by Brianna Dean
I got my first period when I was ten; by age 12 I spent several days a month hunched over, bleeding, and crying in pain. The gynecologist I went to told me I may have endometriosis, brushed off the pain as “normal” and recommended that I take birth control pills to regulate my period. I thought being on birth control at 12 was normal. It wasn’t until a few conversations with my friends, and the extreme concern expressed by my mother, that I became aware that it was in fact not normal.
Looking back at that experience, I find myself not only angry at the lack of care I received from my provider but how I didn't know how to advocate for myself. Ten years later when I am talking to my new OB-GYN about my cycle and various physical symptoms I’ve been experiencing, she responded with a question “Do you think you have PCOS?” I didn’t know what that was. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome occurs when ovaries form numerous cysts and overproduce androgens. I didn’t end up having PCOS, but I have met several Black Women who were battling this disease with little to no medical intervention from their OB-GYNs. It was eye-opening when actress/singer Keke Palmer posted on Instagram that she had done her own research and advocated for herself to receive a diagnosis of PCOS, which explained her adult acne and excessive facial hair.
In order to receive the care, Black Women and other women of color have to learn how to advocate for ourselves.
According to the National Institute of Health, approximately 5 million women have PCOS. Black Women are disproportionately affected by this disease, but half of PCOS cases in Black Women go undiagnosed for years. Blogger Ore Ogunbiyi wrote that it took her five appointments and nine months before she was diagnosed with PCOS. Of her doctors, Ore says, “They trivialized my pain”.
A feeling Black Women alike know far too well. Research posits that Black Americans have been historically undertreated due to the false beliefs that Black People perceive pain differently than white people. This notion is harmful and contributes to the lack of accurate medical diagnoses in the Black community.
My previous classmate, current doctoral student, and PCOS advocate Chanel Brown spoke to me about her journey to her PCOS diagnosis. Chanel recounts that her doctor never took her seriously, which is why it took her seven years to receive her diagnosis. Why does it take so long for Black Women to receive a PCOS diagnosis?
Many women with PCOS are overweight, and weight bias may add to racial bias in medical settings. Overweight women are often told to lose weight, no matter whether weight actually affects the condition they have.
Fatphobia is the reason Beatriz Kaye, a Latino PCOS advocate, went seven years without a PCOS diagnosis – her doctors told her that her period would regulate itself if she would just “lose weight”, and delayed doing any lab or imaging tests to check for PCOS.
This “invisible” disease may not appear to be physically impactful or disruptful, but the long-term health implications are. Women with PCOS may experience infertility. They also may have a higher rate of diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea, although it is difficult to separate the risks of obesity from the risks of PCOS.
Racism and fatphobia both compromise the care of Black women. For women of color, this healthcare system is a system of misdiagnoses, disappointments, and dismissals. Women of color deserve the right to be heard and respected by their medical doctors.
Brianna Dean is a Masters of Science candidate in Health and the Public Interest at Georgetown University.
Carrying baggage is exhausting. When traveling we often pack more than we need. When making a trip it’s always easier to travel light.
Life is a trip. The longer we live the more we seem to pack and try to carry. Our mind has so many shelves, drawers and spaces for luggage of all shapes and sizes. We have this giant closet inside our brains that we fill up throughout life.
Your mental closet is filled with memories that are good and not so good. You may have spaces filled with grief, sadness, hurts, rejection, loss, failure, disappointments, defeats and more. You also hopefully have stored up some happy times, victories, successes, celebrations, achievements, love, relationships and peace. Hopefully your mind is filled with more positive happy events.
I heard the story about a young man who loved his cat. The cat died and his mother gave him permission to bury his cat in the backyard. The mother became appalled when she discovered her son was digging up the cat every few days to see how the cat was doing. Too often we live our lives this way. We dig up old stuff that needs to remain buried forever.
Too often the mind carries what cannot be physically buried, good or bad. We are frequently impacted by what we keep stored. One cold morning, a little boy put his backside up against an old coal stove. The hot stove burned his bottom and he knew never to do that again. What we have stored up in our minds can often serve us well. Wisdom is gained the hard way. The school of hard knocks is educational and expensive. We pay dearly throughout life to learn the hard way. Thus, what we have stored up can be very valuable to us as we face additional life challenges and opportunities.
Your past decisions, work, interests, achievements, failures and mistakes all play a part in where you are today. This could be very good. Or, it could be very bad. If you learned from your mistakes and moved forward then you may be further ahead than you ever imagined. If you didn’t learn from your mistakes and you continue to make them then frustration and sadness is haunting you.
Today is a new day. You can’t change the past. You do not know the future. Live your best life now. Dispose of as much baggage as you can. Do away with old resentments and regrets. Forgive people. Forgive yourself. Don’t live in the cemetery but live with hope of seeing your loved one in a better place.
Paul, the author of Philippians said it this way, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Anyone entering the labor market or buying cars or property this year or next will be highly affected by inflation policies.
Throughout history, sometimes the Federal Reserve, or "Fed," has altered the federal funds rate in the same direction, up or down, over lengthy eras. The Fed has also often left interest rates constant.
An example of the first was raising them from approximately 1977-1980, or cutting them from 1968-1971. An example of the second was over the Great Recession (2010-2015) - which held near 0%. Predictability gives firms expectations, causing smoother shifts in supply and demand without smaller iterations.
However, keeping rates lengthily at the same level can lead to financial instability, from: "chasing higher yield;" savings and investments imbalances; or, from larger policy changes once “shocks” arise. With the pandemic “shock,” political-economic turbulence might still be ahead, and more inflation. The 1920’s economist Irving Fisher described inflation as butter (money) spreading too far over bread (goods).
Inflation today has several culprits: monetary policies of central banks; international conflict; fiscal policies of spending bountiful government money, much of it deficit-financed; labor shortages from workers fearing the virus; and online-bought goods causing trouble coordinating ships or truck entries into ports.
The Fed, while independent, must still align itself with President Biden’s policies, which called for two infrastructure bills. With the larger bill, even moderates have to compromise, and the newly-convoluted idea that lawmakers do not have to reveal their stances makes politics more dyspeptic.
The wealth tax (on unrealized capital gains) to pay for the bill may have been unconstitutional or could have shifted investments overseas. But, raising the top income bracket was rejected, and raising the payroll tax on upper-earners was not even considered. Spending proposals, such as “free” community college, or even scholarships, or my own proposed idea for an ice-breaker vessel for the Arctic’s infrastructure, were rejected ad-hoc in behind-the-scenes negotiations. Hyper-politicized parliamentary rules took precedent over actually voting on amendments.
Undernoted in this debate, and absent from modern economic texts, is the 1960’s "balanced budget theorem," promulgated by economist Paul Samuelson. Increasing taxes and spending by similar amounts can theoretically increase short-term growth, though never attempted, but permitting an inflation focus. Yet, bills sometimes die, and Mr. Biden has not even addressed healthcare yet.
Fortunately, last year’s annual end-of-year budget crises were averted. Perhaps the Republicans saw no need to add “insult to injury,” since inflation hit. As Fisher described, perhaps butter melts faster than bread expands, in our analogy, because money is more liquid than goods, which take time to produce.
Henceforth, Mr. Powell may have lowered rates too slowly before, too quickly during, and to be seen too delayed after the pandemic. Some economists have said these were the Fed’s worst historical mistakes.
With both inflation and held-back pandemic growth presenting challenges, it might benefit the Fed to follow a third course, of short-term changing rates incrementally, from meeting-to-meeting, or quarter-to-quarter, based on changing conditions "on the ground," as military leaders say. In essence, mix the ingredients differently. The Fed did so in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Instead of dubiously committing to raising rates indefinitely, it might be wise to keep an eye on growth, especially with the conflict overseas, as rate hikes could lead to recession- worse than the current climate.
The economy is now Mr. Biden’s, having re-nominated Mr. Powell for Chair, while nominating Lael Brainard for Vice-Chair, both now before the Senate amidst questions over Fed "insider trading," and whether the Fed should own environmentally-unfriendly assets.
Dr. Brainard could steer Mr. Powell within his newfound fixation on rate-raising. Once set, though, a mixed-method approach, as described here-to-fore, might prove most stabilizing, along with mixing policies between different tools. Also helpful for Fed policy, and for keeping rates low, would be if President Biden’s larger bill were to be revisited once growth slows, even if voted on in pieces. Parts, even those aimed at climate change, could stimulate the economy, especially if some revenues paid down debt.
A combination of all such approaches would ensure that the government gets the upcoming climate right and that the kids get their holiday baked goods just under a year from now, without a recession, but certainly with butter for everyone.
It was 1984 when a German pop group made "99 Red Balloons" the No. 2 song on the Billboard charts, but by 2022 they might face a fine for releasing so many balloons in Illinois.
The Illinois House on April 21 voted to make it illegal to release 50 or more balloons in Illinois. Do it once, get a warning. Twice, a $500 fine. A third time, a $1,000 fine.
And that's for each group of 50 balloons: "The release of more than 50 balloons shall constitute a separate violation for every 50 balloons," according to 
