SMNTY Classics: An Update on Women's Health

With a new nominee for the US Supreme Court, A & B revisit a classic episode on women's health, and discuss the future of Roe v. Wade. The new administration has ushered in a whole new slew of attacks on women’s health - both at home and abroad. Here’s what you need to know.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Bridget and this is and you're listening
the stuff mom ever told you. Um, so we have
a little update for you. It is not a good one.
It is all around the subject of reproductive health. You

(00:26):
may have seen recently that people were freaking out, myself
included because of the Supreme Court, and you might have thought,
what's happening? Why is everyone freaked out? Well, we are
here to tell you. So here are two big updates.
I've got people really really concerned about reproductive health and
freedom in the last couple of weeks. So, if you've
ever heard of fake clinics, basically what a fake clinic is,

(00:46):
it's these clinics that are masking as places to get
actual abortion care. And if you were to google abortion,
you know, and then your zip code on Google, they're
actually ads for these clinics that would appear to be
abortion clinics, and only once you went there you would realize,
I mean, I can't even use the word clinic. It's
actually an organization run by an anti abortion group and

(01:06):
not a place to get an abortion. Yeah, groups like
Ultra Violet have been pressuring Google to do something, calling
the search results ads and map results deceptive and a
violation of Google's policy against misrepresentation. Google's previously promised to
rain them in, but has so far been unable to
do so. So what does this have to do with
scout US? Well, everything. In June, scoutest rule that it's

(01:29):
a okay for these fake clinics to mislead people who
are looking for abortions in California. The Supreme Court Justice
is ruled in a five to four decision last week
in the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates or
n i f L a versus Bokra that fake clinics
were likely to prevail on their argument that the California
law violates the First Amendment. What's at stake is a

(01:49):
twenty law requiring that licensed centers disclosed to pregnant people
all other options, including abortions. So basically, you know, if
you walk into one of these centers, they leave eagally
might not have to tell you that abortion is an
option for you. And the Supreme Court basically said it
is a okay to mislead people in this way because
free speech right, because free speech. So this ruling overturns

(02:13):
the decision by the US Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit and basically sends the case back to the court.
So it's not a good situation for you know, people
who are actually looking for real abortion services in the
United States. And it will have impacts nationally because now
that this case is on the books, other states can
go back and say, well, hey, can we lie to
people who need abortions? So it really does set kind

(02:36):
of a shocking precedent. Another big thing you may have heard,
Justice Kennedy just announced that he is retiring. I remember
that day when that happened. It was big news. Yeah,
not good not good news, not good news. Kennedy is
no progressive crusader, but inwo he was the fifth vote
in a ruling that reaffirmed ro versus Wade, the Supreme

(02:57):
Court ruling from nineteen seventy three that declared a portion
a constitutional right. In he played the same role in
striking down a Texas law that restricted access to abortion.
His retirement has their force sparked both hope and fear
that whoever replaces him will join the courts for conservative
justices to overturn Row along a professed aim of Republicans,

(03:18):
This would not ban abortion. Rather, it would allow states
to make their own abortion laws, but it would be momentous.
For one thing, abortion would immediately become illegal and forced
states that have trigger laws awaiting such a ruling Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Dakota, and South Dakota. So just to be clear,
if Roe v. Wade was overturned and you were in
one of those four states, it would be immediately overturned.

(03:41):
You wouldn't be able to have access to an abortion
in those states. Now, Trump has had a lot of
things about abortion rights. Because he's a liar, you can't
trust what he says, and I'll say one thing one day,
a different thing the next day. But he's been pretty
open about the fact that Roe v. Wade would not
be safe under his administration. He said that Row would
be quote automatically overturned should he be elected. And we

(04:03):
already know that Republicans have been super explicit and super
vocal about wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade in the
first place. And I have no reason to believe that
that would not be the case. Yeah, and his Trump scout,
his pick is Brett Kavanaugh, and Kavanaugh has not written
or commented on abortion in any great detail, But last October,
he took part in a high profile court fight involving

(04:25):
a pregnant undocumented teenager who wanted to obtain an abortion.
In the case of Garza versus Harrigan, the d C.
Circuit Court of Appeals held that an undocumented teenage immigrant
was entitled to obtain an abortion without having to obtain
familial consent, as is required in several states. Kavanaugh vigorously dissented, asking, quote,
is it really absurd for the United States to think

(04:46):
that the minor should be transferred to her immigration sponsor,
ordinarily a family member, relative, or friend before she makes
that decision. So we don't really know what Kavanall stands
on Roe v. Weight is, but his descent really does
not fill me with confidence that he is someone that
is going to protect reproductive health and freedom in this country. Um.
There's an interesting hearing where Chuck Schumer is interrogating him. First,

(05:09):
he says, if this were me, I would uphold the
law of the land, and the law of the land
is Roe v. Wade. But Schumer keeps pressing him and says,
so you're not going to answer the question, like what
do you think about Roe v. Wade? Which again just
leads me to think that he doesn't think very highly
of it. Yeah, it's very uncertain. So we'll do a
whole episode breaking this down. We wanted to give you

(05:30):
all a quick update in the Meantimekalla and welcome to
the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristin Kristen. Today
are our topic is abortion and you and I are
determined to make this politics free as possible, if you know,
may not be possible, but that's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna ignore current events for a moment and just

(05:54):
talk about what happens when you're in a doctor's office
to get an abortion. And to start things off, I
will I will tell a little lighthearted anecdote. Um, I'm
going to admit to googling myself. I think we all
do it every now and I do. You got you
gotta check up and see see what you gotta make
your No one's talking smack about you. So, UM, I

(06:14):
googled myself recently and at the bottom when it's related
searches to the search term Molly Edmonds abortion, Molly Edmonds
comes up and I was like what, But then I
remembered I wrote how abortion works for our site how
stuff works dot com. So apparently people who I don't
know if they're just looking for this article and they

(06:34):
know I wrote it, and so it goes abortion Molly Edmonds.
But it's a common search term apparently, And UM, I'm
happy to be associated with this article because I'm proud
of it. A lot of research went into it to
take out the politics. As we just mentioned, I wanted
it to be as straightforward as possible, and so that's
what we're going to present, a straightforward look at abortion
right because I would argue that the public is probably

(06:58):
more familiar with the political debate around abortion than they
are about the actual procedure. I think it's the most
common procedure that's not actually talked about. And in fact,
before we came in here, I was trying to find
more information about therapeutic abortion, which is when there's a
health reason for terminating a pregnancy, and it's very hard

(07:18):
to find any accounts of it. Um, you know, it's
just not talked about. And UM, we're gonna get behind
the arguments about pro life, pro choice however you want
to put it, and just talk about what happens when
you get an abortion, who's having them, why they're having them,
how they have them? Right, because we talked about planned
parenthood way back when, but in most people associately in

(07:40):
parenthood with birth control and abortion. So today we are
going to talk about really what happens. And here's the thing.
It happens a lot. Just to toss out some statistics
since we love statistics. UM. In the US alone, UM
half of the six million pregnancies that occur each year

(08:01):
are unplanned, and about one point three million of those
unplanned pregnancies and an abortion. And according to the Gootmaker Institute,
about one third of women in the US will have
an abortion by the age of forty one in three.
One in three pretty staggering, and worldwide, not just the US,

(08:23):
about two percent of all reproductive aged women have an
abortion each year. So what kind of woman is having
an abortion? According to the Gootmaker Institute in the US,

(08:44):
that woman is young Women who have an abortion the
U s are under the age of UH, more likely
to be unmarried than married, lower class. The abortion rate
for poor women is four times higher than that of
women living above the poverty line. UH. Woman who is
likely have abortion probably has at least one child already.
Six of abortions are performed on women who are already mothers,

(09:08):
and she reports not using contraceptives properly, if at all.
And it's pretty spread across UH racial demographics are attributed
to black women, to white women, to Hispanic women. And
here's the thing that um, I think it's important to
keep in mind, especially when we do, you know, outside

(09:30):
of the podcast, get talking about the politics involved in
all of this. Abortion is one of the most common
surgical procedures for women, and yet we are so uncomfortable
talking about what actually happens. And that's one of the
main reasons that Molly and I wanted to talk about
it today, because you don't think about that. We know
that abortion happens, but consider that one of the most

(09:51):
common surgical procedures for women, right and so if you're
let's say, you take a pregnancy test, you get it back,
you're pregnant, it you don't want to be, and you
decide to pursue an abortion, where you start looking a
local plan Parenthood, as we mentioned, is a great place
to start. A family planning clinic if there's not one
in your area, can contact just your O B D

(10:12):
Y in and ask for a referral or maybe she'll
do it. Midwives, nurse practitioners, they are licensed to do abortion,
so there's a wide variety of medical professionals that can
do it. The Gootmacher Institute estimates that the average amount
paid for an abortion in the United States is four
dollars and just note that first trimester abortions are less

(10:33):
expensive than second trimester abortions. There are two methods for
performing an abortion. You can have a medical abortion or
a surgical abortion. And in a medical abortion UH, you
take pills to expel the fetus from your body. You
take an abortive facient, which is an abortion inducing substance,

(10:54):
and the f d A approved UM. It's basically a
two part procedure where you go in first to a
clinic and you take UM six and or milligrams of
something called mitho pristone, which is followed by four micrograms
of mr prostal, which you can usually take in your
home if you elect to. And you might have heard
of mithophristone, as are you for eight six and it

(11:18):
blocks the hormone progesterone, which allows the uterine lining to
build up to support the embryo in the womb. So
basically when you take are You four eight six, it
causes that uterine lining to break down and bleeding similar
to a minstrel period will start to happen. And typically
you will take that first dosage at a doctor's office,

(11:42):
and then a few days later at your home or
in a doctor's office, you take that second half, which
is actually what expels the fetus in a process very
similar to a miscarriage. It feels very similar in terms
of the cramping, nausea, and the bleeding obviously is very
similar so UM and also something I learned after I

(12:02):
wroth this articles, they usually have you take a suppository
of a sedative to deal with that that cramping and
pain UM and then the leading can occur for up
to two weeks. But this type of abortion is effective
to nine percent of time when it's done in the

(12:23):
first nine weeks of pregnancy. So there is a window
after which a medical abortion will not work right, and
it's usually around that ninth week, and it's at that
time that you will probably opt for a surgical abortion,
and one of the most common types of surgical abortions
would be a vacuum extraction abortion, and this is actually

(12:44):
the most common method is a vacuum extraction, and it
can be performed for twelve weeks after a woman's last period,
and it can happen either with the fetus being extracted
either manually or with a handheld suction device or with
an actual machine vacuum and UM. The manual vacuum extraction
is UM one of was one of the earliest surgical

(13:06):
options available to women. And basically you go and it's
it's not that much unlike a gynecological exam where um,
you sit in the chair, you're in the stirrups um,
you will be a speculum will be inserted into a
woman's vagina um, the cervix might have to be slightly numbed,
and then the um. The doctor will insert a tube

(13:27):
through the cervix and into the uterus and then apply
um section with a special handheld device to extract the
contents of the uterus. And it only takes a few minutes, right,
And you know, we found a few blogs on the
Internet of women who have had abortion, so we're sharing
their experiences and these are very rare, usually because the
politics will enter into it. But I did want to
read a description from an abortion blog of what this

(13:50):
process feels like a manual vacuum extraction, and this is
from my abortion blog dot tumbler dot com, and I'm
just gonna read verbatim what she wrote and before Molly starts,
ID want to provide a trigger warning for listeners out there,
since this is a pretty graphic account of what happens.

(14:11):
The doctrine started the speculum and then wiped my servits
clean with an antibiotic. She then topically numbed it a
bit and followed that up with an anesthesic injection. This
felt like a tiny little poke and was mostly just uncomfortable,
no less odd feeling than a regular pap smear. The
weird part was that I got a little woozy and
dizzy seconds after the shot because the anesthetic entered my bloodstream.
She talked me through this, but I actually liked the feeling. Next,

(14:33):
she dilated my servix, but I didn't really feel much
more than a bit of pressure. She then inserted a
hose about the diameter of a pen, and again I
felt a bit of pressure. I could feel once the
procedure started, because I started getting some cramps about the
same as I would during a period. They continued. As
she continued the aspiration, there was also slight tugging feeling
from the inside that was kind of odd. I kept
my hand on my belly the entire time. I could

(14:55):
feel my uterus tugging from the inside, like my belly
was actually rising and falling. The cramped and continued, but
it was no worse than when I got from my period.
At the very end, the cramping got really bad, but
which she said was normal because it meant the uterus
was contracting back to its normal size. I think the
worst part was probably the five or some minutes after afterwards,
when the cramping got intense and the nausea struck. I

(15:16):
started sweating a bit, and my boyfriend held my hand
tightly and kept a bucket in his hand in case
I needed to throw up. The cramps are uncomfortable, like
a combination of period and bathroom cramps at the same time,
and for a second I felt they would never go
away and I would be curled up in that room forever.
But they actually less than quickly and soon all but disappeared.
So that's one person's first person account of having an abortion.

(15:37):
So that was an example of a manual vacuum extraction,
but women can also have a machine vacuum extraction extraction,
and the process is slightly more intensive since the woman's
cervix will need to be dilated and that's going to
happen either through absorbent dilators inserted a day beforehand or

(15:58):
by inserting rods that gradually recent size on the day
of the procedure. And the rest of the abortion procedure
is very similar to manual extraction, except a machine is
going to apply the suction that pulls out the uterine
contents through the tube. And then sometimes after completing the
vacuum extraction, UH, the doctor will need to use a

(16:20):
curette to scrape the remaining fetal tissue from the uterus, right,
And a cure is a long, thin instrument with a
kind of a serrated spirit end that's the part that
actually does the scraping. And when the cura is brought in,
the procedure might be called a d n C and
UH this is you might also have a DNC just
at a gynecological exam if you've got some sort of

(16:41):
vaginal bleeding, if there's something going on up there. Um
and These extractions can usually reformed up to sixteen weeks
after women's last period, when they bring the curet in
to help scrape. So now we're at sixteen weeks after
a period extraction and then a curet. Now once we
hit the sixteen week part, abortions that take place after

(17:02):
that are really the most controversial. These are performed with
a method known as dilation and evacuation. And uh, this method,
again like to to provide a little bit of a
trigger warning, is a little more um intensive than the
vacuum extraction methods. And I think it's natural that it

(17:32):
has to be a little more intensive because we're past
sixteen weeks, we're in the second trimester. Uh, the fetus
is a little bit more developed, but still not viable
outside the womb. It can't live outside the woom on
its own according to medical definition. So I'm gonna go
ahead and read the definition of the dilation and evacuation.
What they have to do is they have to administer
a shot to the fetus through abdominal tissue to ensure

(17:54):
that the fetus is dead. Uh, they give medication to
the woman and as with the other methods that Kristen
to tribe. They have to stretch the cervix through rods
or through um dialators. The fetal tissue is then extracted
to the degree possible with the vacuum that we mentioned
in those first trimester abortions. But then because the fetis
has developed it's a little bit larger, they might have

(18:16):
to insert forceps into the vagina and crush the fetus's
head to bring it out, or to break down the
fetus so that it can be removed. And you know,
the doctors who pioneered this concept said they were looking
for a way to perform second trimester abortions that could
be done in a one day in and out outpatient procedure.

(18:37):
So it's a way to abort a fetus in a
way that that still allows a woman to kind of
leave of her own volition at the end of the day.
And these are I think we should mention that these
make up a very very small um proportion of all
the abortion procedures that happen every year. That what was
at one point three million abortions that happened every year

(18:58):
in the United States, and a lot of time uh
dilation and evacuation abortions happened in the case of therapeutic
abortions where the mother's life might be at risk carrying
the pregnancy to term. Now, one last type of abortion
procedure that we need to talk about is certainly the
most controversial. It's called dilation and extraction method and you've

(19:19):
probably heard of it as partial birth abortion. Right. This
is when the fetus is partially delivered vaginally, uh in
a breach position, and when they have the fetus, you know,
a little bit out of the way, they'll make up
out of the way of the woman. They'll make a
hole in the base of the fetal skull, insert tubing
and use suction to pull out the brain of the fetus. UH.

(19:39):
This is so that the fetuses skull will collapse in
the fetus can be fully expelled. And as Kristen said,
this this method is pretty controversial. It's been banned in
the United States except in the case of protecting a
woman's health. Um, perhaps you might have an unaffected uterus
or hard condition that makes it impossible to continue the pregnancy. Now,
as kristin, Cindy's are extremely rare, the Gootmocker Institute estimates

(20:03):
that this makes up point to percent of all abortions
in the United States. UM, So that's that's sort of
the range that they can go. We've gone from taking
a pill and having a process very similar to a miscarriage,
all the way up to dilation and extraction, where we're
pulling out the fetus. Again, it's not medically viable at
this point, can't live outside of the womb. But you know,

(20:26):
then that's where the politics gets into it that we're
going to skip in that. You know, is this a
person yet is it not. That's not our argument today.
We'll let you guys battle that out. But those that's
the range of abortion procedures that can take place. And
even though the procedures that we've described sound very unpleasant,
I'm sure to our listeners, one thing to keep in

(20:48):
mind is that while possibly unpleasant, they are generally very
very safe. Um. In fact, a woman has eleven times
the chance of dying in childbirth as she does of
dying from an abortion performed in the first twenty weeks
of pregnancy. Now, after an abortion, regardless of the type
of abortion performed, women are kept in a recovery room

(21:09):
for a few hours, and then they usually go home,
where they'll continue to bleed um. They may have really
large blood clots, but a sign of a complication is
when the blood clots get larger than a lemon um.
But you know, you might have some fairly sizeable blood
clots for a few days. You can some women go
back to work the same day or the day after.
Some women go back to class very shortly after. But

(21:30):
the two things you can't do though our strenuous exercise
and putting anything in your vagina which ranges from a
tampon to sexual intercourse that would involve vaginal penetration. So um,
the vagina has to heal from this. Nothing nothing can
go up there. But speaking of intercourse and vaginal healing,
abortion does not affect future fertility. And I think that's

(21:52):
one one common misconception that we need to um that
we need to clear up that if you if a
woman has an abortion, it typically doesn't know harm her
chances of having a child later. And another thing that
has been linked with abortion is a higher rate of
breast cancer. But some researchers are concerned that the studies
that link higher rate of breast cancer to abortion maybe

(22:14):
because the women who have breast cancer are so desperate
to find out why they have it that they'll admit
to an abortion, whereas women who don't have breast cancer
may not admit to an abortion. Uh to a researcher
that they don't know, so they haven't really drawn a
conclusive link. In fact, another study and from two thousand seven,
it followed a control group of women who didn't have
abortions against a group of woman that did, knowing out

(22:36):
from the front how everyone had had scored on the
abortion card and the incidents of breast cancer was about
the same. So uh, that's right, doesn't affect future utility,
probably doesn't affect breast cancer. One aspect of abortion recovery
that often comes up in these politicized debates that we
do need to address is the mental health of the

(22:57):
woman involved. Because a lot of times you might hear
about post abortion syndrome, essentially that after a woman has
an abortion, she is going to suffer from massive anxiety
and depression and guilt over terminating a fetus, terminating a pregnancy. UM.
But we need to remember that it is not recognized

(23:18):
by any medical or psychological association. And in fact, um
a study that just came out in January UM from
a group of Danish researchers comparing um mental health effects
post abortion and then post childbirth actually finds that just
like with childbirth, you know, you can't um you can't

(23:39):
predict the mental health effects of either carrying a child
to term or terminating a pregnancy right. In fact, proportion wise,
the women who sought treatment for psychiatric counseling after an
abortion it was about the same as the rate of
a woman who had sought treatment before. Before and after
was pretty much the same, And some doctors say that's
because women who get abortions made be more likely to

(24:00):
have other factors in their life that they need counseling about.
They couldn't draw any sort of uh line between the
abortion and the counseling, whereas the proportion of women who
needed counseling after having the child was much higher compared
to the rate of women in that group who would
need the counseling before. And obviously there are all sorts
of things that can go on. You're sleepless, there's postprimed depression,

(24:21):
it's a lot of stress to have a newborn in
your life. So they're saying that, you know, in terms
of actual mental stress, it's possible that the actual child
might do more for you than than uh than getting here,
than terminating the pregnancy. And we're certainly not sitting here
saying that abortion is better for your mental health and
carrying a pregnancy to term um. But we're just trying

(24:45):
to make the point that you have to consider each
on a case by case basis. You cannot make any
kind of blanket judgment on the mental health of all
women who become pregnant and based on what they choose
to do. Right now, Molly, we have gone through this
entire abortion podcast without mentioning the two names probably best

(25:08):
was closely associated with it, and that would be Row
and that would be Wade, because we're trying to keep
this conversation a political and those names are so charged politically. Yeah,
if there's one. If if you had to walk down
the street and ask anyone of to name one Supreme
Court case in the US, it might be that song.
It would Roe v. Wade would probably come up more

(25:29):
than any other. I don't know of a of a
more controversial court case that It happened in nineteen seventy
three and established that any legal restriction to an abortion
violated the right of privacy guaranteed by the fourteenth Amendment,
So that established that the decision to perform an abortion
was up to a woman and her doctor and there
should be no government interference. But the reason we bring

(25:52):
Roe v. Wade up, which deserves a podcast all its own,
is um just to talk a little bit about the
history of abortion and it's legality through time. And you know,
you'll always find people who say that, you know, even
from the ancient days, people were finding herbs and mixtures
that they could use to uh induce an abortion. They
might beat themselves violently in the abdominal region. And in fact,

(26:15):
some of the first laws that criminalized abortion were meant
to protect women from doing this rather than to protect
a fetus from termination, because too many women were dying
from taking poisons to bring on an abortion. And one
thing that we should bring up, and in terms of
statistics in the United States before Roe v. Wade, an
estimated one point two million abortions were taking place in

(26:38):
back alleys and in you know, hidden clinics and things
like that, and today or even in some real clinics
because you know, money, money can open a lot of doors.
So you know, there were some doctors who are performing
abortions I legal just because someone could pay. And speaking
of money, I think that one one of the most
interesting findings that you reveal in your article abortion Molly

(27:00):
is that doctors did have economic motivations for advocating against
abortion because they lost a significant amount of income to
midwives and private people who would perform abortions, and as
a result, the American Medical Association served as one of
the main legal lobbies against abortions legalizing abortion. That was
really interesting finding I found in a book. And of course,

(27:22):
as always, will put all our sources up on our blog. UM,
but right now, abortion is a legal procedure and you know,
its status of remaining so is up to the political
debate that we're not going to touch right now. But
we hope that in sort of just talking about the
procedure behind the politics, that you understand this procedure a
little bit more. UM. You know, like we said, one

(27:43):
in three women have had an abortion or we'll have
an abortion, So we know that our listeners out there
who probably have UM. As always, you can share our
stories or you cannot share your stories. This is obviously
a touchy subject. Some people don't want to talk about it.
Some people are eager to shout it from the rooftops,
like with these blogs. Um, and sometimes is that can
be helpful because, as we said, when you google it,
there's not a lot that comes up because it is

(28:05):
so to have taboo, so political, and I think that
both sides of the political argument would benefit from a clear,
more honest understanding of an abortion procedure. We all need
to be educated about it because, once again, Molly, it
is one of the most common surgical procedures that women
undergo in the United States exactly. So, UM, we welcome

(28:26):
your comments. Uh. The email addresses mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com. It will be interesting to see
if the comments turn more political than we allowed the
podcast to be. Maybe you guys will pick up on
places where we failed in our ability to be a
political Let us know about that, and in the meantime,
let us read some emails. Well, I have an email

(28:49):
here from Megan and this is in response to our
podcast on why women tend to be colder than men,
and she writes, I just transferred to a cubicle workspace
and for whatever reason, I can't always anticipate my temperature.
My tips number one layers, especially cardigans, because they're so
easy to adjust on, button up and down, sleeves, take

(29:10):
on and off, etcetera. Number two scarves. These deserve their
own mention, mostly because they make a huge difference if
you haven't layered enough. Number three fingerless gloves. Megan, you
must be in a cold office if you are advocating
fingerless gloves. Um. She says that they are a lifesaver.
And then for of course warm liquids, coffee, tea, cocoa,
even water. Megan. I'm just imagining you, you know, like

(29:33):
huddled huddled over your laptop with fingerless gloves and just
a couple of hot water. Megan, I have been there too.
Don't let Kristen Kristin put this down. I just said
that must be really cold office. But she says, on
the plus side, it's almost March, which means springs coming.
Well except for office is like ours would turn the
air a c way up in the summer just as cold.

(29:54):
But then we just in the sunny spots would just
go outside. Molly, let me try. I have another email
from the same podcast about women running colder than men,
and this is from Kristen. She writes, I noticed that
when I've been lifting weights a lot i eat gaining muscle,
that I am far less cold in opfice environments, and
if I work out in the morning, my metabolism is up,
which seems to keep me warmer. Along those lines, don't
go hours and hours without eating, otherwise your metabolism drops

(30:17):
and you may feel cold. Finally, you said that for
people who with seriously cold hands, their hands got from
white to blue. Is this something that affects white people
more than other racists or are you just speaking from
your own experience? And this was a really good call
out because rain noods does affect people of all races
equally according to the research that's been done so far,
which is kind of limited, but yes, it can affect

(30:38):
people of all racests. So and I said white to
blue that was just what I had seen, but maybe
other colors. And if you have an email, you just
under way again. Our address is mom Stuff at how
stuff works dot com. You can follow us on Twitter
at mom Stuff Podcasts. You can hit this supple in
the last book, which we'd love for you to like.
And lastly, you can check out our blog It's stuff

(31:00):
Mom Never Told You at how stuff works dot com
for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com To learn more about
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(31:26):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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