Sometimes using a wheelchair means you can no longer get to the places that used to be important to you, and not because of man-made inaccessibility. I have sat with someone as they cried because they could no longer visit the place they had scattered a loved one’s ashes because not even the most expensive wheelchair in the world could handle the terrain. As much as I wanted to, my wheelchair meant that I couldn’t position myself in a way that would allow me to give them a proper hug. In that moment, our wheelchairs felt more like heavy weights than freedom.

And sometimes wheelchairs are like the legs of someone who can walk but would maybe benefit from a wheelchair themselves. Sometimes wheelchairs are exhausting and painful and you’re counting down the time before you’re able to be lifted into bed. Sure, like painful legs, you can do more with them than without, but constantly performing gratitude for something that hurts you is exhausting. And again, not because you need a better wheelchair, but because those are the limits of your body and the technology that exists.

Months ago, a team at Monash University sent out a survey proposing options for renaming PCOS. The current name is a misnomer (not everybody has polycystic ovaries).

Unfortunately a lot of their proposed options sucked (like adding "female" to the name ugh).

They have now sent out a NEW survey BY EMAIL to the people who filled in the previous survey. The new survey contains a bunch of new proposed names.

The url they send is unique to each respondent and there does not appear to be a public URL.

The deadline to fill in this NEW survey is January 31.

Some of the names proposed have me upset. They are pushing to add "gynecological" or "gyne" to the name. It feels like they remain VERY intent on gendering the new name.

Despite their own research finding that "spectrum" is more popular than "syndrome" among folks with PCOS, they have completely once again dropped "spectrum" from the available options. (Sigh.)

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