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Breast Cancer Awareness Month has been in full swing for ten days now—but for as much pink as you might be seeing in the world, do you know how this campaign got its start? I’ll admit, I did not, but I’ve since learned that the first ever breast cancer awareness campaign happened in 1985, when the American Cancer Society and a pharmaceutical arm of a company that is now part of AstraZeneca first teamed up to promote mammograms as a detection tool.
While the month can bring its fair share of pink washing and potential triggers for people who have been diagnosed with the disease and aren’t looking for additional reminders of how their lives have changed, the executives of the National Breast Cancer Foundation want people to know that early detection does save lives. NBCF president and COO Kevin Hail and director of communications Ashley Miller made this point when they joined me at Nasdaq MarketSite for an interview earlier this week.
“There’s been a 60% decrease in the mortality rate, which I think indicates we’ve done a good job on early screenings,” Hail says. “If you detect it early, you dramatically increase your chances of survival.”
We also talked about the importance of knowing your family history—and this is a theme that came up in more than one of my interviews this week. I also interviewed Joseph Grzymski, the Chief Genomics Officer for Renown Health; he and his team spearheaded research that shows there is a significant number of people who are not aware that they carry genetic risk factors for breast and ovarian cancer. In his study, which was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 80% of respondents had not been aware that they could be eligible for genetic screening for these diseases based on their family history.
Grzymski reached this conclusion after using a seven-question survey to assess patients’ family histories, and his goal is to get more doctors and health systems to use this survey. “When 8 out of 10 individuals do not know their risks and doctors do not see them as high-risk individuals… it’s really important to change the narrative on the importance of screening,” he said.
Take care of yourselves,
Maggie McGrath
Exclusive Forbes Investigation: Influencers Are Telling Teens That Selling Their Eggs Is Easy Money. It’s Not That Simple.
The United States has few rules governing egg and sperm donation, a Wild West being supercharged by influencers touting it as a cash-cow to millions of young followers. Americans conceived through donors are using social media to fight back. “This is not an industry that creates tables, creates shirts; they’re literally making babies,” says Laura High, one of the most-followed donor-conceived creators on TikTok. “They should be held to the highest standard. And the fact that we don’t have the equivalent of a seat belt should terrify everybody.”
ICYMI: News Of The Week
The National Hockey League took a historic step toward gender equity this week as Jessica Campbell became the first woman to coach in an NHL regular season game. Campbell, an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken, made her debut behind the bench in the Kraken’s season opener Tuesday night.
Kate Ryder founded Maven Clinic in 2015 to address gaps in women’s health. Fresh off a $125 million Series F fundraise, Ryder joined me to talk about how she’ll use the fresh funds and why today—with Roe v. Wade repealed and 35% of U.S. counties lacking an ob-gyn—the need for her company is even greater.
Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy were banned in Georgia as of Monday evening, as the Georgia Supreme Court halted a ruling that struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, once again putting the Southern state among more than a dozen states that now restrict abortion. I spoke with Michele Goodwin, professor of Constitutional law and global health at Georgetown University whose writing was cited in the ruling that briefly struck down the ban, about how this about-face happened and why more courts should consider the 13th and 14th amendments when hearing cases involving abortion bans.
Taylor Swift leapfrogged singer and beauty mogul Rihanna to become the world’s richest female musician following the blockbuster success of her Eras Tour, as other female artists, including Madonna and Beyoncé, rank just outside the billion-dollar club.
The effects of the 2016 election on women’s political engagement and power are lasting: According to an analysis from ForbesWomen contributor and director of research for the Center for American Women and Politics Kelly Dittmar, of the 15 women best poised to pick up U.S. House seats in November 2024, eight entered state legislative office in 2016 and five became state legislators in 2018 alone.
The Checklist
1. Protect your time and focus. Successful people know exactly what they want to achieve. They are laser-focused on their goals. This clarity makes it easier to say no to things that don’t align with those goals. For example, podcaster Tim Ferriss, podcaster uses a “not-to-do list” to avoid time-wasters and maintain focus on what’s truly important. Read this piece to learn more about saying no and setting boundaries.
2. Handle the ghost in the office. This isn’t a pre-Halloween thing; this is real-life advice on what to do when a coworker—or worse, your boss—goes silent.
3. Put more women in CEO “feeder” roles. A new analysis reveals that few women hold the C-suite roles that typically lead to the top spot, suggesting that the number of female CEOs in corporate America may remain frustratingly low for the foreseeable future. This imbalance doesn’t just reflect a lack of representation at the top but also underscores deeper, systemic issues in how female leaders are developed and supported throughout their careers.