Here are the trends we spotted this week in women’s health, and as always, scroll for the top clicked stories.
🩺 A grim maternal-health picture is getting harder to ignore. A viral video showed a Black woman denied care in active labor just minutes before delivery, while the March of Dimes issued the U.S. its fourth straight D+ on pregnancy health, underscoring stalled progress and continued racial gaps in care. And the incoming Trump cuts to Medicaid and increases in ACA insurance premiums could make the next year even worse.
📊 Preventive care and midlife health are at a tipping point — again. McKinsey says the U.S. could unlock $38B just by getting women their recommended screenings. Meanwhile, the FDA softened its long-criticized warning on menopause hormone therapy, and the “pink pill” (Addyi, for low sexual desire in premenopausal women) is having a cultural comeback. And yet… it’s hard not to feel like we’ve been on the verge for so long.
⚖️ Women’s federal health policy keeps going one step forward, two steps back. Even as federal regulators modernize hormone-therapy guidance and employers talk up “inclusive benefits,” states are floating harsher abortion penalties and the CDC is retreating on vaccine messaging — creating a landscape where progress and regression can happen in the same news cycle.
NOTE: We will be off next week for the holiday. Our next edition will resume on December 2. Happy Thanksgiving!