Hoda Kotb turned 60 last Friday, August 9. To celebrate the big 6-0, her Today cohost, Jenna Bush Hager threw her an on-air birthday party on Monday. The celebration was really well-done, too. The audience was given shirts and party hats to set the mood. Jenna gifted Hoda a painting of her favorite photo of her and her daughters that she commissioned her dad, former President George W. Bush to paint (he signed it “43” lmao). Some of Hoda’s good friends showed up for a segment. Producers played a sequence that checked in on three different families who Hoda’s interviewed in the past that spoke about her much she’d change their lives. There were also special birthday wishes from Hoda’s mom, daughters, and none other than Sandra Bullock. Sandra, who herself turned 60 on July 26, had an inspirational and funny message for her friend. It was a really nice birthday tribute.

“I had so many brilliant and funny things prepared for you for this message that were just going to slay, but you know girl, I’m just too tired,” said Bullock, who turned 60 on Friday, July 26.

The Practical Magic star also thanked Kotb “for being so incredible to so many people.”

“What you do for a living and how you have to shape-shift every single day, how you navigate your kindness, even when that’s not what’s coming your way,” she said. “How you are to those you care about and how you keep them safe, and just who you are as a human being. We’re all pretty lucky to have you, especially your kids.”

Bullock ended the video with a personal message for Kotb.

“Happy birthday, my sweet friend. Thank you for allowing me to be in your circle,” said Bullock. “I feel very grateful. And I have your bar set up, up here, so we can look at the view. It’s pretty beautiful, but I need you up here. Happy birthday.”

Kotb, the parents of daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 4, through adoption, got visibly emotional after watching the video message and expressed that she was inspired to become a mother after watching Bullock’s motherhood journey.

“The reason that I have Haley and Hope is because when I was looking for inspiration of somebody who was a mom at my age, Sanda Bullock popped up and I called her and I said, ‘Tell me about motherhood,’” recalled Kotb. “And she said, ‘It is the best decision I ever made.’ And from that moment forward, she led the way to these two girls.”

[From People]

That was a really sweet message from Sandra. She very rarely makes public appearances like this, which makes the whole video extra lovely. I had no idea that they were so close and had never heard that story before about Sandy being a supportive inspiration behind Hoda’s decision to adopt Haley and Hope. I must have missed it because Hoda did talk about it on-air back in 2018. How awesome is that?

As for her message, I love that Sandra is out there letting women and anyone else who needs to hear it that 60 isn’t the scary number taboo that it’s been made out to be in the past. Sure, it may not always feel great as we’re forced to embrace the changes our bodies go through as we get older, but every additional day, month, and year is a blessing. And Sandy addressed those changes with her joke about being too tired to think of a clever message. I’m only 40 and I feel that way almost every single day, ha. Happy Birthday to Hoda! May 60 be her best year yet.

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I’ve briefly alluded to this before, but I do not like needles. I am pro-science and pro-vaxx; I just don’t enjoy the process. And by “don’t enjoy,” I mean I devolve to a sniveling level of cartoonish histrionics that has only somewhat improved in adulthood. You’re stabbing me with a pointy thing — of course my knee-jerk reaction is going to be to prevent it at all costs! So I’ve always considered myself lucky that (as yet) I don’t have any allergies severe enough that require the need of an EpiPen. Well, there’s good breaking news for us trypanophobes: the FDA has just approved a nasal spray for treating anaphylaxis. Though we don’t know when it will be available to consumers, the fluffy-named Neffy spray has been given Fast Track status to speed up the process. Thank you modern medicine!

The first-ever needle-free alternative to the EpiPen and similar epinephrine autoinjectors has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat anaphylaxis.

Neffy, a nasal spray that delivers a dose of epinephrine, is the first of its kind that isn’t delivered by injection. Until Neffy’s approval, the only way to stop the life-threatening response to an allergic reaction was with an injectable like the EpiPen, which comes pre-filled with a dose of the medication.

“Anaphylaxis is life-threatening and some people, particularly children, may delay or avoid treatment due to fear of injections,” Kelly Stone, MD, PhD, Associate Director of the Division of Pulmonology, Allergy and Critical Care in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

“The availability of epinephrine nasal spray may reduce barriers to rapid treatment of anaphylaxis. As a result, Neffy provides an important treatment option and addresses an unmet need.”

As the Mayo Clinic explains, “Anaphylaxis is a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction. It can happen seconds or minutes after you’ve been exposed to something you’re allergic to. Peanuts or bee stings are examples.”

Anaphylaxis “occurs in about one in 50 Americans,” the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America states, adding, “Many believe the rate is higher than that. It is probably closer to one in 20.”

The Mayo Clinic says symptoms include skin reactions (like hives), low blood pressure, nausea, fainting — and “constriction of the airways and a swollen tongue or throat, which can cause wheezing and trouble breathing.”

Food allergies are on the rise, according to Food Allergy Research and Education, with 33 million Americans citing at least one food allergy.

“Milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and crustacean shellfish were identified as responsible for at least 90 percent of the serious food allergy reactions in the U.S.,” the organization says.

Peanut allergies, specifically, are rising — and as the Mayo Clinic points out, “Peanut allergy is the most common cause of food-induced anaphylaxis.”

“Even tiny amounts of peanuts can cause a serious reaction that can even be life-threatening.”
In January, a 25-year-old with a nut allergy died of anaphylactic shock after eating cookies that didn’t list peanuts on the label, and last year, a man from Texas died after eating a taco that didn’t list peanut butter as an ingredient.

Although no details have been released about when Neffy will be available, the FDA has granted the product Fast Track status, which expedites its release to the public.

[From People]

This is such great news! I’m so relieved for all the little kids afraid of needles (who sometimes grow up to be big adults afraid of needles; hi, that’s me!) that they’ll have this equally effective, much gentler option to the EpiPen. This is such a boon for anyone who gets queasy about shots, as the article points out. Surely this new epinephrine spray will help save lives. While People reports that there’s no word on when it will be available, the Allergy and Asthma Foundation estimates that it will be released around October of this year. And not for nothing, but “Neffy” already sounds like the name of one of the stuffed animals lining a toddler’s bed, which will make it even more friendly for the kids who’ll need it. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if they drew up an animated Neffy mascot character to help make the spray approachable to kids?

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Katie Holmes still dresses like it’s the ‘90s (and I love it). This was actually a “dressed up” look circa 1994 and I would wear this whole ensemble. [Socialite Life]
An interview with Olympian Noah Lyles. [Buzzfeed]
Please take all of Jennifer Lopez’s pain and give it to Joaquin Phoenix. [LaineyGossip]
Reported couch-f–ker JD Vance has accused Democrats of bullying him! [Jezebel]
Spoilers for the ending of Cuckoo. [Pajiba]
Taylor Swift’s ex Conor Kennedy (remember that?) is engaged. [JustJared]
Vanessa Bryant revealed a “Kobe logo” for the LA Olympics. [Hollywood Life]
Californians are such pros about earthquakes. [Seriously OMG]
Blake Lively’s other premiere look. [RCFA]
Orlando Bloom stretches on the beach. [OMG Blog]

After so many years, you would think that Prince William, his palace courtiers and his friends would have some awareness about how pathetic it is to continuously mention Prince Harry. While the “mentions” are never flattering for Harry, the sheer fact that William and his allies can’t keep Harry’s name out of their mouths is more revealing of William than Harry. It’s especially funny because William tries to maintain the hilarious feint that he cannot defend himself against Harry’s “attacks,” all while William regularly trashes his brother off the record. I’ve long believed that one of the biggest issues of King Charles’s reign is that the entire family seems to base a lot of their words and actions on an audience of one: Harry. They don’t even understand how f–king bonkers they look to everyone else. Well, as we discussed, William has a vacation beard. It’s gross and it makes him look like he just crawled out of a two-week bender. The beard is a reminder that William has been on vacation for a full month and that he’ll be on vacation for two more months. But according to William’s “friend,” the audience for the beard was one person alone: Harry. William thinks that he just restarted the Beard War with his brother.

Prince William’s new vacation beard, displayed in a short clip to mark the closing of the Olympics, is being seen by friends as a “new installment of the beard wars” with Prince Harry. One friend of William’s told The Daily Beast: “It was a slight surprise to see William do a public video with the beard. It’s an unexpected new installment of the beard wars.”

The phrase refers to the bad-tempered argument about Harry’s beard between William and Harry that fed into the collapse of their relationship in the tense run-up to Harry’s wedding. In his memoir, Spare, Harry explained how he first ­­grew his beard while on an expedition in the South Pole and had come to rely on it as a “Freudian security blanket,” saying it made him feel “calmer.” Harry wrote that he asked his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who was reputedly not overly keen on beards, for permission to keep it for his wedding to Meghan Markle, and that she “understood.” But he said that when he told his brother, William “bristled” and said it was inconsistent with military rules—relevant as he was getting married in uniform—and precedent.

Harry then said, “When I informed him that his opinion didn’t really matter, since I’d already gone to Granny and got the green light, he became livid. He raised his voice.” William accused Harry of putting Elizabeth “in an uncomfortable position,” saying she had “no choice but to say yes.” Harry said the argument “went on, in person, on the phone, for more than a week…At one point he actually ordered me, as the Heir speaking to the Spare, to shave.”

Friends of William have long disputed Harry’s characterization of many events in his book but point out that William is in no position to publicly refute Harry’s claims. The “beard wars” are no different. One source, a former courtier who worked in the palace at the time of Harry and Meghan’s wedding, told The Daily Beast: “What the courtiers got so annoyed about with Harry is that over and over again he approached his grandmother personally to get special treatment and then he would turn around and say, ‘Well, Granny said so, so there.’ He was no great respecter of the line between monarch and grandmother, between the institutional and the personal.

“The beard was a case in point. It was a ridiculous argument but ultimately, William was right, frankly; he shouldn’t have gone and put his grandmother in the position. That was why after the split, people went to great efforts to block him from seeing her, because they were terrified he would wheedle concessions out of her.”

A senior publicist who has previously worked with the royal family told The Daily Beast: “William and Kate are always very keen to present themselves as normal, and normal guys, when they go on holiday, don’t shave for a week or two. Their whole brand is about being normal, being just like us, so coming out in a craggy beard and a polo shirt while on holiday is much smarter than putting on a suit and tie. They have perfected normal as brand image.”

[From The Daily Beast]

So… does Kate also stop shaving on holiday? Does she grow out her leg hair and her pit hair? Does she grow out a ‘70s-style bush? Questions for another time, apparently. Yes, there’s nothing more normal-guy than growing out a greasy, sleazy-looking “beard” for a video supposedly praising Olympians (who you ignored throughout the games) and then immediately briefing your media allies: THIS WILL MAKE HARRY JEALOUS! Harry’s not jealous. He’s had a beard for more almost a decade. And all of this fussing over Harry’s beard at this point is hilariously out-of-touch. William shows up with a beard and suddenly everyone is… mad at Harry?? “He was no great respecter of the line between monarch and grandmother, between the institutional and the personal.” IT WAS FACIAL HAIR NOT A NUCLEAR WEAPON.

Photos courtesy of KensingtonRoyal and Avalon Red.

There was a constant stream of stories in 2022-23 about the Princess of Wales not wanting Prince George to attend Eton, the elite prep school. Kate has been visiting other boarding schools for a while, and reportedly she’s not even sold on sending George to a boarding school at all. She would prefer to have all of her kids at home for as long as possible. Reportedly, before her abdominal surgery in January, she even went to see another school for George. She has really been doing the most to show that Eton is not a sure thing. This is not an urgent problem really – it would be another two school years before George would potentially go to Eton anyway. But someone wants to keep this as a topic of conversation.

Unlike many 11-year-olds around the country, Prince George won’t be going to secondary school in September. The young royal will instead continue his education at Lambrook School, where he currently attends alongside Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six. The Berkshire-based prep school educates children up to the age of 13 (Year 8), meaning George will have two years before he moves on to his next school.

While the palace hasn’t confirmed his next place of education, Editor-in-Chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward claims there is a “very likely” next school for Prince George. Speaking to Fabulous, she claimed: “They [William and Kate] will have their choice of schools, and they can look at as many as they like, and they don’t actually have to make a choice nearly as early as anyone else would. So they have that advantage. They’ve looked at Eton. She [Kate] probably doesn’t want him to go to boarding school at all, and it’s possible that he won’t. But I mean, that’s what makes Eton look very likely, because it is so near to where they’re living.”

Ingrid claimed there is a key reason why Eton would be an advantage for William and Kate. She explained: “Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte will still be at their current school, and when and if George gets into Eton, which of course he will, he will just be down the road from them. Now, all this makes an enormous difference because the royals are now under such scrutiny as to how much they cost the taxpayer. The security, which is very expensive and we pay for, for these members of the Royal Family when they’re at school, is why Charlotte, Louis, and George are all at the same school at the moment. If George went to Eton, it would be quite possible to use the same string of security to look after him.”

[From The Sun]

The longer this goes on and the more of a “debate” it becomes, the more I’m convinced that this is actually something William and Kate are fighting about. I’ve long said that Kate got “her way” on the kids’ early education. I believe that the compromise was: the kids can stay at home until they’re 13, then the Windsor program commences, at least for the heir. This is all about George too – Kate will get her way on Charlotte and Louis’s education, I have no doubt. But George “belongs” to the institution and they want him to go to Eton. Kate is fighting with them about that, and they’re trying to publicly show her that she doesn’t have a choice.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.

Vice President Kamala Harris is the cover subject for this week’s Time Magazine. “The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris” is the headline, and this does not include an interview. Harris still hasn’t given a sit-down interview on TV or print media since she became the nominee. I keep going back and forth on whether that’s a smart strategy – whenever she does give an interview, it will be huge news and everyone will examine every single word (in a way they simply refuse to do for Donald Trump). Harris has always gotten a raw deal with the political press and Beltway media, and those same people seem genuinely shocked that Harris not only landed on her feet, but she’s actually polling much better than Trump nowadays. That’s what this Time cover story is about too, how the political media underestimated Harris and they’re still trying to figure out WTF just happened over the past month. Some highlights from Time:

The vibe shift: Harris has pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history. A contest that revolved around the cognitive decline of a geriatric President has been transformed: Joe Biden is out, Harris is in, and a second Donald Trump presidency no longer seems inevitable. Democrats resigned to a “grim death march” toward certain defeat, as one national organizer put it, felt their gloom replaced by a jolt of hope. Harris smashed fundraising records, raking in $310 million in July. She packed stadiums and dominated TikTok, offering a fresh message focused on the future over the past. Volunteers signed up in droves. Trump’s widening leads across the battleground states evaporated. Over the span of a few weeks in late July and early August, Harris became a political phenomenon.

Kamala in 2020 versus 2024: Where has this Kamala Harris been all along? For years, Democratic officials questioned her political chops, pundits mocked her word salads, and her polling suggested limited appeal. Her performance in the 2020 presidential primary was wooden, and her turn as Biden’s No. 2 did little to inspire confidence. Even this summer, as party insiders chattered about possible replacements if Biden stepped aside, “it was explicit from some of the major donors that she can’t win,” says Amanda Litman, the co-founder of Run for Something, an organization that trains young Democrats to run for office. “They didn’t think people were ready to elect someone like her.”

An inherited campaign: She inherited a campaign infrastructure and policy record from her predecessor, but the energy is all hers. Picking Walz as a running mate over more conventional choices signals a belief that this race is as much about feelings as it is about fundamentals. Harris’ brand shift—the happy-warrior attitude, the viral memes, the eye roll at Republican “weirdos”—has already done what no Trump opponent has ever been able to do: snatch the spotlight away from him.

Harris believes this race is fundamentally about reproductive rights: She may seem like an overnight sensation, but Harris’ moment was years in the making. Quietly, her small team of top aides had been laying the groundwork for a future presidential run. After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the Vice President added reproductive rights to her portfolio. Abortion was never a comfortable issue for Biden, a devout Catholic, but it was a natural fit for his No. 2. Harris believed that with Roe gone, Republicans would turn their sights to restricting both birth control and IVF. In the months after Dobbs, she traveled the U.S., talking about abortion rights as a matter of “reproductive freedom.” As far back as the 2022 midterms, aides say, she argued for making this the core of the party’s national message, even as the White House focused on jobs and the economy.

Harris & her advisors were planning her 2028 run: During those travels, Harris’ team assembled a spreadsheet of allies, power brokers, and potential delegates to tap if and when the time came. Every photo line, every VIP invitation, every clutch with labor leaders, every meeting with key constituencies was filed away. The goal, advisers say, was to ensure there would be allies on every delegate slate in every state in the nation. “We had a list,” says one top aide, “and we checked it twice.” The list was intended for 2028. But when Biden dropped out on July 21 and quickly endorsed Harris, it was instantly pressed into service.

What she did when Biden endorsed her: The Vice President—clad in a Howard University sweatshirt, munching pizza with anchovies—spent the next 10 hours on the phone, dialing delegates and wrangling endorsements. A day later, the nomination was all but hers. Even though other presidential hopefuls had ties to swing states or big donors, “the list was the thing that we had that they didn’t,” says a top aide. “It wasn’t a fairy godmother waving a magic wand.” Harris’ ability to sew up the nomination so quickly was a triumph of work ethic and political dexterity that foreshadowed what was to come. “To consolidate the Democratic Party in a matter of hours, to do as many visible events and establish that presence without putting a foot wrong, is a feat,” says Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary who ran against Harris for the 2020 nomination and was a finalist to become her running mate. “I don’t think anybody expected her to be so flawless.”

[From Time Magazine]

Something which goes missing in Time’s analysis is that Harris is a quick learner and she’s still being mentored by President Biden. I’m sure Harris and her team picked up the football and ran, all on their own initiative, and I’m not saying Harris’s success is due to Biden altogether. Harris has absolutely put in the work and we can tell. But Harris has also been at Joe Biden’s side for four years. He’s been preparing her and putting her in the rooms where she can learn on the job. That’s what people are missing about “what happened in the past four years, why is she suddenly so good at this” talk. They’re missing Biden’s influence and his belief in her abilities.

It’s so, so smart for Harris to completely engage with choice and reproductive rights too. She was right to argue for that in Biden’s reelection campaign and she’s right to center that conversation in the last three months of the election. After Dobbs, it became a fundamental political truth: women are f–king mad. We are so pissed off and we needed a candidate who can talk about it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Time.

The trailer for the live-action Snow White is out and real talk, I’m not a fan of any of these live-action remakes, so I think this looks equally bad as the other ones. The super-fast edits should tell you everything you need to know. [Seriously OMG]
Adele & Rich Paul’s love story. [Hollywood Life]
Interview with author Andrew Erdman. [Socialite Life]
Review of It Ends With Us. [LaineyGossip]
Billie Eilish performed at the Paris Olympics (sort of). [Just Jared]
It costs a lot to achieve the tradwife aesthetic. [Pajiba]
Daphne Guinness released new music. [OMG Blog]
More Olympic celebrity sightings! [Go Fug Yourself]
Naomi Ackie’s Ferragamo is a scroll-down fug. [RCFA]
What did Kelly Bensimon do on Scary Island? [Starcasm]
I loved the Olympic Closing Ceremony. [Buzzfeed]

One of the reasons why I’m simply incapable of giving Prince William the benefit of the doubt at this point is because he sends his people – his friends, courtiers and advisors – to smear and attack Prince Harry constantly. William thinks he’s keeping his hands clean and that we can’t see through his stupid game. Remember when Harry revealed that William had privately accepted a seven-figure settlement from News Group Newspapers, a settlement which left William deeply compromised? William’s reaction was to send his “friends” out on a briefing spree to tell everyone that William “absolutely hates Harry now and will never forgive him.” William has made his position abundantly clear for years: the next time he’ll speak to Harry will be at their father’s funeral. Well, William is currently upset that Harry and Meghan are about to upstage him. The Sussexes’ tour of Colombia starts this week (I guess??) and William’s “friend” had a lot of sh-t to say:

A friend of Prince William has told The Daily Beast that Prince Harry should apologize for taking cocaine as a young man on his and wife Meghan Markle’s forthcoming tour of Colombia, due to begin Thursday.

The friend said: “Harry admitted to doing coke in his book (Spare). His trip to Colombia should include an admission that the country has been destroyed by narco-terrorists servicing wealthy drug users in the west, and he should stand up and apologize for his own participation in that disgusting trade. That would be a helpful intervention.”

Harry and Meghan’s quasi-royal tour of Colombia is due to begin on Thursday this week. In a statement announcing the tour, the government said that the couple were going there in recognition of their “global leadership in fostering a safer online environment,” adding that this was also part of the goal of a conference dedicated to ending violence against children, to be held in Colombia this November.

Asked about the stated motivation, the friend of Prince William’s witheringly told The Daily Beast: “I can’t imagine online trolling is the biggest risk to children being exploited, enslaved and murdered by drugs gangs.”

Windsor loyalists have expressed irritation about the trip to The Daily Beast. One source recently told The Daily Beast: “I’m afraid it shows the utter contempt they have for the king and for very long-established ways of doing things. Royal tours have always, always been about diplomacy, building bridges and reinforcing friendships on behalf of Britain. This tour may well have the noblest intentions, but it is clearly not being carried out on behalf of Britain, and yet they still basically portray themselves as British royals. It shows you exactly why the royals want these two kept as far away as possible.”

The Duke wrote in Spare that cocaine “didn’t do anything for me” when he took “a line” aged 17. He also said, “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.” Harry implied in his book and in interviews that he has continued to use marijuana for mental health reasons. Marijuana remains illegal in many jurisdictions and its production and distribution has been widely linked to gang crime, slavery and other human rights abuses, as well as ecological damage.

[From The Daily Beast]

Marijuana has been widely decriminalized in many American states, and in California, it’s legal to purchase and grow marijuana. I’m not ignoring the global drug trade, but in many states these days, marijuana is literally a legal, profitable and above-board industry. I’m sure Harry is smoking Californian-grown strains, I’m just sayin’.

The swipe about cocaine is so stupid and petty from William, especially given that I’m sure he’s snorted more than a few lines in his life. I also find it really racist that William’s first instinct – and the first instinct of his team and “friends” – is to associate Colombia with drugs and narcoterrorism. Harry and Meghan are visiting Colombia at the invitation of the Colombian government, with an agenda agreed upon by the government and the Sussexes. Colombia clearly wants the Sussex sparkle and the international tourism boost which will come from showcasing their multifaceted society, all while focusing on the issues the government and the Sussexes want to discuss. The same thing happened with the Sussexes’ Nigerian tour. All of those salty, racist British people screamed about crime for weeks, but H&M’s tour made me realize that Nigeria is beautiful and a real tourist destination.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

On Saturday, Team USA’s men’s basketball team won a thrilling gold medal game against the French team. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry were doing the most to go home with gold medals and they succeeded, largely because of Steph’s three-pointers. The French people were big mad though – mad at Joel Embiid for playing for the US, mad at “the devil named Curry,” mad at Americans for creating such an iconic dream team. Tons of people came out for the game – Draymond Green, Carmelo Anthony and Sha’Carri Richardson were all sitting courtside or close to it. Steph’s family came over too, including his wife Ayesha and their children. Ayesha just gave birth to their fourth child in May – a son, Caius, who isn’t even three months old. Ayesha kept Caius in a baby carrier on her chest throughout the game, and the baby was still in the chest carrier when Ayesha tried to leave Accor Arena on Saturday night. That’s when this happened:

As the video picks up, Ayesha is already visibly upset and she’s wiping away tears as the police refuse to let her go where she and the group need to go to get to their car. Draymond Green is in the background and he ends up stepping in towards the end and providing the clue for why Ayesha is so upset – he said: “So even after you hit the baby in the head, there’s still nothing y’all can do to get them out of here?” The cops hit the baby??? I wouldn’t even be crying, I would be in jail after knocking those cops on their asses. As for why Ayesha and her group were being held back… apparently, it had to do with President Macron’s presence at the game. As in, Macron and his security were leaving first and until they left, Ayesha’s group wasn’t allowed back to their car?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Six years ago, a few months after my younger son was born, I got my first IUD (Mirena). The ob-gyn who inserted it wasn’t my regular one, but happened to be the one who ended up delivering him and coaching me through an unexpected complication that made it too dangerous for me to get an epidural. Anyway, she said I would feel a pinch and then experience cramping for 24-48 hours. Well, that pinch felt like someone had taken a wrench and tightened my uterus causing painful back cramps for two days and spotting for six months.

I wasn’t alone in my experience. Thousands of women across the US have also experienced pain during and after their IUD placement. For decades, their pain has been brushed aside, with women basically being told sh-t like “It’s not that bad,” “Take some ibuprofen,” and “Suck it up.” Those days are hopefully no more. The CDC issued guidelines last week that advised practitioners to properly warn women about how much insertion and removal will hurt. They’re also supposed to give them better options to manage any pain and discomfort afterwards.

Women started documenting their painful IUD insertions: Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that numerous women were using their smartphones to document their screams, tears and distress during the IUD insertion process. In social media posts, patients who have experienced IUD pain have described the procedure in graphic terms, including as an “explosion of cramps,” a sensation of “pulling, pushing and slicing” or being “cut or ripped open inside.”

Women’s pain is not taken seriously: Many of these patients said they were not warned of the potential for pain or given adequate options to manage it. Local anesthetics, sedation and other options are available for IUD placement, but many clinicians do not readily offer them. Research also shows that physicians and other providers underestimate pain during IUD insertions. In a study of 200 women, most of whom had given birth, the women reported an average maximum pain score of nearly 65 on a scale of 0 to 100. The providers, however, rated the women’s pain at about 35.

One size Advil fits all: Physicians have said that determining the best pain control can be difficult because patient’s preferences and experiences vary, and there are not enough effective options or guidelines on when to use them. Often, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications such as Ibuprofen are the only options recommended to help manage IUD pain, despite the fact that research shows they are largely ineffective. The CDC said health-care providers can use the recommendations, which were updated after a review of available scientific evidence in January 2023, “to support person-centered contraceptive counseling and remove unnecessary medical barriers to accessing and using contraception.”

Let’s try this again: In its previous recommendations in 2016, the CDC outlined medications “to ease IUD insertion,” suggesting the advice was aimed, at least in part, at helping the provider complete the procedure. The updated version uses more patient-centered language. The new guidance states that before placing an IUD, “all patients should be counseled on potential pain during placement as well as the risks, benefits and alternatives of different options for pain management. A person-centered plan for IUD placement and pain management should be made based on patient preference.”

The new guidance for pain control: The advice also broadens pain control options to include topical lidocaine, which may include a numbing gel or spray. The previous guidance mentioned only lidocaine injections given in the cervix called a paracervical block. Some studies show paracervical blocks can help with pain, while others have shown they do not. Although the CDC said lidocaine “might be useful for reducing patient pain,” the agency did not specifically advise clinicians to use it. The new guidance also states that misoprostol, a medication that helps soften the cervix, is not recommended for routine IUD insertions but may be useful in certain circumstances such as in cases in which previous insertions have been unsuccessful.

There’s no magic bullet: Physicians say the new guidance emphasizes that there is no one-sized-fits-all approach to pain control. “Shared decision-making is necessary to arrive at an individualized plan reflecting each patient’s unique context, values and preferences,” Monica Dragoman, system director of the complex family planning division at Mount Sinai Health System, said in an email. Lauren Kus, a complex family planning fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital, added that while the recommendations can “optimize and individualize” pain management plans, “admittedly, none of these interventions are a magic bullet to eliminate IUD insertion pain, so continued research into additional effective strategies is critical.”

[From WaPo]

Well, it’s about f-cking time this was addressed, especially since more and more women are considering IUDs in a post-Roe world where Republicans’ war on women will surely try to come for birth control. Women are often told to suck it up or deal with levels of pain and discomfort that men are simply not expected to tolerate. While I know that there are thousands of women out there that have had good experiences with their IUD in general, a lot of them also have stories about how painful the insertion was. For all they’re worth when it comes to the effectiveness of reproductive health, no one really prepares us for the side effects that come with insertion or when your body is getting used to it. The comments under the post about this story on WaPo’s Instagram account are full of testimonials.

Oh, and that IUD insertion that caused pain and months of spotting? Well, seven months later, I started having intense, targeted pain in different areas of my stomach. As it turned out, the IUD was placed while my cervix was still too soft, so it slipped through and migrated up into my stomach. (This is what I was told.) A very crazy x-ray showed it near my left rib cage. I had to have laparoscopic surgery to remove it, and it was in a completely different location when they went in, four days later. I still preferred that over the pill, so I ended up getting a new Mirena IUD put in six months later, this time by my longtime gyno. After just a day of crampy pain, I had no issues after that. Women really are expected to treat all experiences as though they affect us all in the exact same way, every time we feel them. Here’s to validating and addressing more of our experiences moving forward.

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Photos credit: Alex Green, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash and via Instagram/Dr. Jen Gunter