you are interested in learning more about adoption, here are some resources for you:
If you have someone in your life who is part of a family built through adoption, here are some tips for supporting them:
What to say and what not to say to adoptive parents - This one goes for the children too.
8 Things Not to Say to Adoptive Parents
8 Things You Should Never Say to an Adopted Child
And yes, people say these things - just ask Maggie!
Product Review: Embr Wave 2 Hot Flash Device
We’re excited to share our first product review with you!
After breaking down the hot flash in a recent edition of this newsletter, we are bringing you our first product review. The Embr Wave 2, claims to help manage hot flashes.
Maggie heard about Embr Wave 2, a wearable device for hot flash relief, at a conference at the end of September. It’s worn on the inside of the wrist and delivers waves of cooling or warming.
She tried it out and would recommend it to anyone looking for quick relief from hot flashes, help with temperature regulation during sleep, and general temperature regulation.
It’s easy to use and has an app (Apple and Android) that allows you to personalize the cooling and heating sessions. There are preset sessions and you can track your use to gain insights.
On the downside, it’s pricey and the device is a little big.
Comedonal acne
What do blackheads and whiteheads have in common? They are both forms of comedonal acne. The difference between them is whether or not they have open or closed comedones.
A comedone is an acne papule (a solid or cystic small raised spot on your skin). When in the normal process of shedding skin cells to make room for new growth, the cells get trapped and block a hair follicle. That is the start of comedonal acne.
The future looks bright with these teens setting up a period product pantry program (that’s a lot of alliteration) and helping their communities (from The Washington Post)
The UK has fast-tracked a new drug to battle pre-eclampsia. We look forward to tracking it’s progress. (from The Guardian)
There are 34 known symptoms of menopause. Can you name them all? You don’t have to because this article does. (from Hello Bonafide)