Publisher Health

Matchday performance of professional footballers dropped after recovering from COVID-19 with three quarters fighting fatigue for six weeks, a University of Essex study has found.
The study — published in Physiological Reports — examined top-flight soccer players for the first time and explored the impact of long Covid on elite athletes.
It found 77 per cent of those studied fought general fatigue for 37 days and 54 per cent battled muscle fatigue for 38 days after testing negative.
GPS data from 10 games after they returned to play uncovered a four per cent decline in match performance — despite no drop in lung capacity.
The study was led by Dr Michele Girardi who worked in collaboration with the University’s School of Sport, Rehabilitation, and Exercise Sciences.
He hopes the research will help improve the return-to-play protocols for sports stars recovering from the virus.

The findings were published June 9 in Cancer Discovery, and may expose another troublesome role for this microbe, which causes approximately 500,000 infections a year in the U.S. — many of which prove incredibly difficult to clear.
“The uptick of individuals under age 50 being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in recent years has been shocking. We found that this bacterium appears to be a very unexpected contributor to colon malignancy, the process by which normal cells become cancer,” says Cynthia Sears, M.D., Bloomberg~Kimmel Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy and professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Several years ago, researchers in the Sears Lab discovered that more than half of patients with colorectal cancer had bacterial biofilms — dense collections of bacteria on the colon surface — whereas 10% to 15% of healthy patients without tumors displayed biofilms. However, when the researchers infected mice with biofilm samples derived from individual people with colorectal cancer, one sample caught their attention because it markedly increased colorectal tumors in the mice. Whereas in most controls, less than 5% develop tumors, this slurry induced tumors in 85% of mice.
In additional work, the team identified a patient sample without a biofilm that similarly increased colorectal tumors in the mice. Although several bacterial species have been linked with colorectal cancer — including enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis, Fusobacterium nucleatum and a specific strain of Escherichia coli — these microbes were either absent in the tumors of these two patients (B. fragilis and E. coli) or did not successfully colonize the mice (F. nucleatum), suggesting that other bacteria were responsible for promoting the colorectal cancer cascade.
To determine which bacteria may be causing tumors in the mice, Sears, along with study co-authors Julia Drewes, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, Jie (Angela) Chen, Ph.D., Jada Domingue, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins, and colleagues performed additional experiments to see if a single bacterial species or a community of bacteria were promoting tumor formation in the mice. They noted that toxigenic C. difficile, the type of C. difficile that causes diarrhea, was absent in the samples that did not cause tumors, but was present in the samples that caused tumors in mice. When the researchers added this bacterium to the samples that originally did not cause tumors, it induced colon tumors in the mice. Further testing showed that C. difficile alone was sufficient to prompt tumor formation in the animal models.

Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer, accounting for an estimated 1.8 million deaths worldwide.
Treatment for the condition has improved in recent years — and a new Edith Cowan University study has found how to make it even more effective.
Immunotherapy has emerged as a major weapon in the battle against non-small cell lung cancer, which makes up 80-85 per cent of all lung cancer diagnoses.
Unfortunately, immunotherapy can also result in severe side effects for patients: at least 74 per cent of those treated will experience immune-related adverse reactions.
Up to 21 per cent will develop grade three or four toxicity, which can lead to lifelong complications affecting the skin, gut, liver or endocrine system.
These adverse reactions can result in cancer treatment having to be discontinued, which risks allowing the disease to progress further.

A major public health concern, traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children 0-4 and 15-19 years of age. With 308,000 average annual cases in the United States, such accidents have become frequent among school-aged children participating in sports and playground activities that involve equipment (e.g., bicycling, football, basketball, and soccer).
New research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, investigates consumer product-related traumatic brain injuries (CP-TBI) among school-aged children for a 20-year period by differentiating age groups, levels of education, and gender and evaluating trends with the time-point regression method. Their findings reveal insights that have implications for effective preventive strategies and policies.
This serial cross-sectional study utilized data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System — All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) for initial emergency department (ED) visits for CP/TBI from January 2000 to December 2019 for 6.2 million children aged 5-18 years.
The study documents a significant increase in CP-TBI incidents since 2000, accounting for more than 12% of all US hospital Emergency Department visits by school-aged children in 2019, up from 4.5% in 2000. The rate of increase stabilized overall, after peaking in 2012, to a 3.6% annual level over the entire study period. This may be attributable in part to widespread media attention and public health policies that have resulted in greater risk awareness related to contact sports, increased incident reporting, as well as more effective prevention and treatment.
CP-TBI incidence was higher among boys than girls. However, and significantly, annual percentage increases since 2013 were most elevated in girls, especially those of high-school age.
“While it appears that efforts to decrease TBI in children’s sports have been effective, our findings suggest that more focused efforts are needed among girls,” said lead investigator Tuan D. Le, MD, DrPH, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Community and Rural Health, The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center, Tyler; and Research Directorate, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, JBSA- Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA.
CP-TBI not only has a negative impact on the affected individuals, but it affects their families, schools, and healthcare as well. “Parents, athletic and activity staff and coaches, educators, care providers and support members, and children themselves all need more awareness and training on screening and when to seek care for minor and more severe TBI in children. Improved point-of-care screening needs to be developed and promoted to identify and treat injuries that are not always immediately apparent,” explained Dr. Le.
He added, “Since childhood inactivity is also a serious concern, we are faced with a difficult balancing act: How do we develop awareness on how to avoid high risk activities without discouraging children from taking part in healthy and fun exercise?”
Story Source:
Materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Exposing humans to ultraviolet radiation to test sunscreen effectiveness should be phased out, according to scientists and cancer experts.
The recommendation from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), Cancer Council Victoria and RMIT University is backed by research published in the journal Trends in Analytical Chemistry.
The paper reviews sunscreen ingredients, regulations and testing globally, and proposes a roadmap for the development of reproducible human-free sunscreen testing.
Testing sunscreens on humans is the current international standard to rate UV protection performance. This testing involves volunteers wearing a sunscreen and being exposed to artificial solar UV to measure the performance by the time taken for sunburn to occur.
However, ARPANSA Chief Radiation Health Scientist Dr Rick Tinker said this has ethical challenges as it exposes people to cancer-causing UV radiation.
“Sunscreens are an important part of sun protection and preventing serious sun damage to people — 2 in 3 Australians will develop skin cancer by the age of 70 — but we shouldn’t be risking people’s long-term health to test the effectiveness of sunscreens,” Tinker said.

Although many individuals born with congenital heart defects develop resilience and have a high quality of life, they may face a variety of health-related psychological and social challenges throughout their lives. More mental health support that is integrated into their routine health care is advised to help them achieve optimal health and quality of life, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Congenital heart defects (CHD) occur when people are born with structural abnormalities of the heart or blood vessels involving the heart. Surgery and catheter interventions are often required to address these issues. Most people with CHD survive through adulthood, with adults now outnumbering children among more than 2.4 million living with CHD in the United States. A surgical intervention, however, does not cure CHD. People may need multiple operations, and specialty heart care is required throughout their lives, especially if they were born with complex heart problems.
“Decades of research describes the psychological and social stressors and challenges that can present across the lifespan for people with CHD,” said Adrienne H. Kovacs, Ph.D., chair of the writing committee for the scientific statement and a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with people who have CHD. “It’s long overdue that we move beyond awareness to action and providing more resources and expert mental health care for people living with CHD.”
An American Heart Association scientific statement is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines. The Association’s 2011 scientific statement on a related topic addressed developmental delays and other neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with CHD. However, this is the first statement to summarize the psychological and social challenges from childhood through adulthood and to review age-appropriate mental health interventions to improve quality of life.
According to the new statement, children with more complex CHDs have a 5-times higher rate of receiving an anxiety diagnosis in their lifetime compared to children without CHD. Despite the evidence of emotional, social and behavioral difficulties, only a small fraction of children with CHD are offered or participate in mental health assessment or treatment. For adults with CHD, the rate of experiencing a mood or anxiety disorder in their lifetime is about 50%, compared to about 30% for adults in the general population.
The statement summarizes the psychosocial impact of CHD during various stages of life: Infancy — Babies may be exposed to frightening or painful procedures, and they may be separated from caregivers and family for extended periods of time for surgery or other hospitalization. In response, infants with CHD may be hypersensitive to light and sound, have difficulty feeding and sleeping or display intense fear and distress, and they may have developmental delays. Childhood — There may be additional hospitalizations and surgeries, therefore, less opportunity to play or attend school, and they may also have developmental delays. In response, children with CHD may become socially withdrawn, experience symptoms of anxiety or depression, have difficulty in school, or display aggression or hyperactivity. Adolescence — Health concerns may arise at the same time teens are striving for independence, expanding their social networks and taking on more responsibility for managing their health care as they transition from pediatric to adult care. In response, adolescents with CHD may have social difficulties, become angry, defiant or frustrated, or have body image concerns. They may also display risky behaviors or not follow health recommendations. Adulthood — There may be new or worsening heart symptoms, repeat surgeries or other cardiac interventions during adulthood, and CHD can have a negative impact on finances, employment, insurance and family planning options. In response, adults with CHD may have difficulty with interpersonal relationships, higher education or employment. They may also have trouble taking care of their health needs and become worried about death and dying.”It’s completely understandable to have a psychological reaction to living with a congenital heart defect. The condition presents numerous challenges throughout the lifespan and may include unexpected news — such as a person realizing they can no longer physically manage the demands of their job, or learning that there are significant risks to pregnancy,” said Kovacs. “Many people with CHD have tremendous resilience in the face of these challenges. At the same time, we want to normalize psychological reactions and increase the prevalence of care for psychological well-being to help people with CHD experience a full and healthy life.”

In addition to keeping city residents safer where they live, work, and play, a new analysis of data from Chicago shows that as violent crime decreases, so does the area’s death rate from heart disease. This study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, demonstrated the deep impact that violence can have not just on the individuals involved, but also in the community at large.
“It’s important to acknowledge the impact of the built environment on health,” said the study’s lead author, Lauren Eberly, MD, a clinical fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine and associate fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute. “Exposure to violent crime appears to be an important social determinant of cardiovascular health within the broader context of the ways in which structural racism harms health.”
Data from the most recent 15 years of data available out of Chicago, 2000-2014, covered an overall, significant decline in violent crime. City-wide, the decline was 16 percent total, and coincided with a 13 percent decrease in cardiovascular disease mortality.
But when the researchers examined neighborhood-level numbers, they saw that deeper declines in violent crime appeared to correlate with sharper declines in heart disease-related mortality, too. For instance, the group of neighborhoods with the greatest decrease in violent crime averaged a 59 percent drop, which correlated with a nearly 15 percent total drop in heart disease mortality. Even in the areas with the lowest change in violent crime (a 10 percent decrease), cardiovascular mortality still declined by more than 11 percent.
That the mortality rates declined less when violence crime declined less was notable.
“Because community areas that experienced the smallest decline in crime also experienced the smallest improvements in cardiovascular mortality, pre-existing disparities in mortality between neighborhoods in the city are likely to worsen over time, especially with the recent rise in crime rates in the United States,” Eberly said. “While these results represent one large, urban U.S. city that could potentially not be generalizable to other cities, we suspect that these results are likely reflective of many other large urban cities across the country.”
Research has shown that violent crime tends to disproportionately affect the areas where people of color live. While the research of Eberly and her colleagues didn’t explicitly examine the racial makeups of the neighborhoods examined, that foreknowledge shows that the study’s findings likely have strong significance.

Not enough men in Alberta, Canada — especially those in their 40s — are getting tested for diabetes, putting them at risk for heart disease, cancer and other complications, according to new population health research published today in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas.
“My main message to young men is that early diagnosis is critical because diabetes is a huge risk factor for further complications,” says lead investigator Padma Kaul, professor of medicine, member of the Alberta Diabetes Institute and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Sex and Gender Science Chair.
Almost half of adults with diabetes remain undiagnosed, the researchers report. Having diabetes doubles the risk of also developing cardiovascular disease and is associated with an increased risk of developing some kinds of cancer, according to Diabetes Canada.
When it is caught early as “pre-diabetes,” changes to diet and exercise can prevent the development of full-fledged diabetes, says Kaul, who is also co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre and Heart & Stroke Chair in Cardiovascular Research.
Diabetes Canada screening guidelines recommend that everyone over 40 get screened for diabetes at least once every three years. Various tests can be used to check blood sugar levels.
The researchers used data from Alberta’s public health-care system, to track diabetes screening rates in 1.4 million patients for three years starting in April 2013. Those who were screened for diabetes were then followed for an additional four years to see how many were diagnosed with either diabetes or pre-diabetes. People who already had diabetes or heart disease were excluded because the screening protocols are different for them.
The sex difference was most striking in the 40-45 age range: 58 per cent of males were screened within the recommended time frame compared with 72.6 per cent of females.
Overall, just under 79.8 per cent of females and 69.9 per cent of males were screened. Those differences were consistent between urban and rural settings and among different socioeconomic groups, the researchers found. The differences disappeared in people over 65.
Though males were less likely to get tested, they had a higher risk of developing diabetes. Among those who were screened, 15.7 per cent of males were found to have pre-diabetes and 2.6 per cent had diabetes, while the rates were 13.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively among females.
Diabetes screening in Alberta is usually initiated by a family physician with a lab requisition. Kaul says previous studies have shown that women are more likely to go for annual physicals. She wonders whether screening should be offered in non-traditional settings such as gyms or workplaces to help raise awareness.
“I’m actually quite pleased with how high the screening rates are overall, but we are missing this really focused segment of the population and we need to improve matters,” Kaul says.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Alberta. Original written by Gillian Rutherford. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Published21 hours agoSharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesTop symptoms that could be Covid are a sore throat or a cough, according to data from 17,500 people who said they had tested positive for the virus this week. Other common ones reported were headache and blocked nose. A high temperature or fever and loss of smell or taste – ones which the NHS list high up as likely Covid symptoms – were far less common. A hoarse voice, sneezing, tiredness and muscle aches scored higher. The top 20 Covid symptoms, in descending order, according to the data from the Zoe App study are:Sore throat – reported by 58%Headache – 49%Blocked nose – 40%Cough no phlegm – 40%Runny nose – 40%Cough with phlegm – 37%Hoarse voice – 35%Sneezing – 32%Fatigue – 27%Muscle pains/aches – 25%Dizzy light-headed – 18%Swollen neck glands – 15%Eye soreness – 14%Altered smell – 13%Chest pain tightness – 13%Fever – 13%Chills or shivers – 12%Shortness of breath – 11%Earache – 11%Loss of smell – 10%It fits with what other researchers have been seeing.NHS: What to do if you have symptomsDo I need to isolate if I have Covid? How many people still haven’t had a Covid jab?The React-1 study has, each month, been sending 150,000 randomly selected people across England swab tests to do at home. Findings from that show the symptoms people have with Covid have changed as the pandemic has evolved. It could be down to how the virus has been changing or mutating over time, scientists believe. Several Covid variants have emerged since the original Wuhan strain, with the latest one being Omicron. The React-1 researchers, from Imperial College London, say loss of sense of smell and taste appears to be less common with this variant. Instead, people are reporting more cold and flu-like symptoms. They looked at original Omicron – known as BA.1 and BA.2 – that was spreading in March 2022. Since then, two fast-spreading new subvariants of Omicron called BA.4 and BA.5 have dominated, causing more new infections. An estimated 2.7 million people in the UK, or one in 25, are thought to have Covid. Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Health Study, said: “Covid is still rampant in the population. “Even if people have had a past infection and are fully vaccinated, people are still catching it. “Although we all want to make the most of the good weather, people will need to decide for themselves whether going to large events, working from the office or using busy public transport is worth the risk.”Both the Zoe study and the React-1 study had been funded by the government until recently. More on this storyBA.4 and BA.5 Omicron: How worried should we be?1 JulyCovid infections hit 2.7 million in UK6 days ago

Roxanne Schiebergen, a writer and actress, has become skilled at navigating New York City since she was a student at N.Y.U. Then came an unexpected pregnancy.Roxanne Schiebergen, a 30-year-old writer and actress who lives in New York, was in the bathroom of her Midtown apartment when she received a text from a close friend one day in May. The text included a screenshot of a marketing flyer promoting a “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally sponsored in part by Planned Parenthood. The photo in the ad showed four women — and the woman at the center was in a wheelchair.Ms. Schiebergen said she looked at it with disbelief. She hoisted herself from the toilet and onto her manual wheelchair. She rolled herself into the living room and sent a reply to her friend in what became a marathon texting session.The friend had sent the picture because Ms. Schiebergen had told her about her experience last July with Planned Parenthood of Greater New York: The organization had canceled Ms. Schiebergen’s appointment for an abortion at its clinic on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village after she had informed a Planned Parenthood representative that she used a wheelchair, Ms. Schiebergen said.“‘We don’t do procedures for people in a wheelchair,’” Ms. Schiebergen said the person told her.Ms. Schiebergen said she felt “defeated and powerless” when the appointment was canceled. She tried pleading her case to the employee, she said. When that didn’t work, she called her doctor’s office, where health care professionals were familiar with her medical history, and she received referrals to other clinics in Manhattan. Ms. Schiebergen said she ultimately terminated the pregnancy at a clinic on East 40th Street. Her partner at the time paid the $2,000 bill, four times what Planned Parenthood charged for the procedure, she said.“We deeply regret that Ms. Schiebergen was misinformed of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s ability to provide abortion care to patients in wheelchairs,” Samuel R. Mitchell Jr., the organization’s chief operating officer, said in a statement on Sunday, after initially issuing a statement saying that the organization could not comment on Ms. Schiebergen’s case because of privacy laws.At the time of Ms. Schiebergen’s experience, Mr. Mitchell said, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York used a third-party vendor to schedule appointments. “Ms. Schiebergen’s appointment was clearly mismanaged and we sincerely apologize,” he said. “Last year, PPGNY ended its contract with that specific vendor.” The organization’s facilities comply with the American with Disabilities Act, he added.Ms. Schiebergen, who grew up in the Netherlands, the daughter of a Dutch father and an American mother, said she had been trying to put her focus on her work over the last year, including writing a pilot for a potential limited series inspired by her experiences as a woman who has been partially paralyzed since she was a baby. The show is meant to capture “all the comedy and all the pain of living in a society that doesn’t see me,” she said.The abortion, which she said she does not regret, has also been on her mind. The frustration she had felt on and off toward Planned Parenthood since the canceled appointment turned to anger when she saw the ad with the woman in the wheelchair, she said.Dressed in jeans, a long-sleeve T-shirt and black boots on a June afternoon at a busy Midtown cafe, Ms. Schiebergen sipped a matcha latte with oak milk. “I want my privacy, but I also feel called to do this,” she said of sharing the story of the difficulty she faced in getting an abortion a year before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.She described herself as a supporter of Planned Parenthood and said she believed its role was more crucial than ever. “It is my nightmare that people might think I am here to attack Planned Parenthood,” she said. “I am here to fight for people like me.”Going public with her story, she said, is an ironic reminder that the only way to get people to stop looking at her as a woman in a wheelchair is to draw attention to what it’s like to be a woman in a wheelchair.The AccidentIn July 1993, the Schiebergen family was driving through Pennsylvania to visit relatives. Ms. Schiebergen, 16 months old at the time, was in the car with her parents and three siblings when they were hit by another car.All four children and their parents were taken to hospitals in the region, Ms. Schiebergen and her mother said, and more than a day went by before doctors realized the severity of Roxanne’s injuries. Surgery revealed damage to her spinal cord, in the area below the T-6 vertebra. She would not have full use of her legs for the rest of her life.Read More on the End of Roe v. WadeDriving Car Pool?: A woman in Texas said that, under the state’s abortion ban, she and her fetus qualified for the car pool lane. The argument could go well beyond driving.Ancient Remedies: Some social media creators are suggesting certain herbs to induce an abortion. But experts urge caution.A Culture Warrior Goes Quiet: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida celebrated the end of Roe. But his hesitance to detail his plans for abortion policy in his state reflects the new and difficult political terrain for Republicans.The Right to Travel?: Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the Constitution did not allow states to stop women from traveling to get abortions. But what a state may choose to do if a resident travels to get an abortion is not clear.“Once I realized that, the pain was so intense, so incredibly intense,” Roxanne’s mother, Sandy Schiebergen, said in a phone interview.After six weeks in a Pennsylvania rehabilitation hospital, Roxy, as she is known, returned to the family home near Amsterdam. “My husband, Roxy’s father, and I both concentrated on ‘What can she do?’” Sandy said. “We looked at what she could do, not thinking about what she couldn’t do, because that was too painful.” She enrolled her daughter in mother-and-child swim classes and later signed her up for ski lessons. Then came tennis and horseback riding.“She fought every single day for me to have a normal life,” Roxy said of her mother.When Roxy was on a sixth-grade class trip, the students were tasked with running up a long trail on a steep hill. School officials told Roxy they would drive her to the top. “She would not have any of that,” Sandy said, adding that Roxy wheeled herself to the summit. “People were talking about it for a long time after,” her mother said. “My experience with her is that she doesn’t run away, not from something that’s important.”Ms. Schiebergen was severely injured in a car crash at 16 months old. “It’s a difficult existence, to have a different view of yourself than the world has of you,” she said.Shina Peng for The New York TimesShe learned to walk with leg braces and a walker, spending several hours a day standing upright, which was important for bone growth. But she preferred her manual wheelchair. “I want to be able to go fast,” she told her mother.As a side effect of the injuries, Ms. Schiebergen developed scoliosis. She underwent three surgeries as a teenager to have metal rods inserted along her spine. She spent three months in a body cast.As a tween, she developed a love of singing and performing. She joined her middle school’s production of the musical “Hair.” For her solo rendition of “White Boys/Black Boys,” the teacher overseeing the production had Ms. Schiebergen wear a costume out of keeping with the hippie-era setting: a large dress that draped over Roxy and covered her wheelchair.“They had shame that I was in a wheelchair,” she said. “It’s a difficult existence, to have a different view of yourself than the world has of you.”In 2010, she went to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to study musical theater. Learning to navigate crowded sidewalks and broken subway elevators was a challenge, but she said she loved New York life.After her graduation, in 2014, she remained in the city, auditioning for plays, doing voice-over work and modeling. She traveled through Europe and South America with her close friend, Madeline Rhodes, a performer known as MuMu. Ms. Schiebergen returned to the Netherlands in 2018, when the metal rods in her back snapped. She underwent surgery and a long rehabilitation process.The CancellationMs. Schiebergen has spent most of the pandemic in New York. By spring 2021, she had started a relationship with a man. A month or so into it, she learned she was pregnant. “I was freaking out,” she said. “I kept on taking tests.”She told few people about the pregnancy, besides Ms. Rhodes and her boyfriend at the time. Within days, she decided on an abortion. “I was in a brand-new relationship,” she said. “Having a family was something I wanted to do with someone I loved, and I didn’t know him.”Ms. Schiebergen said she called Planned Parenthood of Greater New York on July 22 and spent about 45 minutes on the phone with an employee. “I was crying from the start,” she said. The employee asked if she had any pre-existing conditions, she recalled. “I told her I had a spinal cord injury and rods in my back from scoliosis,” Ms. Schiebergen said.She did not say she used a wheelchair during the call, she added. “When people hear the word ‘wheelchair,’” she said, “they make decisions for me about what I can and cannot do without having any understanding of what I do for myself every single day.”The Planned Parenthood representative scheduled an appointment, quoting a price of $500, she said. Later that day, Ms. Schiebergen was taking her dog for a walk when someone at the organization called to confirm. “By the way,” Ms. Schiebergen said she told the caller, “I’m in a wheelchair. Just making sure you guys have an elevator.”A Planned Parenthood representative then canceled the appointment, saying the organization did not provide abortions to women in wheelchairs, Ms. Schiebergen said.“I felt like this can’t be real,” she said. “I started bargaining. I said something along the lines of, ‘I can get on a table by myself. I’m very independent.’ This was through tears.”A Planned Parenthood office in Lower Manhattan.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesPeople who work on behalf of those with disabilities said they were not surprised by Ms. Schiebergen’s case. “This happens all the time, unfortunately,” said Mia Ives-Rublee, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. She said there were not statistics available on the number of women with disabilities who encounter difficulties in getting access to abortions, in part because of the shame that surrounds the procedure.“We know there are significant issues in terms of accessibility for disabled patients of any medical clinic, and certainly abortion clinics and reproductive health clinics are included in that,” said Ms. Ives-Rublee, an author of the recent report “Reproductive Justice for Disabled Women: Ending Systemic Discrimination.”A few weeks after her abortion, Ms. Schiebergen and Ms. Rhodes went to lunch with a friend who was a disability lawyer. The lawyer had a connection to Planned Parenthood and notified someone there about Ms. Schiebergen’s experience. On Aug. 13, Ms. Schiebergen received an email, which she shared with The New York Times.“Hi Roxy,” a senior member of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s clinical staff wrote. “I am reaching out to connect with you regarding your experience while attempting to schedule an appointment last month. I am hopeful that you may be open to speaking with me and cannot express how sorry we are for the experience that you had.” (The staff member declined to comment for this article.)Nine months later, in May, Ms. Schiebergen’s friend texted her the ad showing a woman in a wheelchair and the words “Planned Parenthood.” Ms. Schiebergen said that, when she saw it, “I felt genuinely confused, like maybe I had said or done something wrong.”She decided to see if her experience was a fluke. She phoned the clinic again, this time recording the call. She told the person who answered that she was pregnant (although she was not) and wanted an abortion. “I have a spinal cord injury and I’m in a wheelchair,” Ms. Schiebergen said. “I can’t walk. I just want to make sure that that’s not an issue.” In the 22-minute call, the employee told Ms. Schiebergen that the organization could not provide an abortion for her because of her use of a wheelchair and her inability to stand on her own.Later, a Planned Parenthood representative who had been apprised of the phone conversation, called Ms. Schiebergen to ask her more questions, including about her upper-body mobility. In a third conversation, the person told Ms. Schiebergen that Planned Parenthood could, in fact, give her an appointment for an abortion. (Ms. Schiebergen shared the recordings of the calls with The Times.)“Ultimately,” Ms. Schiebergen said, “when someone who has a disability calls Planned Parenthood to schedule an abortion — which is already a frightening and chaotic experience — they should be welcomed and asked how Planned Parenthood can assist them in a way that is safe, without being told ‘no, no, no’ multiple times.”The ProtestThe day after our interview in the cafe, the Supreme Court published its decision to eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion. Ms. Schiebergen texted me to say she was going to an abortion rights rally in Washington Square Park.We met on her Midtown block. She was wearing jeans, aviator sunglasses and a T-shirt. I hailed a taxi. As Ms. Schiebergen rolled herself toward it, the driver pulled away. I hailed a second cab. When the driver saw Ms. Schiebergen wheeling toward him, he said, “I have to go pick someone else up.” Because of traffic, he wasn’t able to speed off like the previous driver. “This is every day,” she said.The third taxi driver who pulled over claimed her wheelchair wouldn’t fit in the trunk. “It will,” Ms. Schiebergen said. She put one hand on the car’s back seat, another hand on the top of the window frame and lifted herself into the car. She then slid a hand behind one of her calves and brought one leg into the cab, then the other. I took the wheelchair into the back, where it fit easily. The process took less time than it takes to get a baby and stroller into a taxi.A Brooklyn Bridge protest march for abortion rights in May, after the leak of a draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.Anna Watts for The New York TimesThe everyday discrimination faced by Ms. Schiebergen is all too common, said Robert Fuller, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Virginia. “In doctor’s offices, in taxis, in shopping malls and restaurants, this is what happens to people with paralysis every single day,” said Dr. Fuller, who specializes in high-risk maternal care, often for paralyzed women.Statistics on abortions for women with disabilities are hard to come by, Dr. Fuller added. “But what happened to Roxy is probably more common than people realize,” he said. Women with paralysis, he continued, “are excluded from conversations about reproductive care because there is an assumption, ‘Oh, they could never do that.’ In fact, paralysis does not affect fertility in women.”There is no medical reason to deny an abortion to a woman who is paralyzed just because she is paralyzed, Dr. Fuller said. But there are questions that should be answered to determine if she can safely have an abortion at a clinic, as Ms. Schiebergen did, or if she should undergo the procedure at a hospital. Those questions, he said, include: Does your mobility affect your physical ability to receive pelvic exams? Are you able to medically tolerate gynecologic exams or procedures? How high is your spinal cord injury?He added that abortion providers should ask women who use wheelchairs if they suffer from autonomic dysreflexia, a condition that afflicts some people with spinal cord injuries. If a paralyzed woman has the condition, that does not automatically mean she should have procedures only in a hospital setting, Dr. Fuller said, but a doctor familiar with her health history should be consulted.Near Washington Square Park, Ms. Schiebergen and I got out of the taxi as the rally was already underway. She wanted to take hold of an edge of a large banner that the crowd was carrying up Fifth Avenue, but she couldn’t. “I need both hands to march,” she said, rolling herself forward.The visit brought Ms. Schiebergen close to her N.Y.U. haunts, and also near the Bleecker Street clinic. She said she hoped it would welcome her and other paralyzed women who would need its services in the future.“Because if you can’t get an abortion in Greenwich Village, New York,” she said, “where can you?”