Category: Health

  • “Lazy contrarians are putting everyone at risk”

    Alex Andreou, writing for Politics.co.uk: I fully support Peter Hitchens and Brendan O’Neill’s inalienable right to be infected with a deadly virus. If they existed in a vacuum, I might buy myself one of those big foam fingers and cheer them on, as they march to the extinction that is the destiny of every dinosaur.…

  • If this is the fast track, I’d hate to be on the slow one

    The BBC has discovered that many trans people are stuck on waiting lists for so long they have to buy their own medicine from overseas. The report, while accurate and worthwhile, also serves to demonstrate that the BBC clearly doesn’t have any trans people or experts on trans healthcare anywhere near the newsrooms it so…

  • Hashtags aren’t healthcare

    It’s #timetotalk day today, a day when people are encouraged to open up and talk about mental health. I’m not going to be negative about it – the organisations involved are good ones and I’ve written a lot here and in my songs about the importance of opening up about sadness, anxiety and other mental…

  • What life is like for LGBT+ people in Scotland

    NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lothian have teamed up to research the experiences and health needs of LGBT+ people in Scotland. The full report is here. It’s part of a wider study that includes a literature review and that will help inform future planning. It’s a long and often very saddening report, with people sharing some…

  • Boobs from a burger? Now that’s a whopper

    The picture above is of the Impossible Whopper, a meat-free burger from Burger King. Like many vegetable, seed and nut-based products, it contains phytoestrogens – structures that are similar, but different to, the estrogen in people. Here comes the internet. The above claims, and many like them, are currently circulating on social media. Let’s not…

  • The great HRT shortage: a very British disaster

    Hundreds of thousands of women in the UK have been affected by the ongoing shortage of many HRT products. The products aren’t made in the UK but the shortage is very much a UK thing. Emma Hartley discovers why. The short version: the UK government messed up. The slightly longer version: supply problems have been…

  • This hateful, murderous ignorance

    The thing about bigots is that often, they have no idea what they’re talking about. Sometimes that’s because they’re stupid. But all too often it’s wilful stupidity, where the information is widely and easily available but they either don’t look for it or refuse to believe it. Here’s an example from this morning. Over on…

  • The Endocrine Society is getting really tired of this shit

    Do you know what endocrinology is? It’s the branch of medical science that studies the endocrine system, the glands that secrete hormones. Hormones regulate our metabolism, our physical development, our reproductive function, our sleep, our mood… you get the idea. The Endocrine Society is the international organisation for endocrinology experts, and it works in association…

  • We don’t need mental health awareness. We need action

    Today is World Mental Health Day, and the theme is suicide prevention. Many politicians and commentators will say or write suitably concerned things about the importance of getting help, without acknowledging that they are part of the reason people need help in the first place. Mental health is political. The causes are often political. And…

  • Go and get the flu vaccine

    I was given the flu vaccine the other day. I hadn’t really thought about it but since a lung cancer scare a few years ago there’s a flag on my medical records and I’m considered high risk for pulmonary infections and COPD, so I get invited to this stuff. As you’d expect, the vaccine didn’t…