Tonight: how a White House press conference kept a trusted medication from thousands of pregnant women, what your mammogram might already know about your heart, (yet) more data showing abortion ban states are losing future doctors, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

THE PRESIDENT IS A BAD PRESCRIBER // Last September President Trump told pregnant women at a White House briefing to avoid Tylenol, claiming without evidence that it causes autism. A new Lancet study tracked what happened next: ER acetaminophen orders for pregnant patients fell 10%, while orders for non-pregnant women didn't change. Untreated fever in pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, neural tube defects, and preterm birth; the researcher who led the study called it "thousands of women not getting pain control or fever reduction when they need it."

YOUR MAMMOGRAM IS DOING MORE THAN YOU THINK // A study of over 120,000 women found AI analysis can identify “arterial calcification” in routine mammogram images, helping them accurately predict heart attack, stroke, and heart failure risk (even in women under 50.) Nearly 70% of American women have had a mammogram, but fewer than 40% know their own cholesterol levels. Researchers are pushing for FDA review to make this a standard dual-purpose screen.

PERIMENOPAUSE TREATED LIKE AN AFTERTHOUGHT // Nature has a deep dive on how the vast majority of research on hormone therapy was conducted on postmenopausal women — not perimenopausal ones, whose hormones are still fluctuating. The resulting knowledge gap has been filled by an unregulated market of supplements, testosterone protocols, and other treatments with no long-term safety data.

BLOOD PRESSURE, NOT AGE // Life-threatening conditions caused by pregnancy, such as eclampsia, acute kidney failure, and sepsis, increased in the US between 2016 and 2022. The driver isn’t older mothers, but high blood pressure, either during pregnancy or before, and obesity. High blood pressure alone accounted for nearly a third of the total increase. The researchers' conclusion: if you want to prevent these crises, the time to act is before a woman gets pregnant, not when she's already on the delivery table.

STATES THAT BAN ABORTION ARE (YET AGAIN) LOSING FUTURE DOCTORS // After Dobbs, applications to residency programs in abortion ban states dropped sharply, particularly for specialties like OBGYN, family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine. The study looked at 24 million applications across more than 4,000 programs and found states with the strictest bans are making themselves harder to staff.

Here are the trends we spotted this week in women’s health, and as always, scroll for the top clicked stories.

• 💉 Women lose more weight on GLP-1s than men. It's probably biology. A review of nearly 20,000 people found women on GLP-1 drugs lost more weight than men, and sex appeared to be the most meaningful differentiator. Age and race didn't explain the gap.
  

• 🔬 ACOG told doctors to stop waiting for surgery to diagnose endometriosis. The nation's largest OBGYN group updated its guidance, saying symptoms and imaging are enough and a diagnosis doesn’t require surgery. For patients who've spent years being dismissed, this is a big deal.
  

• 🏥 The body that decides which preventive screenings your insurance will cover hasn't met in a year. The USPSTF has now missed three consecutive meetings, and five members had terms that expired in January, with no replacements. On hold: finalized guidance on self-collected HPV testing, mammogram updates, and colorectal screening guidelines.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

• Women on GLP-1s lost more weight than men — and it's likely biology — MedPage Today
  

• Estrogen patch shortages leave menopause patients without basics — New York Times
  

• ACOG releases updated endometriosis guidance — Medical Dialogues
  

• 911 calls from ICE detention center document pregnant women in crisis — ABC News
  

• Oregon eliminates surprise bills for cervical cancer care — Axios
  

• Louisiana mifepristone lawsuit could end telehealth abortion nationwide — News from the States
  

• Hypertensive pregnancy disorders linked to long-term cardiac risk — JAMA Internal Medicine

The CDC releases new maternal mortality numbers. A federal judge is days away from ruling on whether abortion pills can still be mailed. The body that decides which cancer screenings you get for free hasn't met in a year. And a new study of half a million women has a message for anyone who had a complicated pregnancy.

— Meghan

THE NUMBER THAT WON'T MOVE // The CDC reported 649 maternal deaths in 2024, down slightly from 669 the year before, but roughly where the U.S. stood before COVID spiked the count. Still, Black women died at more than three times the rate of white and Hispanic women. The dip could be "promising," or just a returns to baseline.

QUIET PARALYSIS // This story is really flying under the radar, but it’s important. CNN reports that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF, they determine which screenings insurers must cover at no cost) has now missed three consecutive meetings. Five of its 16 members' terms expired in January and haven't been replaced. What do they need to consider? Finalized guidance on self-collected HPV testing, plus updates to mammogram and colorectal screening guidelines that millions of women rely on for free coverage.

WHAT THE 911 TAPES REVEAL // ABC News obtained emergency recordings from the ICE family detention center in Dilley, Texas, documenting staff calling ambulances for pregnant women and children multiple times a month. That included a three-month pregnant woman who lost consciousness, and another who was seizing. The calls span October 2025 through February 2026. ICE's own policy says pregnant women generally should not be detained.

YOUR PREGNANCY IS A CARDIAC RECORD // A JAMA Internal Medicine study of more than 500,000 women found that all subtypes of hypertensive pregnancy disorders, including gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, raise long-term cardiovascular risk, but women with superimposed preeclampsia faced nearly three times the risk of a cardiovascular event compared to those with uncomplicated pregnancies. The findings add to growing evidence that pregnancy history belongs in every woman's cardiac chart — and that most doctors still aren't asking.

THE PILL STILL IN THE BALANCE // A federal judge in Louisiana is weighing an injunction that would end telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone — no remote appointments, no pills by mail — in all fifty states. About 30% of U.S. abortions were provided via telehealth as of mid-2025. A ruling is expected soon.

What we’ve found in women’s health this week: A state quietly decided you shouldn’t pay to finish a cancer screening. Menopause demand just outpaced supply. Doctors are being told to believe women sooner. Bone health has become a competitive sport. And GLP-1s? The gender gap just got data.

STOPPING CERVICAL CANCER FOR FREE // Axios reports Oregon lawmakers unanimously passed a bill banning deductibles and copays not just for Pap tests, but for follow-up care after an abnormal result. If signed by Gov. Tina Kotek, Oregon would be the first state to eliminate out-of-pocket costs across the full cervical cancer screening process, so patients aren’t billed for actually finishing it.

WHERE’S MY PATCH? // The New York Times digs deeper on estrogen patches shortages nationwide, hitting 10 different estradiol formulations. Why? Prescriptions jumped 86% from 2021 to 2025 and manufacturers failed to keep up. Menopause may finally have more avenues for care, but it might be a while until patients can reliably get the basics.

TRUST THE PAIN // The nation’s biggest OBGYN group is telling doctors to stop waiting for surgery to diagnose endometriosis and to trust symptoms and imaging instead. The shift could spare patients years of dismissal, delay, and unnecessary pain.

BONES, BUT MAKE IT EXTREME // Emma Rosenblum takes on (and makes so fum of) the bone-density craze, from protein-loading to weighted-vest flexing: “I ask Dr. Tang if I have to dead lift my own weight, hop around the block or get a DEXA scan, and she laughs and says no. ‘If you’re not at high risk, you don’t have to do any of that,’ she says. ‘For the average person, it’s just lifestyle modifications. Some weight-bearing exercises, some strength training.’”

LADIES LOSE MORE // A review of nearly 20,000 people, women on GLP-1 drugs lost more weight than men, and that likely because of biology. Results were otherwise similar across age and race groups, suggesting sex may be one of the only meaningful differentiators in these high-cost meds.

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

🧠 America may be stretching postpartum depression, not shortening it. A cross-country study found US moms’ symptoms barely improve over five years, while peer nations see recovery. That points to policy as a cause, not biology. In other words, support systems could be shaping mental health outcomes.

❤️ We’re entering the 6-in-10 heart era. By 2050, most women are projected to have cardiovascular disease, and it’s hitting younger women earlier. Researchers say prevention is the only way this curve bends.

🤖 AI is starting to govern women’s health. Algorithms are identifying breast-cancer risk from mammograms while Facebook chatbots restrict abortion information. These systems will shape both who gets flagged and what people are allowed to know. How these systems are built will influence real-world care.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

The Plot Against American Women // Throughline

Breast Cancer Screening and Risk Reduction // The Washington Post

Heart-Disease Risk Forecasts for Women by 2050 // STAT

Activity Restriction in Pregnancy and the Risk of Early Delivery // Obstetrics & Gynecology

Wisconsin Extends Postpartum Medicaid for New Mothers // ProPublica

U.S. Mothers Aren’t Recovering from Postpartum Depression // WebMD

In tonight’s edition: a newborn infection we still can’t prevent, a heart-disease wave building in plain sight, US depression that won’t lift, a country betting big on HPV shots—and an AI deciding what teens can ask about abortion.

THE NEWBORN GAP WE HAVEN’T FIXED // The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the state of Group B strep, a leading killer of newborns, and how antibiotics during labor don’t solve the whole problem. They say that vaccines in development could finally protect babies beyond birth. If they work, this would be one of the most meaningful maternal-infant prevention shifts in decades.

SIX IN TEN // By 2050, 6 in 10 women are projected to have cardiovascular disease—and it’s hitting younger women earlier. The American Heart Association says the drivers are structural: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and a prevention system that waits too long. As one cardiologist put it: “We’re taking care of heart attacks quite well, but we’re really not preventing any. And so we’re seeing more disease in younger people, which I think is a terrible trend. We can’t treat our way out of this; we have to prevent our way out of this.”

STUCK FOR FIVE YEARS // A study looking at 31,500 moms’ mental health data from the US, UK, and Australia found that women in the US see their postpartum depression symptoms barely budge over five years, unlike the U.K. and Australia. The explanation they offer is that this isn’t biological—it’s policy. Thin parental leave and childcare support may be extending suffering far beyond the newborn stage.

A COUNTRY-WIDE CANCER PREVENTION PLAN // As the US Senate grills a surgeon general candidate who dodged vaccine questions, India just cleared a free, nationwide HPV vaccine program for 14-year-old girls. This move could dramatically cut cervical cancer deaths.

WHO GETS TO ASK ABOUT ABORTION? // Mother Jones got leaked documents from Meta showing their AI chatbot restricts abortion and sexual-health info for teens. The guidance explicitly banned providing information “‘that helps a user obtain or carry out an abortion (such as ‘You can go to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion’), or providing users with locational information that could be used to obtain abortions. It also prohibits the chatbot from providing a ‘value judgement’ for or against abortion.”

Tonight: more death-penalty bills, a postpartum breakthrough, and an AI that sees what we can’t.

Plus infections, preterm risk, and why “access” still isn’t access.

DEATH PENALTY FOR ABORTIONS (AGAIN) // Two Tennessee Republican legislators are pushing a bill to label abortion “homicide of an unborn child,” which would open the door to the death penalty for people who get abortions—and anyone who helps them. We’ve seen this in other states and it’s failed each time. Attention helps.

WISCONSIN POSTPARTUM, FINALLY // ProPublica reports that the Wisconsin Assembly voted 95–1 to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a full year. This happened after Speaker Robin Vos finally let the bipartisan bill move forward; and Gov. Tony Evers is expected to sign. Wisconsin will be one of the last states to extend this care, which gives low-income moms coverage during the stretch when serious postpartum complications often surface.

BLACK BOX BREASTS // The Boston Globe reports that Boston startup Clairity built an AI tool that flags high breast-cancer risk from a standard mammogram, and it is outperforming family-history questionnaires to identify women at high risk. That could help target prevention meds and earlier screening. But exactly how it identifies risk is still unknown (i.e. what patterns is it seeing that the human eye can’t?), which can make clinicians wary.

UTIs → PRETERM? // A large study over nearly 700,000 pregnant women found UTIs during pregnancy were linked to a significantly higher risk of preterm birth. The risk was highest in the first six days after diagnosis and when the infection occurred before 28 weeks. It’s a signal to take pregnancy UTIs seriously, even though observational data can’t prove causation.

ACCESS ≠ AVAILABLE // KFF has all the details on IUDs in the US, and they explain how access depends on cost, insurance fine print, and whether a clinic offers same-day insertion (and real pain control). They also note that a new copper IUD, Miudella, is approved and expected in 2026…but uninsured patients are far more likely to stop (or never start) long-acting birth control because of cost.

Hear are the trends we spotted this week in women’s health, and as always, scroll for the top clicked stories.

• 🩺 Early prenatal care is slipping. First-trimester visits dropped three points from 2021–2024, possibly because maternity deserts are expanding. Access (not awareness) may be the real crisis.
  

• 🚨 An autopsy on a 13-week miscarriage in SC. No trauma was found, but officials were trying to DNA-identify the mother. In a post-Dobbs environment, even a natural miscarriage can trigger law enforcement involvement.
  

• 🚶‍♀️ Bed rest may not prevent preterm birth — and could make it worse. In a small randomized study, women who took fewer than 3,500 steps per day delivered earlier. Another long-standing pregnancy norm facing new scrutiny.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

Trends in Comparative Growth in Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Programs Over the Past 20 Years (2005–2024) // Obstetrics & Gynecology

The Plot Against American Women // Throughline

Activity Restriction in Pregnancy and the Risk of Early Delivery // Obstetrics & Gynecology

Birth Control Is Changing — and So Are Women’s Attitudes Toward It // Vox

Coroner Releases Autopsy Details on Fetus Found at Water Plant // WACH

Menopausal hormone therapy not linked to increased risk of death // British Medical Journal

The case for more personalized breast cancer screening // Washington Post

Tonight in women’s health: the (good) HRT data keeps stacking up, risk-based mammograms spark pushback, early prenatal care declines, bed rest faces new scrutiny, and the wellness industry meets infertility desperation.

HORMONE THERAPY NOT DEADLY // Another large study adds to the now-consistent evidence: an analysis of more than 800,000 women found women who used it were no more likely to die from heart disease or cancer than those who didn’t. Hormone therapy remains nuanced, but the accumulating data are steadily challenging the idea that it broadly shortens women’s lives.

FERTILITY RETREAT ENEMAS // After four years of trying to conceive (and many rounds of IVF), Annie Daly went to a “fertility enhancement” retreat in the Himalayas, where she got Ayurvedic oil baths, enemas, yoga, the works. She left with lower blood cortisol levels and a sense of peace; whether it helps her get pregnant is TBD. It’s a well-done take on what we will do when conventional medicine offers limited answers.

MORE SKIPPING EARLY PRENATAL CARE // Prenatal care rose from 2016 to 2021, but a CDC study found that number dropped from 2021 to 2024. Researchers found a three-percentage-point drop in early checkups and a two-point rise in women getting late or no care at all. With over a third of U.S. counties now considered “maternity care deserts,” access may be the more urgent variable.

BED REST BAD FOR PRETERM PREVENTION? // A small study in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that bed rest or limiting activity for pregnant women didn’t help prevent preterm birth…it might have made things worse. Of the randomized group of women (who joined between 16 and nearly 24 weeks pregnant), those who took fewer than 3,500 steps per day ended up delivering earlier. It’s a reminder that some standard pregnancy advice was adopted before strong evidence existed.

PERSONALIZE, DON’T SKIP // After suggesting breast cancer screening should be more personalized, Leana Wen heard from readers who worried she was telling women not to get mammograms at 40. She says that’s not the message: the argument is for risk-based screening, not skipping care. If you’re high risk, annual screening may not be enough; if you’re low risk, you may be over-screened. The shift is about matching screening intensity to actual risk.

Tonight in women’s health (and personal freedoms): reproductive sewer surveillance, the Project 2275 playbook, more depth on the birth control backlash, maternal mortality in conflict zones, and the slow-growing OBGYN workforce.

AUTOPSY FOR 13 WEEK MISCARRIAGE IN SC? // A bizarre and frightening story from South Carolina, where an employee at a county sewer facility found a 13–15-week-old fetus and alerted law enforcement. The fetus was clearly the product of a miscarriage (which often happens in a toilet), but the county still performed an autopsy. They found no evidence of trauma, but they are still looking to establish a DNA profile to find the mother (??!!)

BIG BROTHER WANTS WOMEN OUT OF COLLEGE // Jill Filipovic reports that the authors of “Project 2025” have a new playbook for America’s next 250 years, and it lays out a shockingly (but not shockingly?) explicit plan to roll back women’s rights. That includes banning IVF, restricting contraception, and having fewer women go to college so they can marry early and have children. If you think this is an exaggeration, Filipovic goes point-by-point through the document, using its own text.

THE WHOLE BIRTH CONTROL BACKLASH BUSINESS // Hannah Seo has a deep dive on Vox exploring how frustrations with hormonal contraception are in part fueling a backlash—and that includes how real medical gaps are driving some people to junk science. As she puts it: “…it’s worth interrogating where people’s dissatisfactions come from, and tracing how legitimate experiences with and worries about hormonal contraceptives can lead people toward alternate (and often scientifically dubious) sources of education about their bodies.”

WAR IS DEADLY FOR MOMS // A World Health Organization report found nearly two-thirds of all women who die in childbirth live in countries wracked by conflict or instability. In other words, unstable political environments make pregnancy far deadlier than it should be. They also find some potential solutions: “In Colombia, training traditional birth attendants shows how strengthening trusted local networks can ensure timely care even where access is limited due to geography, insecurity or mistrust.”

OBGYNS MISSING AFTER MED SCHOOL // Researchers found OBGYN residency programs grew more slowly than most other specialties over the past 20 years, even after a 2015 change was supposed to help disparities among medical specialties. Since 2016, the specialty has lagged behind family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry. They say it is leading to a “persistent gap in capacity to meet increasing demand.”