“I think most of us are going into this Tuesday knowing that regardless of what the actual electoral college says about who the winner is, that doesn’t mean the next few months won’t be that scary,” Clancy said. . “So we’ve been enduring stress for months, but we also have the stress of anticipation that comes with looking at the next few months and not knowing what it will bring.”

Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, continues her advocacy for reproductive freedom as its co-creator. abortion in america and co-founder of abortion access bot CharlieHe described the election as a “long-term struggle”.

“There is a lot at stake in this election,” he wrote in an email. V.F.. “So yes, millions of women and their family members, doctors, and community members are incredibly worried about the consequences of this election. Because this is deeply personal.”

“As women understand what some of the symptoms are and can relate that to election stress or anxiety, that also helps say, ‘Okay, I’m not crazy,’” Rohr-Kirchgraber said. “I have never seen before the division, the anger, the hatred, the hostility when Trump started running. The stress they come from.”

Time and time again, I have seen people move from skepticism to awareness of the truth as we talk about this phenomenon. I have repeatedly heard the word “crazy” used as a self-descriptor when relating their physical symptoms to their emotional state; This is a self-defeating trend with deep historical roots. After all, the word “hysteria” comes from the woman’s belly: Greek hystericalIt means “suffering in the womb.”

Hart expressed concern that repeated blows to public health, including contested elections, restrictive policies and the impact of Covid-19, would lead to a situation from which the population may never fully recover.

“I don’t know if things will get better, if things will calm down, if things will really start moving forward,” he said. “Or have we truly broken people so much that we can’t take them back?”

“I’ve definitely been seeing those kinds of changes over the last year, a lot more anxiety, a lot more fear, and even this week, these last few days, it seems like everyone is waiting with bated breath.” he said.

Rohr-Kirchgraber also expressed frustration with the legal limitations on the care he can provide, for which the principle of “first do no harm” threatens him with losing his medical license or facing prison time.

“I feel like I’m a politician standing in my exam room telling you what to do. “And they didn’t go to medical school, they didn’t go into health care,” he said. “Why are they with me? I don’t need them, nor do my patients. They need to be able to make the appropriate decision that works for them, and I need to be able to provide them with the care they need.”

“I feel like part of my joy and optimism has kind of gone away because of the results of the last two elections,” said mom Katie, who suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst. “I can’t imagine it getting any worse than it is, so when there’s a chance it could get worse, my uterus might be deciding to burst.”