Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
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A mobile clinic is on a Missouri road trip offering free vasectomies this week. The trailer stopped Thursday in St. Louis and also will visit clinics in Springfield and Rolla.
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Officials on Monday announced Washington University's Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital would no longer offer puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgeries to minors, even those who are exempt from a newly enacted ban on treatment for transgender youth.
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In a letter Wednesday to Missouri Department of Social Services Director Todd Richardson, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services assessed how well the state is complying with rules for disenrolling people from health insurance programs for poor and disabled people. The average person calling the social services helpline had to wait 48 minutes to talk to someone.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey terminated a rule that would have placed restrictions on which transgender patients could obtain hormones and other gender-affirming treatment. Bailey said the rule is no longer necessary because the Republican-controlled legislature has passed its own restrictions.
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The National Women’s Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed suit Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court on behalf of 13 faith leaders in Missouri. The lawsuit claims Missouri’s so-called trigger ban and other laws restricting abortion access violate residents’ religious freedom.
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Scientists at the University of Missouri have found mutations in the monkeypox virus are likely making it less responsive to medicines. The four-person team studied strains of the virus going back decades.
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The St. Louis Department of Health will soon hire 14 new staff members to create the bureau, which will address the lack of treatment options for drug addiction and mental health problems.
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A $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation will fund the project, a collaboration among eight partner institutions in Missouri and Illinois.
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After weeks of requiring people to submit online eligibility forms to receive the monkeypox vaccine, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is now letting clinics determine eligibility for the shots. LGBTQ advocates fear the online form, which asks questions about sexual behavior, discourages some people from seeking the vaccine.
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During the first month of a national mental health crisis line, calls to Missouri mental health centers have gone up 30%, state officials said. The three-digit 988 line routes all calls to suicide prevention hotline crisis centers.