The wellness trap: How dangerous products keep targeting women
History has shown a persistent pattern of women being targeted by products that carry underlying risks including everything from early cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, to today’s latest popular weight loss drugs.The growing awareness of these concerns has fueled public scrutiny, legal action, calls for stronger safety standards, greater transparency, and increased accountability from manufacturers.Injectable birth control has long been advertised to younger and lower-income women as a convenient, low-maintenance and effective alternative to pills and other contraceptive methods.
Unknown to most, there are hidden risks involved with long-term use and high dosages.According to the CDC, nearly 25% of sexually active women ages 15 to 49 have used a key injectable contraceptive. There have been studies linking use to an increased risk of developing meningiomas, a type of brain and spinal cord tumor.
In 2024, an analysis of over 1 million women showed that those who used the contraceptive for more than three years were three times more likely to develop meningiomas. Since the early 1980s, researchers have known that meningiomas have progesterone receptors and that anti-progesterone agents inhibit tumor growth.This makes injectable birth control agents a known catalyst for development of these tumors.
Though this research is available, it hasn’t stopped widespread use and lack of knowledge of the concealed dangers. Due to social media hype with jaw-dropping before-and-after pictures and various celebrity endorsements, GLP-1s have been at the center of conversations around dramatic weight loss.While some have hailed the drugs as a “miracle injection,” there is a darker side to their long-term safety that not many know about. The original FDA-approved use of GLP-1s was to manage blood sugar and help prevent complications of type 2 diabetes.
It helped reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events and supported some degree of weight loss as a side effect.Once s...