In women’s online forums, a certain type of discourse frequently appears, and once you start noticing it, it’s difficult to ignore. A user posts on Mumsnet or in r/birthcontrol. Since her Mirena coil was implanted, she has gained ten, twenty, and occasionally thirty pounds. Nothing has changed in her diet. She’s working out. Her doctor informed her that the coil couldn’t be the cause because the hormones are local, the dosage is small, and there must be another reason. The comments then begin to come in. Thousands or even hundreds of women are saying the same thing. The Mirena coil…
Author: Jack Ward
Dorothy Byrne, the longtime Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, is a prime example of the type of public figure who discusses their illness almost casually, as an aside between larger stories. She has talked candidly about a body that has experienced more than most of her coworkers will ever know in interviews, columns, and the odd incisive Daily Mail article. Rheumatica polymyalgia. Giant cell arteritis. Surgical mesh and heart failure are related. Throughout it all, she has half-wryly described the steroids as both identity thieves and lifesavers. Sometime in the late 2000s, Byrne received a diagnosis…
Simon Rogan has been the subject of a quiet discussion that has nothing to do with his cuisine. It’s evident to anyone who has followed the Cumbrian chef over the past few years, whether through magazine spreads, interviews, or his sporadic appearances on the kind of food shows where he tends to look thoughtful rather than performative. He has a different appearance. Sharper around the jawline and slimmer overall. Once filled out at the shoulders, the chef’s whites now hang in a different way. The phrase “Simon Rogan weight loss” has crept into search trends, suggesting that people are looking…
A recall that reappears is unsettling in some way. At first glance, the Ayco Farms cantaloupe story appeared to be one of those unnoticed food safety footnotes: a Florida distributor removed several thousand cartons of whole melons in late March, an action that typically goes unnoticed by most consumers. Then, on April 20, it was elevated to Class I, the most serious tier in the FDA’s three-tier ranking, and suddenly it was back in the news. Technically, a recall that most customers were unaware of was more dangerous than they had been led to believe. Class I is only used…
The way these recalls land now is almost commonplace. A few hurried headlines, a brief notice from the Food Standards Agency, and a tiny pack of greens—the kind that most consumers wouldn’t give much thought to—discreetly vanish from the shelf. Good4U’s Super Sprouts Super Greens, a 60g salad topper available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons, was recalled this week due to a potential Salmonella contamination. Because it costs about £1.50, it’s the kind of impulsive purchase that people put in their carts without looking at the label. This is precisely why the recall is more significant than its low-key rollout…
When someone eventually escapes the crisis, an odd thing occurs. The deadline has passed. The ill parent either gets better or doesn’t. The divorce is filed. The project is shipped. They wake up on a Tuesday in a quiet kitchen and feel strangely flat instead of the relief they’d been promising themselves for months. It’s difficult to ignore how many high-functioning individuals characterize this as the uneasy feeling of a life that is, by all objective standards, at last functioning. It turns out that the body becomes accustomed to running hot. Strong chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline pulse through the…
There is a specific type of fatigue that is not detected by any laboratory test. After eight hours of sleep, you awaken prepared. There’s nothing wrong. The person next to you is kind, the apartment is quiet, and the bills are paid. Even so, something is still waiting for the other shoe to fall somewhere beneath your sternum. It’s difficult to ignore how frequently people these days talk about feeling both safe on paper and unsafe in real life. It turns out that contracts are not read by the nervous system. The fact that you signed the lease on a…
I recently learned from a pediatrician in a quiet neighborhood outside of Minneapolis that she can now almost exactly predict when a parent will bring in a child for what she refers to as “the ask.” It typically follows a report card, an incident on the playground, a period of insomnia, or a teacher’s casual remark. The parents take a seat, appear a little ashamed, and say something along the lines of, “I think we want to get him evaluated.” That sentence might have appeared two or three times a month ten years ago, she said. It happens a few…