🚨🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Final days to submit applications for these or other PhD positions within @genderinsight.bsky.social. Reach out if you have any last minute questions.

🚨 Exciting news: the protocol paper of our prospective cohort study has just been published!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A short thread about the background, aim and methods of our study 🧵:

Opinie: De universiteit is geen talkshowtafel De druk op academische vrijheid komt niet vanuit studenten, maar vanuit politieke partijen die zich willen bemoeien met de inhoud van colleges. Ook media dragen daar aan bij door onvoldoende kritisch ...

The coffee read: #Nederland #Universiteit #AcademicFreedom #HigherEd #HogerOnderwijs
www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin...

Brave decision Doris, any company would be so lucky to have you! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

We're working with a young and talented team of people, and I'm very excited to see what new insights this project will bring!
Want to know more about PME or the TIDE project? See our website (in Dutch, but should translate to English easily): www.TIDEstudy.com

Exciting news: the TIDE study, my study about premenstrual exacerbation (PME) of depression, has started!
In the coming year, we aim to include 60 participants with depression and a regular menstrual cycle to examine the prevalence and trajectories of PME in depression. 📈👩🏼‍🏫

Women's reproductive mental health: currently available evidence and future directions for research, clinical practice and health policy Sex and gender differences in the epidemiology of mental disorders are well documented. Less well understood are the drivers of these differences. Reproductive health represents one of the gendered d...

This paper is a great read!
It addresses the overlap between mental health and reproductive changes in women/females thoughout the lifespan, while addressing the role of biological factors, stigma and social factors.

Very necessary in the current climate📄👏🏻!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Shoutout to the enthousiastic tram driver who encouraged us to take a picture🫶🏻

A very fun discovery today: while ago I contributed to a local newspaper article about contraceptive choices, and apparently the newspaper printed the article with its (gorgeous) cover art as part of a promo on an Amsterdam tram! Love to see it @parool.nl

This is so important and so useful to quantitatively show the impact of PMDD on loved ones as well, great work🤩!

So exciting, well done👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!

Our talented interns turned one of our recent papers into this nice infographic🤩. Check it out!

Chair of VNVA handing over petition and letter about US censoring sex, gender and diversity in health research and education to Dutch parliament

VNVA, LNVH and www.mobielebrigades.nl with Dutch parliamentarians handing over petition and letter about US censoring sex, gender and diversity in health research and education to Dutch parliament, 15 April 2025

On 15 April we delivered our petition and letter to Dutch parliamentarians: stand up against censorship of sex, gender and diversity in health research and education, and protect gender- and diversity-sensitive healthcare! #Science4EveryBody
@smoertelt.bsky.social
@hormonogo.bsky.social

Our project is now on BlueSky @affirmrelation.bsky.social! Be sure to follow so you can stay up to date on our projects on gender-affirming hormones, social health and well-being🥳🏳️‍⚧️

Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

Inexplicably, US administration has launched an unprecedented assault on science, on research institutions & on vital international organizations & initiatives.

An assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere; the global community must unite
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We did a thing today….have a look at our opinion piece in @volkskrant.nl today with a lost of more than 300 first supporters. We need to protect the focus on #sex and #gender in #healthcare everywhere!

#WomenInStem @radboudumc.bsky.social

With massive thanks to @smoertelt.bsky.social , Sanne Peters, @petraverdonk.bsky.social and Irene Göttgens, and thanks to the many who co-signed in solidarity 🙏🏼

We hope this article raises awareness in Dutch and European societies and calls institutions into action to actively protect their research(ers) 💪🏽🧑🏼‍🏫!

Opinie: Bewaak de kwalitatief goede en inclusieve gezondheidszorg tegen censuur uit de VS De regering-Trump trekt een spoor van vernieling door de Amerikaanse wetenschap met haar oorlog tegen ‘woke’. Ook in Nederland zijn de gevolgen voelbaar.

Find the article here www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin... or here: archive.is/q8VfK.

You can read the English translation and co-sign this article here: docs.google.com/forms/d/17HX...

In our article, we highlight the consequences of the restricties in academic freedom in the US. We call upon Dutch institutions to proactively protect research into sex, gender and diversity, because ultimately better and more diverse research benefits us all.

Most academics are aware of the developments un the US, but outside of academia many people are not aware of the threats that our US colleagues are facing, especially those working on sex, gender or diversity. These developments pose a big threat to science and healthcare worldwide.

We (a group of Dutch researchers) wrote an opinion article calling to protect academic freedom and research on sex and gender. The article was co-signed by over 300 academics, healthcare professionals and stakeholders, and it was published in a national newspaper (de Volkskrant) today!

Amazing, congratulations!!

Medical journal editors must resist CDC order and anti-gender ideology The news that on 31 January 2025 the Trump administration instructed scientists employed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to withdraw or retract articles from medical and sci...

ATTENTION: ALL JOURNAL EDITORS.
Have the courage that Jocalyn Clark and Kamran Abbasi at the BMJ have displayed here.
Call all this out for what it is. And then refuse to comply.

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Congrats, this looks great ✨️!

Lastly, I'm a big advocate for better sex- and gender-sensitive research and healthcare, especially in research in psychiatry and mental health. I also have a broad interest in measurement of mental health outcomes, sex hormones, and trans health!

In addition to my work on the Affirm Relationships project, I was recently awarded an @amsterdamumc.bsky.social Startstipendium grant to study premenstrual exacerbation (PME) in depression in a project called the TIDE study. It's still in an early stage, but stay tuned for more news on the project!

We recently published a preprint of one of our secondary data projects, in which we examined changes in affect variability during the first 12 months of gender-affirming hormones. Find the preprint here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... and stay tuned for more projects to come!

I am currently working with Dr. David Doyle (@dsquared.bsky.social) on the Affirm Relationships project, in which we examine social health in trans people and the effects of gender-affirming care on social health. We are setting up new studies on trans health, but also using secondary data!

In my PhD, I studied the effects of oral contraceptives and gender-affirming hormone therapy on sleep, insomnia, and depression.

In June I defended my thesis! You can find the online version of my thesis here: research.vu.nl/en/publicati...