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When Paul Hinds found out he had advanced prostate cancer, hormone-blocking medication wasn’t his first option, nor his second or third. Two years after he was diagnosed, and after having his prostate removed, his doctors determined that the cancer metastasized. At this point, the only way to stop the cancer from spreading further was to drastically lower Hinds’ testosterone.
So his doctor prescribed a drug called Lupron Depot, which signals the body to stop producing testosterone. It’s administered by injection, and it has to be given in a medical setting. Each shot is effective for three months, and Hinds got two of them.
When the bills arrived, Hinds was shocked. The high costs were a result of a combination of factors, including a patent extension on the drug, and administrative fees incurred during the appointments where the shot was administered. And as it turned out, there was a much cheaper option.
Are you scratching your head over a weird medical bill? Want KHN and NPR to look into it? Tell us about it, and you could be featured on Bill of the Month! |
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Millions of Americans get concussions each year, and many of them are female. Neurologists know that women report more symptoms than men after a head impact, like dizziness, light sensitivity, and memory issues – but they don’t know why.
Schools, teams and medical professionals rely on three important organizations – including the International Conference on Concussion in Sport – to help guide concussion diagnosis and protocols. In a new analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers looked at the studies that the three organizations use to back up their guidance. The participants in these studies, they found, were only 19.9% female.
Julianne Schmidt, a concussion researcher at the University of Georgia and one of the study's authors, says we need to know more about how concussions affect women and girls differently. "The doctor that's treating an NFL player on the sideline is using the same statements and guidelines that a pediatrician is using to treat a 14-year-old soccer player who's female," Schmidt said. "We can't just assume that women are miniature males."
Plus: The NFL just changed its concussion policy, again. Here’s what’s new.
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.
All the best,
Andrea Muraskin and your Shots editors |
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