Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women's health:

📊 Half of American women fear medical bills more than cancer. A Cleveland Clinic survey found nearly 50% are more worried about affording care than developing cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer's.

💊 The Supreme Court's reprieve on a mifepristone telehealth ban lifts Monday. Justice Alito's temporary order keeping the pill available by mail expires May 11, just as once-loyal anti-abortion leaders publicly turn on Trump for letting it keep flowing.

🩺 A small upside to PCOS, finally. Women with the condition reach menopause later and report 32% fewer symptoms, including 41% fewer hot flashes, than women without it.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

Using over-the-counter drugs to treat menopause symptoms? Think again, doctor advises — CNN

As the estrogen patch shortage continues, these women are meeting with the FDA — USA Today

AI can detect breast cancer risk before humans. Why it may take hospitals a while to adopt the tech — WBUR

ACOG 2026: New Study Shows Preventive Care Use Low After Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy — Patient Care Online

Study: New preeclampsia treatment may safely extend pregnancy — EurekAlert / Cedars-Sinai

Maria Shriver highlights new survey on women's health, financial strain — WTHR

PCOS Linked to Later Menopause and Fewer Symptoms — Medscape

Tonight: women fear a healthcare bill more than a potentially deadly diagnosis, the estrogen patch shortage just landed at the FDA's doorstep, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

WOMEN ARE MORE AFRAID OF THE BILL THAN THE DIAGNOSIS

A Cleveland Clinic survey found nearly half of US women are more worried about affording healthcare than they are about getting cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer's. Maria Shriver presented the findings Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic Global Women's Health + WAM Forum. (If you click on the link, scroll down to see this specific story.)

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ONE IN TEN WOMEN JUST QUIT HRT BECAUSE OF A SHORTAGE

Almost half of women on hormone replacement therapy say they can't reliably fill their estrogen patch prescriptions, and one in ten have stopped treatment entirely, per an 8,000-woman Midi Health (informal) survey across 49 states. Patches have been short since January. Midi's CMO and a group of patients met with the FDA on Wednesday to push for action and pointed at the manufacturers, not demand, as the cause: Bayer stopped producing patches in 2023, and Sandoz says the patches are unusually complex to make.

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MEET THE COURT THAT KEEPS GETTING REVERSED

The appeals court that gutted telehealth access to mifepristone last week is the most-reversed appeals court in the country, with the Supreme Court overturning 10 of 13 of its decisions last term. Trump appointee Judge Kyle Duncan wrote the opinion, arguing Louisiana has standing to sue because it once paid Medicaid for two abortion-pill complications. Legal observers note that's an even thinner claim than the doctors' standing argument SCOTUS unanimously rejected in 2024.

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MAMMOGRAM AI WORKS. INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER IT.

AI tools that read mammograms can flag breast cancer risk years before doctors notice it. A UMass Memorial pilot using MIT's Mirai algorithm caught six already-existing cancers in 145 high-risk women on its own. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network added AI risk assessment to its 2026 screening guidelines, but most insurance plans don't cover the follow-up MRIs (around $1,400) or out-of-pocket scans (around $200), leaving the technology mostly in well-resourced hospitals.

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PCOS HAS ONE LATE BENEFIT

In a Finnish birth-cohort study of women at age 46, just 3.1% of those with polycystic ovary syndrome had reached late perimenopause or menopause, compared with 18.4% of women without PCOS. The PCOS group also reported fewer hot flashes and less disrupted sleep. Researchers think prolonged exposure to natural estrogens may explain the gap and may carry some long-term health benefits for a condition more often discussed in terms of its costs.

Tonight: a one-week reprieve from an abortion pill ban, the missing check-up for postpartum women, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

SCOTUS GIVES US WOMEN ONE MORE WEEK TO ACCESS ABORTION PILL

The Supreme Court restored mail access to mifepristone Monday, blocking a 5th Circuit ruling from last week that would have ended telehealth-prescribed delivery. The reprieve isn’t long—it only runs through May 11 with briefs due Thursday. Mifepristone is used in roughly 60% of US abortions.

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THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED. THEY'RE FURIOUS ANYWAY.

Meanwhile, the antiabortion movement is publicly turning on Trump, frustrated that abortion pills remain widely available a year into his second term, despite a Republican White House and a reshaped Supreme Court. Activists, donors, and lawyers say the administration hasn't followed through on promises to restrict mifepristone or enforce an 1873 law that bans the post office from sending “obscene” items.

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TWO IN THREE NEW MOTHERS WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE GET NO FOLLOW-UP

Just 35% of women who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy get a preventive doctor's visit in the year after giving birth, according to a Massachusetts All-Payer Claims analysis presented at the ACOG annual meeting. High blood pressure during pregnancy is one of the strongest predictors of women's later cardiovascular disease, and the postpartum year is one of the few moments their care team is actively watching.

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A FILTER, NOT A DRUG, FOR PREECLAMPSIA

In a small study, a Cedars-Sinai team used a dialysis-like blood filter to remove a placental protein that can drive severe early preeclampsia, and extended patients' pregnancies by about 10 days in a 16-woman international trial. Right now, the main treatment for severe early preeclampsia is delivering the baby, which can force extremely premature infants into the NICU. The Nature Medicine paper offers the first targeted treatment for one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal death.

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TIKTOK: ONCE AGAIN OFFERING BAD MENOPAUSE ADVICE

Women on social media are stacking over-the-counter antihistamines like Allegra with Pepcid to treat hot flashes and brain fog. CNN's Dr. Leana Wen points out that menopausal symptoms are mostly driven by estrogen-related changes in the brain's temperature regulation, not histamine, and no clinical trials support the hack. FDA-approved nonhormonal hot-flash drugs already exist.

Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women's health:

🔬 A DECADE AFTER NIH REQUIRED SEX DATA, MOST STUDIES STILL AREN'T REPORTING IT — A review of nearly 600 NIH-funded studies found only 44% reported results broken down by sex, despite a 2016 policy requiring it. Sixty-one percent included women — but most didn't analyze the differences. We still don't know if most drugs work differently in women.

🚨STUDY: ABORTION BANS LINKED TO MORE PREGNANT WOMEN DYING — Researchers analyzing national vital statistics found a potential 9% increase in pregnancy-associated deaths in the 14 states that imposed abortion bans — roughly 68 more deaths by end of 2023 than predicted. Researchers noted data limitations but pointed out that births carry more risk than abortion.

🧬 YOUR ORGANS DON'T AGE TOGETHER — A large-scale atlas of female reproductive aging found that around menopause, the ovary and vagina shift gradually over years while the uterus changes abruptly at the transition itself. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center study, published in Nature Aging, tracked roughly 21,000 women and identified blood-based biomarkers that could let doctors monitor reproductive aging without invasive testing. One body, multiple clocks.

TOP CLICKED THIS WEEK

• NIH-funded research lags in reporting sex differences, new study finds // STAT News

• Your organs aren't aging in sync // Nature Aging

• Study Suggests Increase in Deaths During or Within One Year of Pregnancy in States that Imposed Abortion Bans // Johns Hopkins Public Health

• New Orleans program does free house calls for new mothers. It's saving many from going over a postpartum 'cliff' // The Guardian

• Infant formula largely safe from heavy metals, FDA finds // STAT News

• Anorexic reconciliation bill could mean Planned Parenthood gets re-funded // Politico

Tonight: the Supreme Court shields anti-abortion clinics from a state investigation, the U.S. quietly stops paying for the world's birth control, and more.

SCOTUS UNANIMOUSLY SIDES WITH ANTI-ABORTION CENTERS

The Supreme Court sided unanimously with anti-abortion “crisis” pregnancy centers Wednesday, reviving a federal-court challenge to a New Jersey attorney general who wanted a decade of donor records, advertising, and program documents. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the demand chilled First Amendment associational rights; even the ACLU sided with First Choice Women's Resource Centers. State investigations of CPCs — already flagged in past lawsuits for misdiagnosing pregnancies and steering women away from abortion — now face a steeper road.

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THE U.S. STOPS BUYING THE WORLD'S BIRTH CONTROL

The Trump administration is withholding more than $500 million in international family-planning funding that Congress already approved, NPR reports. It has left rural clinics shuttered, midwives fired, and contraceptive shortages spreading across 41 countries. The fiscal year 2027 budget request from Trump puts it more directly: "the United States should not pay for the world's birth control." Of course, there’s no acknowledgement of why helping the “world’s birth control” would’ve been helpful to the United States.

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YOUR ORGANS DON'T AGE TOGETHER

The first large-scale atlas of female reproductive aging finds that organs don't age in sync around menopause. A study from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, published in Nature Aging, found the ovary and vagina change gradually beginning years before menopause, while the uterus shifts abruptly at the transition. Researchers also identified blood-based biomarkers from samples of around 21,000 women that could let doctors track reproductive aging without invasive testing.

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NEW ORLEANS DOES POSTPARTUM HOUSE CALLS

A New Orleans program offers free in-home nurse visits to every new mother, regardless of insurance, and is targeting what one official calls the "postpartum cliff" — the six weeks after delivery, when 43% of pregnancy-related deaths occurred in 2021. Family Connects New Orleans, launched in 2023 at Touro and Ochsner Baptist hospitals, provides clinical evaluations, postpartum depression screening, breastfeeding support, and links to social services. Early data show reduced Medicaid spending for both mothers and babies nine months out, and the program is now in talks with the state to expand to commercial and Medicaid coverage.

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FORMULA IS SAFE. WITH ASTERISKS.

The FDA released results from its largest-ever testing of infant formula, analyzing 312 samples from 16 brands and finding lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic all below federal drinking-water limits. Trace PFAS and phthalates were detected at low levels, which outside experts told the New York Times still warrant attention for newborns. The agency said it is continuing testing and working to set formal action levels for formula contaminants.

Tonight: NIH funded studies are still failing to collect sex-based data, abortion bans leading to more pregnancy deaths, and more.

HOPE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD MEDICAID FUNDING?

Congress is back and fighting over funding Planned Parenthood. The House Republicans want to cut Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements, but the supposed point of the current bill being considered is to just focus on immigration. In an interesting twist, an amendment from Sen. Josh Hawley, who has been fixated on all things anti-abortion, saw his amendment to continue blocking Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood get voted down (with help from Republicans.) Roughly 2 million patients a year use PP for contraception, STI testing, and preventive services.

A DECADE AFTER NIH REQUIRED SEX DATA REPORTING, MOST FUNDED RESEARCH STILL ISN'T DOING IT

A review of nearly 600 NIH-funded studies published between 2017 and 2024 found only 44% reported results broken down by sex, despite a 2016 policy requiring researchers to include sex as a biological variable. Sixty-one percent of the studies did include both sexes in their samples, but they didn’t analyze or report differences. In other words, we still don’t know if drugs work differently, what side effects women face, or whether dosing should change—gaps that quietly shape clinical care anyway.

STUDY: ABORTION BANS INCREASED DEAD PREGNANT WOMEN

Researchers analyzed national vital statistics from 2016 to 2023 and found a potential 9% increase in pregnancy-associated deaths in the 14 states that imposed abortion bans, equivalent to roughly 68 more women dying by the end of 2023 than predicted. The study only found the increase during pregnancy, not in labor or postpartum. Researchers acknowledged data limitations make definitive conclusions difficult, but pointed out that more births lead to risks far greater than abortion.

MAYBE MONEY IS THE PROBLEM?

The New York Times reports that rising housing, child care, and everyday costs are pushing couples to delay or skip altogether having kids. They point to survey data, cost trends, and economic research showing finances as the main driver. The U.S. fertility rate is near record lows, and it’s still unclear whether any policy fix changes the math.

PAUSING ENDOCRINE THERAPY TO GET PREGNANT DOESN'T WORSEN OUTCOMES

A trial of about 500 women with hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer found that pausing endocrine therapy to try to get pregnant did not increase their risk of recurrence. Most participants successfully got pregnant (76%) and had live births, with complication rates in line with typical pregnancies. Cancer outcomes were similar to women who didn’t pause treatment, and even those who used IVF or other fertility treatments didn’t see worse results—offering some of the strongest reassurance yet for patients weighing family planning during treatment.

Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women's health:

⚖️ Texas doctors got 8 hours of continuing education. Two women died. The Texas Medical Board disciplined three doctors after ProPublica's reporting found unnecessary pregnancy deaths under the state's abortion ban. One doctor sent an 18-year-old home twice while she was actively infected and septic. Another withheld a D&C from a woman hemorrhaging during a miscarriage. The penalty for each: just 8 hours of continuing education.

🧬 CDC buried a study showing COVID vaccines work. A report showing last winter's Covid vaccine cut ER visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half was blocked from publication in the MMWR after the agency's acting director raised methodology concerns. Scientists outside HHS say the methodology is sound and widely used. Women are more likely to experience long COVID than men, and COVID during pregnancy raises the risk of preterm birth, stillbirth, and ICU admission — making vaccine effectiveness data directly relevant to outcomes that are uniquely female.

💉 Women using GLP-1s face more social stigma than those who diet. A study of 402 women found that "shortcut" beliefs drove more blame towards women using Ozempic or Wegovy — even with identical weight-loss outcomes to those who used diet and exercise. White women using GLP-1s faced more stigma than Black women, an unexpected finding the researchers flagged for further study.

TOP CLICKED LINKS THIS WEEK

1. Medical Board Sanctions Docs for Delayed Care That Led to Deaths of 2 Pregnant Women // MedPage Today

2. Pharmacy Dispensing of Mifepristone After Removal of In-Person Requirements // JAMA

3. Health Officials Nix Publication of Study on Covid Vaccine Effectiveness // NBC News

4. Supplements for Menopause: Here's What the Evidence Actually Says // The Conversation

5. New Study Examines Stigma Toward Women Who Lose Weight Using GLP-1 Medications // EurekAlert

6. Virginia Law Will Make Some Birth Control Free Under Private Insurance // WHRO

Tonight: Virginia just made birth control free, what menopause supplements actually work, why endometriosis takes years to diagnose, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

VIRGINIA MADE BIRTH CONTROL FREE. FOR REAL THIS TIME. // Virginia's Contraceptive Equity Act, signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, requires private insurers to cover a broader range of birth control with no out-of-pocket cost starting in 2027 — including over-the-counter options like condoms and pills, no prescription needed. An amendment from Spanberger lets patients request a specific drug at the pharmacy without going through a longer insurer approval process. The law doesn't cover Medicaid or Medicare. Advocates say success will depend on whether pharmacists and insurers actually follow it.

THE MENOPAUSE SUPPLEMENT MARKET IS MOSTLY NOISE // Social media is full of powders and capsules promising to fix perimenopause. The Conversation breaks down what the evidence actually supports: magnesium has modest evidence for sleep and anxiety, and some benefit for bone density, but does nothing for hot flashes. Lion's mane has almost no human trial data in menopausal women, and while creatine shows promise for muscle mass it also hasn't been studied in menopause specifically. Collagen has no evidence for hormonal symptoms. HRT remains the most effective treatment for most symptoms — the supplement market is filling a gap that exists largely because HRT is still under-prescribed.

ENDOMETRIOSIS TAKES YEARS TO DIAGNOSE. HERE'S ONE REASON WHY. // Two studies found that primary care physicians are generally good at catching endometriosis when it presents with classic gynecological symptoms, but they miss it when symptoms are gastrointestinal, cyclical, or non-specific. There's also a "diagnostic hierarchy" problem: endometriosis gets considered only after other conditions are ruled out. Stigma around menstruation still affects both whether patients seek help and how doctors assess them. The condition affects around 1 in 10 women of reproductive age.

MEN ARE NOW HAVING FEWER CHILDREN THAN WOMEN // A global analysis from the Max Planck Institute found that 2024 was the first year worldwide that men's total fertility rate dropped below women's, driven by rising proportions of men in the population due to narrowing mortality gaps and sex-selective abortions in some countries. The researchers note that men who remain childless face worse health outcomes and growing dependence on care in old age, and call for urgent policy responses. They also flag that strengthening women's social position — to reduce sex-selective abortions — is one of the proposed fixes.

CDC BURIED A STUDY SHOWING COVID VACCINES WORK // A report showing last winter's Covid vaccine cut emergency room visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half was blocked from publication in the CDC's flagship journal, the MMWR, after the agency's acting director raised concerns about methodology. The paper had already cleared scientific review. Scientists outside HHS say the methodology, which has been widely used in vaccine research and published in NEJM and Pediatrics, is sound, and that HHS hasn't proposed a realistic alternative.

Tonight: three doctors whose patients died under Texas's abortion ban are facing (minimal) consequences, proof that women who use Ozempic get judged more harshly, and some good news for ovarian cancer.

— Meghan McCarthy

TEXAS DOCTORS GOT 8 HOURS OF CONTINUING ED. TWO WOMEN DIED. // The Texas Medical Board has disciplined three doctors after ProPublica's reporting found unnecessary pregnancy deaths under the state's abortion ban. One doctor sent an 18-year-old home twice while she was actively infected and septic, then required two ultrasounds confirming fetal demise before moving her to the ICU. She died with the fetus still in her womb. Another withheld a D&C from a woman hemorrhaging during a miscarriage; she bled to death. The board's penalty for each: 8 hours of continuing education. As one of the spouses said: "What kind of justice is this for Porsha?"

MIFEPRISTONE FOUND ITS WAY TO (NON-ABORTION BAN STATE) PHARMACIES. // After FDA removed the requirement that mifepristone be dispensed in person at a clinic, pharmacy fills spiked from roughly 18 users a month to more than 2,700, driven almost entirely by mail order. But 99% of those fills came from states where abortion and telehealth are both legal. In states with restrictions, the policy change barely moved the needle. Researchers say the data shows exactly what would be lost if courts or FDA reimpose the in-person rule.

THE GLP-1 JUDGMENT IS REAL FOR WOMEN // Women who lose weight using GLP-1 medications like Ozempic or Wegovy are judged more harshly than those who lose weight through diet and exercise, according to a study of 402 women. "Shortcut" beliefs drove higher fat phobia, more blame, and greater desire for social distance from the GLP-1 user. The researchers also found that white women using GLP-1s faced more stigma than Black women in the same scenario, an unexpected finding the authors say warrants further study.

WHAT DOULAS ACTUALLY HELP WITH (AND WHAT'S STILL UNCLEAR) // A systematic review of 21 clinical trials in JAMA Network Open found the strongest evidence for doula care improving maternal anxiety and breastfeeding initiation, with emerging data on better postpartum follow-up. Evidence for C-section reduction and pain management was more mixed. The review also flagged that most studies underrepresented Black and Indigenous patients, who are among those facing the worst maternal outcomes, and that few examined doula care beyond birth.

OVARIAN CANCER JUST GOT SOME BETTER NUMBERS // At the Society of Gynecologic Oncology annual meeting, two experimental drugs helped shrink tumors in 62–67% women with ovarian cancer that had already stopped responding to standard chemotherapy — a notoriously hard stage to treat. A third drug, designed to restart a cancer-suppressing protein that mutates in some tumors, shrank tumors in 44% of patients who'd already been through multiple rounds of treatment. All three are moving into larger trials.

Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women’s health:

🚫 The Trump administration has moved to kill a teen pregnancy prevention program while conservatives publicly complained that teen birth rates are falling. On Fox News, analyst Marc Siegel called it a “problem” that teens are having fewer babies. Anti-contraception messaging, clinicians say, is already reshaping what patients say in exam rooms.

🧬 Male and female brains express thousands of genes differently, and it may explain a lot. NIH researchers found more than 3,000 genes with sex-biased activity across six brain regions. Many overlap with genetic variants tied to ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's — conditions that affect men and women at different rates.

🤰 Montana approved Medicaid reimbursement for doulas, then reversed course. The rollback hit especially hard on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, where the nearest hospital that delivers babies is 100 miles away. Doulas there are still working, mostly unpaid, filling the gaps the system keeps leaving behind.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

1. Largest study of pregnancy sickness uncovers six new genetic links — EurekAlert

2. New BSC study reveals, for the first time, that the female immune system changes much more than that of men with age — EurekAlert

3. This Northern Cheyenne Doula Was About To Start Getting Paid — Then Medicaid Cuts Hit — KFF Health News

4. Longer Reproductive Span Linked With Slower Rates of Cognitive Decline — The Menopause Society

5. Recovery of Pregnancy-Related Death Ratios After COVID — Obstetrics & Gynecology

6. Sex differences in human brain gene expression may shape disease risk — EurekAlert