Tonight: PCOS gets a new official name, the lates on the Supreme Court, and more.
— Meghan McCarthy
SCOTUS SAYS ABORTION PILL TELEHEALTH PRESCRIBING CAN CONTINUE…FOR NOW (AGAIN)
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the abortion pill, known as mifepristone, could continue being prescribed via telehealth appointments while a case brought by Louisiana moves through lower courts. Two conservative justices dissented in the decision, saying it was a “perpetration of a scheme” against the Supreme Court’s decision to allow states to outright ban abortion. (How do they feel about states like Missouri, whose residents voted for abortion access, yet they still don’t fully have it? One will never know…)
PCOS WAS NEVER THE RIGHT NAME
A global group of 56 organizations using more than 22,000 patient survey responses reached a consensus and The Lancet made it official: polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS will now be called polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS. The change reflects what doctors have long known: the “cysts” seen on ultrasound aren’t actually cysts. They’re arrested follicles, and the old name obscured the metabolic and hormonal problems at the heart of the condition. The new name keeps “ovarian” but adds “polyendocrine” for the multiple hormonal disturbances and “metabolic” for the insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular risks that come with it. Lead author Helena Teede framed the rename as a chance to finally treat PMOS as the multisystem condition it actually is, not a fertility problem.
THE MEN WHO WANT WOMEN QUIET
The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis argues that “masculinism” has become the single most important force holding together the American right, profiling Doug Wilson, Nick Fuentes, Scott Yenor of Heritage, and others openly working to remove women’s right to vote, work, and divorce. Wilson, the pastor Pete Hegseth invited to lead the Pentagon worship service, told Lewis he favors household-only voting and the eventual repeal of the 19th Amendment (“maybe 200 years’ time”). The piece walks through how the “longhouse thesis,” anti-empathy rhetoric, and Heritage’s “family wage” policy proposals all fit together.
THE HEART HEALTH WARNING NOBODY (IN THEIR 40s) KNOWS
Perimenopausal women are twice as likely to have a low cardiovascular health score compared to women with regular cycles, according to a Journal of the American Heart Association analysis of nationwide U.S. data published Wednesday. The gap was driven by higher cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and the authors argue clinicians should start screening for blood pressure, cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes earlier in the perimenopausal transition. In other words, the window for prevention is open right when most women aren’t being told to look.
ENDOMETRIOSIS DOESN’T END AT FERTILITY
A population study of roughly 1.5 million Ontario births found that infants born to women with endometriosis had a 16% higher rate of congenital anomalies, including cleft palate, hypospadias, and pulmonary artery stenosis. IVF and ICSI accounted for only 11% of the excess risk, suggesting endometriosis itself drives the pattern, not the fertility treatments.