After courageously speaking out about her experiences with sexual harassment and mental health challenges in her book, "Making a Scene," with a precursor on social media, Constance Wu has received more compassion than the last time she expressed herself online -- a moment where she faced tremendous backlash that ultimately led to a suicide attempt. While the "Fresh Off the Boat" actress felt heartened by the response of Asian American women to sharing her story, she admitted that she felt "disappointed" in male Asian American activists' silence.

"I feel honestly a bit disappointed in our most prominent Asian American activists' relative silence on issues that have to do with sexism, feminism and sexual harassment," the "Crazy Rich Asians" star told TheWrap at the Makers Conference. "The amount of space they allot for women is paltry compared to the amount of space that they allowed for 'general Asian issues.'"

Wu underscores that advocacy for the Asian American community must take an intersectional approach, saying, "You can't stand for Asian Americans if you don't also actively stand for Asian American women."

"Even if you're quiet, even if you quietly support it, that's not active," Wu said. "You have to be as vocal as you are about other things."

Since releasing her book, comprised of a collection of personal essays, Wu has opened up about being sexually harassed by an Asian American producer during her first couple of years on "Fresh Off the Boat," though she has not named her abuser. In her book, she also recalls confiding in a male Asian American figure in the industry about the abuse, who failed to show concern about her safety and lauded her abuser at an event not much later.

After her suicide attempt, Wu stepped away from social media and Hollywood for three years as she recovered and prioritized her health. While the author has advocated for mental health to be destigmatized, she says entertainment "does a better job than most other industries in terms of talking about the importance of it."

Where the industry can improve, however, is in providing more resources for those experiencing mental health challenges and improving awareness of these resources -- something Wu certainly did not know about in the early stages of her career.

"When I was on my first year of 'Fresh Off The Boat' I had only ever worked as a waitress really before [and] I didn't even know what an HR department was, or what they did," Wu said, adding that during this time, which was before the #MeToo movement, she didn't know if the HR department handled health insurance. "To have knowledge [that] there is a resource to go to that is there for you -- to not just have it but to know what it is, and to tell your people what it is and what it offers -- I think is very cool."

Though Wu has been uplifted by the reception of her story, she says the best part happened before "Making a Scene" hit the press. "Writing it, and being as honest as I was, feels like a great relief," Wu said. "That's the prize."

Male Birth Control Options Are In Development, But A Number Of Barriers Still Stand In The Way

In the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, developing more contraception options for everyone becomes even more important.

Women and people who can become pregnant have a number of effective birth control methods available, including oral pills, patches, injections, implants, vaginal rings, IUDs and sterilization. But for men and people who produce sperm, options have been limited. Two options, withdrawal and condoms, both have high failure rates. Withdrawal has a failure rate of about 20%. Condoms have a failure rate of only 2% when used correctly, but that rate rises to 13% based on how people typically use them. Vasectomies have a failure rate of less than 1%, but they require minimally invasive surgery and are seen as a permanent method of contraception. Neither vasectomies nor withdrawal protect against sexually transmitted infections.

There has not been a new form of male birth control since the introduction of the “no-scalpel vasectomy” in the 1980s. I, along with my team, have been developing male contraception methods since the 1970s. I believe that new safe, reversible and affordable contraception options can help men participate and share contraceptive responsibilities with their partners, and reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies.

Taking responsibility for family planning

A 2017 survey of 1,500 men ages 18 to 44 found that over 80% wanted to prevent their partner from getting pregnant and felt that they had shared or sole responsibility for birth control.

Men who are dissatisfied with condoms are more likely to either use withdrawal as a form of birth control or never use contraception. Of those dissatisfied with condoms, however, 87% percent are interested in new methods for male contraception. This translates to an estimated 17 million men in the U.S. who are looking for new methods of contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies.

Similarly, a 2002 survey of over 9,000 men in nine countries over four continents found that over 55% would be willing to use a new method of male birth control. Importantly, a 2000 survey across three continents found that 98% of women would trust their partner to use a male birth control method.

Barriers to male contraception

Strong interest in a new male contraceptive raises the question of why there haven’t been any new male birth control methods since the ‘80s.

Male contraception development has primarily been supported by governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization working with academic medical centers. However, these agencies frequently do not have a drug development infrastructure comparable to pharmaceutical companies, with programs typically run by only a handful of personnel assisted by clinical research organizations. Limited financial resources further slow down development.

Lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies may also play a role in deterring male contraception development, and there are a number of possible reasons the drug industry shies away from male birth control. One reason includes weighing the cost of development with uncertainties about the potential market. Other reasons include uncertainties about who would dispense these drugs and unclear regulatory requirements for male contraceptive methods to receive FDA approval. Companies may also be concerned about liability if pregnancy occurs.

New methods currently in development

Researchers are currently looking into several different methods of male contraception.

Hormonal methods are usually taken as a gel applied to the skin, injection to the muscle or oral pill. These methods typically contain testosterone and a progestin. The progestin suppresses two pituitary hormones that control the testes, the organs that produce sperm. While the testes require high concentrations of testosterone to make sperm, testosterone is typically included in hormonal methods to ensure that there is an adequate level of the hormone for other bodily functions. Counterintuitively, taking testosterone may also help suppress sperm production, because increasing circulating testosterone levels above a certain level suppresses the same two pituitary hormones. The addition of a progestin further enhances the suppression of sperm production.

The hormonal contraceptive candidate furthest along in development is currently in an ongoing second stage clinical study that has recruited over 400 couples across four continents. I served as the principal investigator of this trial at the Lundquist Institute. The results of the study, sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Population Council, have so far been promising with minimal side effects, and the couples have found the gel acceptable to use.

My team and I are also developing drugs that function like both testosterone and progestin, but in a single compound. These drugs are currently undergoing early testing in people as a daily oral pill or a long-acting injection.

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=wYXI0Vt9oPU

Nonhormonal methods typically involve drugs that specifically target sperm-producing organs to decrease sperm concentration or function. Nonhormonal drugs show efficacy in animal models, but preclinical toxicology results are needed before clinical studies to demonstrate safety, tolerability and efficacy in people can begin. A few of these methods are working toward first-stage clinical trials.

Another nonhormonal method involves reversibly blocking the vas deferens, an organ that transports sperm for ejaculation. Studies sponsored by the Male Contraceptive Initiative and Parsemus Foundation are testing hydrogels, a type of polymer that retains water, that block sperm from traveling through the vas deferens.

People are ready for new contraceptive methods. I believe that collaboration across academic, government, nonprofit and pharmaceutical sectors can help deliver new birth control methods that are safe, reversible, acceptable and accessible to all. DM/ML

Christina Chung-Lun Wang is a Physician and Investigator at Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.

In case you missed it, also read Men’s fertility also declines with age — here’s what to know if you’re planning to wait to have kids

https://www.Dailymaverick.Co.Za/article/2022-09-05-mens-fertility-also-declines-with-age-heres-what-to-know-if-youre-planning-to-wait-to-have-kids/

The Good Nurse’ Gives A Sadistic Male Nurse Who May Have Killed 400 People The Hollywood Treatment

Netflix

Charles Cullen was sentenced to 18 consecutive life sentences for the deaths of 29 people and, over the course of his 16-year nursing career, he may have been responsible for as many as 400 murders. Given his prolific awfulness, then, it’s too bad that The Good Nurse, Danish director Tobias Lindholm’s adaptation of Charles Graeber’s 2013 book about his capture, is so muted and listless. Handsomely mounted and featuring gripping performances from Academy Award winners Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain, it’s a thriller that—for better and, too often, for worse—plays like a stifled scream.

The Good Nurse (on Netflix Oct. 26) opens in 1996 Pennsylvania with Charles (Redmayne) staring blankly at a flatlining patient, Lindholm’s camera zooming in to gaze into the hospital nurse’s passive eyes. That stare, as well as a slightly hunched posture in which his arms barely swing as he walks, imply that something is terribly wrong with Charles. Redmayne ably evokes the man’s inner vacancy as well as his ability to mask that hollowness with a façade of cheer, and Charles subsequently comes across as a rather friendly and accommodating health care provider to fellow nurse Amy Loughren (Chastain) upon beginning a new job at a New Jersey hospital. For Amy, who’s dealing with a potentially fatal heart condition, Charles is a godsend, more than willing to help pick up her slack both at work and at home, where she’s struggling as the single mom of two young daughters, the older of whom resents her constant absence.

Netflix Just Dropped a Horror Anthology Series That Is to Die For

Amy is a kind and caring presence for her patients, including an ailing woman who can barely take a painless sip of water, and considering Charles’ supportiveness, Amy is more than willing to put her and others in his care. The Good Nurse’s aesthetics, however, suggest that something sinister is simmering beneath its placid surface. Partnering with cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, Lindholm coats everything in the subdued blue-gray hue of ER scrubs, and he routinely frames his characters in doorways, hallways. And other constricting structures to amplify his claustrophobic atmosphere—all while simultaneously stranding silhouetted figures in empty space. From a formal standpoint, including with regard to Biosphere’s foreboding score, the film is strikingly manicured, albeit to a degree that asphyxiates any air of suspense.

Story continues

Red flags appear when detectives Danny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha, formerly of the NFL) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich) are called to the hospital by a risk officer (Kim Dickens) who wants them to look into the aforementioned patient’s unexpected demise, which happened when both Amy and Charles weren’t on duty. What’s strange isn’t that the administration is concerned about this death but that they’ve already conducted a seven-month internal investigation into the matter and won’t turn it over to the cops. They also won’t allow them to speak to any staffers without having Dickens’ executive present, all of which makes Baldwin suspect that a cover-up is afoot—and that the motivation is money.

While Baldwin and Braun are puzzled about what’s going on here, The Good Nurse so doggedly fixates on Amy and Charles—the latter of whom resembles a sociopath pretending to be a sympathetic human—that there’s no real mystery regarding who’s responsible for the untimely passings that become a regular occurrence in the duo’s ER. The question is only how Charles is committing his crimes, and when Amy will deduce that her new BFF is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The latter of those two queries is answered by the film’s midpoint, when Amy’s clandestine review of medical files reveals that her hospital’s inexplicable fatalities are the result of lethal increases in insulin levels—something that could only be caused by mistaken (or deliberate) doses of unnecessary drugs.

As a tireless professional trying to do right by herself and her kids, Chastain is magnetic enough to keep one invested in Amy’s personal and Charles-related plights, even as The Good Nurse eventually opts to take a cheesy route by having her temporarily land in his medical care—a wannabe-anxious twist that, like everything else about the film, is handled with a somber gravity that smothers tension. Chastain radiates warmth and kindness. But the material is too downcast to let it shine through, and as a result, even her friendship with Charles feels low-key and ho-hum. It’s Asomugha who truly cuts through the gloom to deliver a captivating turn as a sleuth intent on proving that which he knows to be true, and his scenes with Emmerich and Dickens wind up being the proceedings’ early highlights.

The Good Nurse is the story of a bad man and the noble woman who—upon learning of his evil—attempted to stop him, although nestled within that narrative is a more intriguing portrait of institutional villainy. Krysty Wilson-Cairns’ script paints hospitals as akin to the Catholic Church, shuffling off its wrongdoers to new facilities (rather than alerting the authorities) as a means of avoiding liability. It’s a fundamentally corrupt system that places profit above all else, as similarly evidenced by the fact that ailing Amy stays on the job (regardless of the hazards to her health) in order to qualify for insurance. Unfortunately, though, the film doesn’t elaborate on that thread, choosing to merely point a damning finger before turning its attention back to Charles and Amy’s dynamic, which is complicated by Amy’s recognition that her buddy is a monster (who’s injecting unnecessary narcotics into IV bags) and her ensuing collaboration with Baldwin and Braun to coax a confession out of him.

Whereas Lindolm’s prior Another Round brimmed with exuberant life, The Good Nurse is stately, economical and mechanical, going through its true-crime motions with maximum polish but minimal excitement. A late outburst by Redmayne’s Charles shatters the monotony, exposing the incomprehensible mania compelling the man to assassinate the sick and elderly. That gesture, however, is too fleeting to make a lasting impact, and the film’s textual-coda admission that Charles never explained why he killed so many—this coming on the heels of sketchy hints that he was driven by traumatic mommy issues—is in keeping with action’s general opacity. Redmayne may effectively convey the frightening void within Charles, yet Lindholm’s English-language debut never plumbs its depths.

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