Today at Ms. | August 31, 2026 - With Today at Ms. —a daily newsletter from the team here at Ms. magazine—our top stories are delivered straight to your inbox every afternoon, so you’ll be informed and ready to fight back.
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‘That’s Just Aging’ Is Not a Diagnosis
By Lucy McBride | As a physician, I was trained with the same mantra: that hormone therapy was only for women who were absolutely miserable, and that if we were to prescribe it, it was for the least amount of time at the smallest dose.
That was completely wrong.
In 2002, part of the Women’s Health Initiative study was halted prematurely for a press release that essentially stated that hormone therapy caused breast cancer—when in actuality, the women who took estrogen alone (those without a uterus) actually had a reduced risk for breast cancer.
The mangling of that messaging is in large part responsible for scaring a generation of physicians off prescribing hormone therapy and terrifying generations of women away from taking the very things—estrogen and progesterone—that improve the immediate symptoms of menopause (such as hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and recurrent UTIs) and prevent the long-term consequences of estrogen depletion like osteoporosis, heart disease and premature cognitive decline.
Every time you refuse to accept a doctor telling you, “That’s just aging,” you aren’t just advocating for yourself. You’re doing structural work. You’re demanding to be seen as a full person, not as a set of body parts.
The questions women ask in exam rooms are how the gap between medical evidence and clinical practice closes. It’s how we close the disparity between men’s health and women’s health.
Health, after all, isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions—of yourself, and of the people responsible for your care.
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Was Mary Oliver a Feminist?
By Livia Follet | From Pinterest boards to classroom walls, Mary Oliver’s words have become popular in a way that most poets could only dream. People have even gone as far as to call her “Saint Mary.”
But in a new documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World , director and producer Sasha Waters presents Oliver with complexity, hoping that more people will read her poetry with the poet behind it in mind.
“I think there’s also this way in which she becomes a little flattened and one-dimensional through the way that she circulates now,” says Waters. “Understanding that she was very much a complicated person and woman until the end of her life is what I hope people take away from her.”
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‘Everybody Needs Somebody’: A Single Mother on Guaranteed Income, Community and Making It Work
By Candace | Front & Center , a series from Ms. magazine and Springboard to Opportunities, puts the voices of Black women most affected by today’s policy debates at the center of the conversation. The series highlights the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which provides Black mothers living in federally subsidized housing with $1,000 per month for one year.
Candace, a 33-year-old mother of three from Jackson, Miss., received one year of guaranteed income through the trust. She is working toward her life insurance license and dreams of starting a business helping people with cancer find high-quality wigs—all while building a more secure future for her children.
“Motherhood is hardest when you’re doing it by yourself, period,” Candace writes. “I want people to understand that the only way this works is if we help each other. There is no way around it. Everybody needs a community. Everybody needs somebody.
“Everything I do is based around my kids. Don’t invite me if my kids can’t come.
“The help that is supposed to be available for working mothers through government programs can be iffy. Unless you are completely unemployed, it can feel like you do not receive anything. But we are still struggling. We still live paycheck to paycheck, and people expect us to provide food out of that too. It is not realistic.”
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Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, at MsMagazine.com, ([link removed]) Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) or wherever you listen to podcasts.
In this episode, Dr. Goodwin breaks down what the latest Supreme Court ruling on voting rights actually says and what it doesn’t. (Of course, it means everyone’s hair is on fire.) Given that this Supreme Court has tried in every way possible to make it more difficult for people to vote, dismantling the Voting Rights Act—an act that had been supported over the years by both Republicans and also Democrats—what hot mess is next?
[link removed] We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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