October 1, 2026

Tonight: Tierra Walker’s family turns the “right to life” argument back on Texas, a lawmaker would like everyone to stop discussing menopause, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

TEXAS PROTECTS LIFE. JUST NOT HERS.

Tierra Walker’s family is suing Texas officials, medical authorities, and her doctors over her death after she repeatedly sought an abortion. Writing in Slate, legal historian Mary Ziegler explains the strategy: bring those defendants into the same case, where they’ll have to answer for their roles. Walker suffered seizures, a dangerous blood clot, and soaring blood pressure; her family says doctors dismissed her abortion requests because her baby was fine. Ziegler expects finger-pointing—including at Walker’s preexisting conditions. But the suit turns abortion opponents’ own argument back on them: if the Texas and U.S. constitutions protect a right to life, that includes pregnant women.

“ALL IN YOUR HEAD” IS NOT A RESEARCH STRATEGY

Science devoted a special issue to women’s health, including a review of why women bear more of the burden of many chronic pain conditions. The authors examine hormones, immune responses, and the body’s own pain-control systems. They credit a 2016 NIH policy requiring researchers to account for biological sex with helping move the field beyond documenting differences toward explaining them. The goal: answers that lead to better care and end the all-too-familiar dismissal that women’s illnesses are “all in your head.”

SORRY, SIR. WE’RE STILL TALKING ABOUT MENOPAUSE.

A male colleague told Pennsylvania state Rep. Liz Hanbidge he would support her menopause bill—then asked her to stop discussing it because “he thinks it’s gross,” she said. She kept talking. Seven proposals advanced through House committees this week, covering menopause education, insurance coverage for treatment and pelvic floor therapy, workplace accommodations, osteoporosis care, and vaginal estrogen for menopausal symptoms and UTIs. One would expand Medicaid coverage of menopause treatments. Some Republicans opposed the bills, citing concerns including costs.

FIRST COMES BABY. THEN COMES THE GLP-1.

Among commercially insured women, the share starting a GLP-1 drug within six months of giving birth rose from 0.08% in early 2018 to 1.9% in early 2025, a JAMA study found. Women with type 2 diabetes were most likely to start treatment: nearly 17% did by early 2025. In total numbers, though, women with overweight or obesity made up the largest group of new users by late 2024. Most women started at least three months after delivery. One question is what this means for breastfeeding, as safety data is limited and claims data couldn’t show who was nursing.

RARE DOESN’T MEAN MINOR

Sepsis occurred in about six of every 10,000 Mississippi hospital births from 2016 through 2025—but was linked to nearly a third of deaths during delivery stays. A JAMA Network Open study found rates were twice as high among Black mothers as white mothers, and higher among women on Medicaid than those with private insurance. More than half of women with sepsis delivered prematurely, and nearly 18% had a stillbirth. Their hospital stays averaged 10 days and about $135,000 in charges, compared with 2.5 days and $23,000 for women without sepsis.

September 29, 2026

Tonight: how hormone therapy’s clot risks differ between pills and patches, California’s IVF mandate brings more (but not all) patients into fertility clinics, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

THE PILL AND THE PATCH: SAME DRUG, DIFFERENT OUTCOMES?

Women taking oral menopausal hormone therapy had higher rates of blood clots in the legs or lungs at any dose and any duration, while transdermal patches, gels and sprays showed no general increase in clot risk. That’s according to a study reviewing around 40,000 women who had a first clot, stroke or heart attack, matched to about 200,000 women who hadn't. Increased stroke and heart attack risk was mainly found among women on high-dose oral estradiol, above 1 milligram a day, for more than a year. The absolute numbers are small: one extra clot for every 1,055 women on oral therapy for a year, one extra stroke per 1,642, one extra heart attack per 3,846.

PREECLAMPSIA AND DEMENTIA RISK, TWENTY YEARS LATER

Women who had a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, meaning preeclampsia or gestational hypertension, had a higher risk of dementia over roughly two decades of follow-up, in a nationwide cohort of around 1.4 million women. That link, however, was not statistically significant once researchers also adjusted for things like chronic high blood pressure or diabetes that developed after delivery. The authors' read is that a hypertensive pregnancy works as an early-life marker of long-term neurovascular vulnerability.

A YEAR AFTER THE C-SECTION, THE PAIN IS STILL RUNNING THEIR LIVES

Among women with chronic pain after a C-section delivery, nearly 70% said it was interfering with their mood a year after giving birth and over 50% said it was interfering with sleep, according to a review of 30 studies covering around 28,000 women across 22 countries. One large study found roughly five times higher odds of significant depressive symptoms at three and six months. Chronic postsurgical pain is estimated to affect 15% to 17% of women three to six months after a C-section, though the review's authors caution that most of the studies were observational.

CALIFORNIA MANDATED (SOME) IVF COVERAGE. BUSINESS IS UP AT CLINICS.

California's IVF mandate took effect in January, but it applies to about 9 million Californians—people working at certain companies with 100 or more employees, and state employees starting in 2027. That leaves out a large chunk of people, including small business employees, Medi-Cal enrollees, and members of the military, who face costs of about $25,000 a cycle in Los Angeles. Still, five LA-area fertility clinics told the LA Times their patient numbers are up about 20% in the nine months since the law took effect.

FORTY-EIGHT BABIES LATER, INSURANCE STILL WON'T COVER IT

Uterus transplants can allow women born without a uterus, or who have had theirs removed, to carry a pregnancy. A Penn-led review of 60 transplants performed at four U.S. centers from 2016 through 2025 documented 48 babies born, including nine women who gave birth twice. But the procedure remains complicated: more than half the babies were born prematurely. And access remains limited, in large part because it is not covered by insurance, putting it out of reach for many women who could benefit.

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

• 🩺 During confirmation hearings, Trump's FDA nominee twice refused to say whether an IUD is just birth control (it is) or confirm that mifepristone is safe and effective. She inherits the agency's abortion pill review with a court deadline of October 7.
  

• 💊 More than 22,000 women ages 55-69 might have lived longer if they'd been prescribed vaginal estrogen for recurring UTIs, per a USA TODAY analysis. The FDA only removed its black box warning on the drug in November 2025.
  

• 🧬 Just 25% of U.S. women say they understand their menopause treatment options. And 37% say they first learned about menopause when they started having symptoms themselves, while 40% say it negatively affected their life or work.

  ---

  TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK
  
  Exclusive: FDA warnings persisted as UTIs turned deadly in menopause // USA TODAY
  
  Lindsay Clancy case could spur legislative action on postpartum depression, psychosis // Stateline
  
  Women's Experiences Accessing Health Information Online: Trusted Sources and Contraceptive Information // KFF
  
  Many Women Enter Menopause Without Clear Information // Gallup
  
  SWHR Statement on Reported Move to Establish Review Board for NIH Grants // SWHR
  
  How abortion drug restrictions make it harder to treat other conditions // PBS NewsHour

September 24, 2026

Tonight: the FDA nominee who wouldn't say whether an IUD is birth control, the dismal numbers on menopause treatment knowledge, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

TRUMP'S FDA PICK WOULDN'T SAY WHETHER AN IUD IS BIRTH CONTROL

Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to run the FDA, twice declined to tell Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) whether an intrauterine device is birth control rather than an abortion, saying she would be "fully briefed" on the agency's prior decisions if confirmed. (IUDs cannot lead to abortions.) Pressed on whether she believes mifepristone is safe and effective, Overton again would not say directly, offering instead that "it has met the safety and efficacy standard according to the FDA review." Murray pointed to an article Overton published three years ago describing medication abortion as dangerous to women; Overton dodged by saying she was driven by data. If confirmed, she inherits the FDA's review of mifepristone, and the agency owes a federal court an update on its progress by October 7.

HALF OF WOMEN HAVE HEARD THAT BIRTH CONTROL HORMONES WILL HURT THEM

About 53% of reproductive-age women say they have encountered the claim that the hormones in contraceptives are harmful to their health, and 43% have heard that those hormones limit their ability to get pregnant later, according to the 2026 KFF Women's Health survey of around 3,500 women ages 18 to 49. About a third have heard that natural family planning works as well as hormonal contraception, and that Plan B causes an abortion. Neither is accurate. Among women who saw something about contraception on social media, 12% of those 18 to 25 stopped using their hormonal birth control, compared with 5% of women 36 to 49. Health care providers remain the most trusted source at 86%, while AI chatbots sit at 25%.

OVARIES: MORE THAN EGG HOLDERS?

Wired has a deep dive on the evidence that ovaries don’t retire at menopause. Instead, they continue producing hormones, and emerging research suggests their biology keeps changing for decades. Scientists found changing protein patterns in human ovaries after menopause and increased immune activity in aging mouse ovaries, raising questions about how these organs shape women’s health beyond fertility. What researchers still don’t know is whether those changes help, harm, or do both at different ages.

MANY WOMEN LEARN WHAT MENOPAUSE IS BY HAVING IT

Only 37% of U.S. women say they have a good understanding of menopause symptoms, and just 25% say the same about treatment options, according to a Gallup-Pivotal survey that included roughly 3,800 women. Among women who have experienced menopause, 37% first learned about it when they developed symptoms themselves, and 40% say it negatively affected their life or work.

IV IRON IN PREGNANCY CUT DELIVERY TRANSFUSIONS BY MORE THAN A THIRD

Pregnant women with anemia caused by low iron were 37% less likely to need a blood transfusion during their hospital stay for childbirth when treated with iron through an IV instead of pills, according to a review of 29 clinical trials involving roughly 11,800 people. IV treatment also improved their blood’s ability to carry oxygen and increased iron stores in both mothers and babies. Iron pills remain the usual first treatment in the U.S., but the authors say the findings support considering a larger role for IV iron.

September 22, 2026

Tonight: a single person could veto federal medical research grants in the future, the cheap drug prescribed to surprisingly few women, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

ONE OFFICIAL COULD VETO NIH RESEARCH GRANTS

President Trump reportedly told an administration official to create a board that would approve National Institutes of Health grants, after NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya refused his request to cut funding for Harvard researchers. Grant decisions under this scheme would require unanimous approval, which could give any Trump appointee veto power over money that is currently doled out through scientific peer review, advisory councils, and NIH leadership. The Society for Women’s Health Research warned that the proposal could shift decisions “away from scientific merit toward political priorities.”

A WARNING LABEL OUTLIVED THE SCIENCE

More than 22,000 women ages 55 to 69 might have survived if they had received vaginal estrogen for recurring UTIs, according to a USA TODAY analysis of eight years of medical records. Of the group, 1.5% of those prescribed vaginal estrogen died from any cause, compared with 7.3% of those who weren’t prescribed it. A three-month supply of generic cream can cost $13, yet only about 1 in 10 menopausal women on Medicare currently use vaginal estrogen. Why? The FDA only removed black box warnings in November 2025. The lives-saved figure is an estimate: the study found an association and cannot prove estrogen prevented those deaths.

THREE STATES PASSED POSTPARTUM MENTAL HEALTH LAWS. SEVEN DIDN’T.

Stateline reports that some experts think the Lindsay Clancy mistrial could push states to pass more postpartum mental health laws. In the past year, Maryland and Virginia governors signed laws requiring some insurers to cover postpartum depression screening, and Illinois passed a law intended to support screening during home visits. But similar bills failed in seven other states. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is seeking $2 million to expand a free postpartum nurse-visit program from 3,000 households a year to 68,000. The head of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health has a test for whether it helps: Will insurers pay for mental health care, and can new mothers get that care through one coordinated practice?

THE FIBROID DRUGS AMERICAN WOMEN CAN’T GET

Mifepristone and the emergency contraceptive ulipristal both block progesterone, and studies around the world have found they can shrink uterine fibroids by up to 50%. Physicians in China and India already prescribe them for fibroids and endometriosis, but in the United States the most common treatment for fibroids remains hysterectomy. That’s in part due to anti-abortion groups that have campaigned against mifepristone for decades and Louisiana, Texas, and Florida are now suing to restrict it. Fibroids affect 70% of white women and more than 80% of Black women by age 50, and it takes more than three years on average before a woman gets treated.

TURNS OUT YOU CAN NUMB THE UTERUS FIRST

In a randomized trial of 370 women who had never given birth, putting 10 milliliters of the local anesthetic mepivacaine into the uterus before IUD placement lowered average pain scores from 58.6 to 43.8 on a 100-point scale. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists only started recommending pain relief measures for IUD placements in May 2025. This trial points to another way to make placement easier.

September17, 2026

Tonight: the first lawsuit over a death linked to an abortion ban, what Congress actually did after its menopause hearing, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

THEY KEPT TELLING HER THE BABY WAS FINE. SHE DIED AT 20 WEEKS.

Tierra Walker’s family has filed what The 19th reports is the first lawsuit over a death linked to an abortion ban. The family alleges that Texas’s ban kept doctors from ending a pregnancy that threatened Walker’s life. She was 37 years old and 20 weeks pregnant when she died in December 2024 of preeclampsia and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Her doctors had identified preeclampsia; one wrote that delivering the baby “may be the best treatment.” Her son found her dead on his 15th birthday. The suit specifically names state AG Ken Paxton, who is also running for the state’s Senate seat.

CONGRESS’ FIRST MENOPAUSE HEARING? TO START, GETTING MORE GOVERNMENT INFO.

At Congress’s first hearing devoted to menopause, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rick Scott asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate how the federal government funds and coordinates menopause research and care. Lawmakers also pointed to bills already introduced on research and physician training, veterans’ care, and the health effects of perimenopausal hormone changes. Gillibrand cited an estimate that menopause costs the U.S. economy $26.6 billion a year, yet less than 1% of federal women’s health research funding goes to menopause.

21 MILLION WOMEN LIVE WHERE BIRTH CONTROL CLINICS FALL SHORT

Over 21 million women who need low- or no-cost contraception live in counties where publicly funded clinics cannot meet estimated demand, according to new maps from Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute. In Arizona’s Maricopa County, 29 clinics serve an area with nearly 300,000 women estimated to need affordable contraception; researchers put clinic capacity at about 8% of that need. The underlying data run through 2023, before more recent Planned Parenthood closures. The maps measure access to publicly funded clinics, so they do not capture care through telehealth or pharmacies.

WOMEN WITH THE SAME CONDITION ARE OFFERED LESS TREATMENT

Women with the same conditions as men were often less likely to receive procedures such as surgery or stents, or strong pain medication, a new review found. Researchers screened 1,112 papers and included 41 that examined differences in patient care. Of the 38 retrospective case series, 33 found a significant difference between men’s and women’s treatment; the difference remained significant in 25 of the 29 studies that adjusted for other factors. The pattern appeared across several specialties, though the review cannot establish why each treatment decision was made.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD LOST MILLIONS. NOW IT’S TREATING MENOPAUSE.

Planned Parenthood clinics around Philadelphia have added menopause hormone therapy and perimenopause care as the organization seeks new patients and revenue. Two area affiliates estimated about $3 million in losses after they were barred from billing Medicaid; that access was restored in July. Nearly a third of the 350 patients who sought menopause treatment last year at Southeastern Pennsylvania clinics were new patients. The affiliate’s CEO says appointments are typically available within a week, while menopause specialists elsewhere can have long waitlists. One Keystone affiliate clinic plans to add vasectomies next year.

Tonight: Congress finally puts menopause on the calendar, signs of maternity units closing, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

CONGRESS HAS NEVER HELD A HEARING ON MENOPAUSE. THAT ENDS WEDNESDAY.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging holds the first congressional hearing ever on menopause tomorrow, entitled “Half the Country, Zero Hearings." Nine of the 13 members of the committee are men. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said it was "absolutely disgraceful" that the committee has never held a hearing specifically focused on menopause, and she is asking for increased research funding and physician training. More than half of states have introduced or passed menopause legislation in the past two years, but nothing has been seriously considered on the federal level beyond research funding.

THE MATERNITY UNITS STILL OPEN LOOK A LOT LIKE THE ONES THAT CLOSED

Among the US hospitals that still delivered babies in 2023, 41% had high-risk factors for losing that service, according to a study that analyzed 3,108 hospitals from 2010. Low birth volume predicted closures everywhere, but the financial picture split along rural and urban lines. Being unprofitable raised a rural hospital’s predicted risk of closing its maternity unit by 12 percentage points, while in urban areas it was more strongly tied to the entire hospital closing. For-profit ownership also carried a much larger risk of maternity-unit closure in rural communities, leading researchers to argue the two need different policy responses.

58% OF MEDICAL TEXTBOOKS DON’T REALLY COVER MENOPAUSE

A white paper from Calla Lily Clinical Care and ABIG Health makes the economic case for teaching menopause in medical school. The numbers are bleak: 58% of medical textbooks worldwide don’t adequately cover menopause, and in a study of 20 US residency programs, more than 20% of residents got no menopause training at all and just under 7% felt prepared to treat it. Menopause symptoms account for roughly $25 billion a year in direct medical costs among US women aged 45 to 60, with the cost of treating cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women on track to top $200 billion a year.

A PROVEN C-SECTION ANTIBIOTIC FINALLY CAUGHT ON. INFECTIONS DROPPED.

Doctors used the antibiotic azithromycin in just over 2% of unscheduled c-sections before a 2016 trial showed that it prevents infections. In 2024, the drug was used in nearly 60% of cases. As doctors adopted the drug, postpartum infections after c-sections fell from around 9% to 8%, even as they rose among vaginal births. Researchers analyzed around 1.7 million US deliveries from 2013 to 2024. Doctors perform more c-sections than any other surgery in the country, and the procedure poses the greatest risk for infection after childbirth. But even eight years after the trial, four in 10 unscheduled c-sections still did not include the drug.

AMERICAN DOCTORS MAKE ONE KIND OF CUT. IT'S THE ONE LINKED TO WORSE TEARING.

More than one in five of the 5,277 US women who delivered babies with forceps or a vacuum suffered a severe tear. An episiotomy, a surgical cut used to widen the vaginal opening, generally increased the odds of this injury, but the direction of the cut made a crucial difference. Midline episiotomies, which accounted for more than three quarters of those performed, raised the odds of severe tears during vacuum deliveries. Episiotomies that angle away from the anus lowered the odds for women who had never delivered vaginally, whether doctors used forceps or a vacuum. The observational study cannot prove that either cut caused the outcomes, but it points to a group that may benefit from the less commonly used approach.

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

⚠️ Almost 200 women died from ectopic pregnancies from 2020–2025 — double the previous six years — with steeper increases in abortion ban states.

💊 After nearly a year of silence, the FDA now acknowledges the estrogen patch shortage, blaming demand — not supply — while almost 20 formulations remain affected.

🏛️HHS cancelled $38M in postpartum and minority health grants and redirected some of the money to erectile dysfunction and sperm count research.

TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK

Lilly's GLP-1 Windfall to Fund Investments in Women's Health // Bloomberg 

Doctors told women to use this medicine for menopause. Pharmacies can't keep it in stock // USA Today

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America pledges $100M to cut US maternal mortality rate in half // AP News 

HHS Cancels Infant Mortality, Postpartum Grants to Focus on Sperm Counts, ED // Notus

Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Development and Commercialization of Mifepristone… // Federal Register 

Prime Healthcare 'unable' to provide answers on cuts to OB/GYN units at hospitals // NBC Chicago

Tonight: ectopic pregnancies are killing twice as many women as it used to, the FDA's explanation for why you can't find an estrogen patch, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

TWICE AS MANY WOMEN ARE DYING FROM A CONDITION THAT SHOULDN'T KILL ANYONE

Almost 200 women died after an ectopic pregnancy from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous six years, a ProPublica analysis of CDC data found. The rise happened nationwide but climbed much more steeply in states with strict abortion bans, reaching just over 13 deaths per million live births in 2023-2025 against just over 7 in states without one. Maternal health experts cautioned that bans alone can't explain the increase, but were blunt about the baseline: "A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event," said Dr. Alice Abernathy, an OB-GYN in Philadelphia.

THE FDA LIFTED THE WARNING. NOW IT SAYS THE SHORTAGE IS WOMEN'S FAULT.

After nearly a year of telling women there was no estrogen patch shortage, the FDA now acknowledges the low supply and is working with six manufacturers to increase it, but it won't formally declare a shortage. Its explanation is demand: the agency removed the black box warning last fall, more women sought estrogen, and manufacturers weren't ready. The pharmacists' association counts almost 20 affected patch formulations, double the number earlier this year, and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, who met with FDA leadership in April, said it took four months to issue what amounts to a lukewarm statement.

$100 MILLION TO CUT US MATERNAL DEATH RATE IN HALF

Philanthropists Olivia and Tom Walton launched Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, pledging $100 million over five years to cut the US maternal mortality rate in half by 2031. The CDC counted 688 deaths during or shortly after pregnancy in 2024, and the rate rose to 19 per 100,000 live births from 18.6 the year before. One of the campaign's own pillars is getting hospitals to report deaths faster: the most recent state-level maternal mortality data is still from 2022.

ELI LILLY IS SPENDING ITS GLP-1 MONEY ON ENDOMETRIOSIS

Eli Lilly is using some of the windfall from GLP-1 drugs to build a women's health business, recruiting scientists in osteoporosis and preeclampsia, and investing in outside companies working on endometriosis. In May the company hired reproductive medicine researcher Kelle Moley to lead women's health and early clinical development. Women and girls are nearly half the world's population; women's health has drawn about 6% of private healthcare investment.

AN AMERICAN ENDOMETRIOSIS TEST IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLAND. NOT IN AMERICA.

Endometriosis patients can wait ten years or more after symptoms begin to get a diagnosis for a condition that affects about 1 in 10 women worldwide. Two non-surgical tests exist: EndoSure, a half-hour test from a Maryland company that reads electrical signals in the gut through sensor pads on the abdomen, and Endotest, a French saliva test that looks for microRNAs. UK draft guidance recommends the NHS use both for three years while evidence accumulates, but neither is FDA-approved. EndoSure's founder says his company is still in the process of submitting its application.

September 8, 2026

Tonight: the senator who spent 25 years delivering babies and then sued hundreds of the women he treated, why federal money for postpartum visits is now going to erectile dysfunction instead, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

POSTPARTUM VISITS OUT. ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION IN.

HHS cancelled 16 grants worth $38 million from its Office of Minority Health, more than half the office's portfolio, ending postpartum home visits for minority women, maternal and infant mortality prevention, cancer screenings and hypertension monitoring. The money is being redirected to what the agency calls the “root causes” of infertility, a list that includes endometriosis and uterine fibroids but also low sperm count, low testosterone and erectile dysfunction. "It is shocking that OMH under any leadership would prioritize erectile dysfunction over the health and wellbeing of infants and new mothers," Rep. Diana DeGette wrote.

A SENATOR DELIVERED THE BABIES. THEN HE SUED THE MOTHERS (HIS CONSTITUENTS).

Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills during 25 years as an obstetrician, and 81 of them were arrested after missing court dates. He charged 18% annual interest under a contract patients signed, garnished paychecks and bank accounts, and pursued debts as small as $101. One woman was arrested three times over a C-section bill, the first time while eight months pregnant. Despite his own record as a doctor, Marshall introduced a bill to bar hospitals from suing patients in 2025 if they don't post their prices.

CHICAGO LOSES THREE MATERNITY UNITS AT ONCE

Prime Healthcare is suspending obstetrics at three Chicago-area hospitals, Saint Joseph's in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, citing financial distress and fewer than one delivery a day. Rep. Lauren Underwood, a nurse who founded the Illinois Black Maternal Health Caucus, said the company made no plans to help the mothers who will now have to travel. "This is not how a company with nothing to hide operates," she said.

THE MIFEPRISTONE NOBODY IS FIGHTING ABOUT

While the FDA conducts a “safety” review of mifepristone in abortion care, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases is considering granting a French company an exclusive patent license to develop mifepristone and related drugs for insulin-resistance disorders caused by excess cortisol. Mifepristone has been approved since 2012 as a daily 300 mg treatment for high blood sugar in some patients with Cushing’s syndrome—a dose higher than the single 200 mg tablet used in medication abortion and one that is taken repeatedly rather than once. Yet that version of the drug is not subject to the special prescribing restrictions imposed on mifepristone for abortion care.

STUDY: THE MENOPAUSE BRAIN DOESN'T SHRINK LIKE THE OTHERS

Puberty and pregnancy both accelerate reductions in the brain’s gray-matter volume. But menopause doesn’t, according to longitudinal imaging of 120 women who went through menopause and more than 700 women in comparison groups. It was the first study to compare whole-brain structural changes across all three transitions using the same analytical approach. In other words, menopause isn’t simply puberty or pregnancy in reverse—the brain responds differently to each hormonal transition.