get the top three things to know in women's health + wellness, every weekday:

CDC Tells Docs to Warn Patients About Possible IUD Pain

What: For the first time ever, the CDC is recommending that health professionals warn patients that IUD insertions might be painful, and there are measures their clinicians can take to reduce the pain, such as lidocaine (an anesthetic).

Why it matters: For some women, IUD insertions aren’t painful. But for others, it can be excruciating—and wildly unexpected, until posts on social media helped women realize they weren’t alone or exaggerating their pain.

Source: CNN

More News Snippets
The Birth Rate Fallacy

Experts explaining that the global drop in fertility rates is partly a product of women having children later in life.

Another Mother Dead Thanks to Abortion Bans

Josseli Barnica was excited to be pregnant with her second child but suffered a miscarriage at 17 weeks. Instead of helping the miscarriage progress, doctors let her suffer for 40 hours because her fetus still had a heartbeat.

Could Ozempic Prevent Fibroids?

Women with type 2 diabetes who got a GLP-1 medication were less likely to develop new fibroids than women who just took metformin, a diabetes medication.

To Prevent the Cancer from Returning

An essay from Rachel Manteuffel on her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment that manages to be funny while also tackling the wrenching choice to have chemotherapy or not after a mastectomy.