Erica Evans

Excited for a journey into body literacy and fertility awareness? Join me for Body Literacy 101, an immersive 6-week online class series delving into the symptothermal fertility awareness method! Explore your body’s signals, master charting techniques, and embrace FAM’s empowering insights. Dive into 7.5 hours of interactive learning with personalized sessions and resources for an enriching adventure. To register: ericaevans.com/bodylit101

Enrollment closes next week!

May is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder Awareness Month!

As evidenced by the EDS Maternity Interview Study from hEDS Together, hypermobile EDS and hypermobility spectrum disorder were estimated for the first time to affect 6 million pregnancies around the world annually. This equals just under 1 in 20 pregnancies overall.

What does this mean? That cases of hEDS and HSD should no longer be considered rare in pregnancy! And yet so many healthcare providers still have little knowledge and are under-prepared to provide appropriate care for folks with these conditions.

A little over six months ago, Ziah McKinney and I, as EDSers and people in the reproductive health and birth world, felt curious and wanted to see how the EDS and hypermobility community would respond to some questions on our minds related to reproductive health/lifecycle, and in some instances how would those responses compare to the scientific research on these topics. So for EDS/HSD Awareness Month we wanted to share some of our community’s responses to these questions.

Please keep in mind this survey is not scientific research, rather a patient-led community survey and should not be taken as medical advice or scientific research. We will point out and share specific pieces of scientific research throughout the month. We’d also like to direct you to the work of Sally Pezaro, Gemma Pearce, and Emma Reinhold at hEDS Together who conduct invaluable scientific research on these topics.

If you haven’t read the “EDS Maternity Interview Study” or “A clinical update on hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome during pregnancy, birth and beyond” yet, we highly recommend them! They can be found at the hEDS Together website. Please note: these research papers use the terms men and women to describe people assigned male and female at birth. https://hedstogether.com/projects/eds-maternity-interview-study/ and https://www.britishjournalofmidwifery.com/content/clinical-practice/a-clinical-update-on-hypermobile-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-during-pregnancy-birth-and-beyond