cream-less

Tonight: the words researchers say they can’t use in grants, a ballot question that’s really two, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

Trump has called for a new women’s health division at NIH. But the 19th reports researchers are skeptical of his efforts, especially because his administration is already restricting how they describe women’s health research. Johns Hopkins demographer Suzanne Bell is studying the health effects of abortion bans. Bell says an NIH official warned that renewing her grant would likely require removing any mention of abortion or Dobbs, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. She removed the language, and the grant was renewed. Bell is among the researchers behind a class-action lawsuit filed in September accusing NIH of using 235 keywords, including “gender” and “pregnant individual,” to flag research the administration opposed. Federal officials have argued in court filings that the lawsuit lacks merit. The new executive order, meanwhile, specifies no funding or measurable research targets.

Four states vote on abortion Tuesday. Two years after Missouri voters struck down one of the country’s strictest bans, the Republican-led legislature put the question back on the ballot. This time it’s a single measure that pairs a near-total abortion ban with a ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors. NPR reports that much of the advertising for it mentions only the gender-affirming care ban. In Idaho, a vote could overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban. Nevada and Virginia, where abortion is legal, will decide whether to write those rights into their state constitutions.

Patches were just the start. Some estradiol injections are now in shortage, and several vaginal estrogen creams are backordered or available only in limited quantities, Reuters reports. CVS said supplies of certain injections have gotten worse in recent weeks. Midi Health’s chief medical officer described a “domino effect” as patients who can’t find patches switch to gels and creams. Demand rose after the FDA removed the boxed warning on some hormone therapy last year. Manufacturer Viatris has put its Vermont plant on around-the-clock production and plans a new production line. The FDA didn’t respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Men filed 51% of California’s paid leave claims in 2025. KFF Health News reports that this is the first time men have outnumbered women in the program’s history. When it started in 2004, men made up about 18% of claims. Men have also overtaken women in Colorado and Washington. California raised its benefit in 2025, and paid leave can now cover as much as 90% of a worker’s pay. One advocate cautions that the data can’t show whether more dads became eligible or fewer moms took leave.

A German trial of nearly 100,000 women ages 50 to 70 tested whether 3D mammograms could catch cancers that standard mammograms miss. Among women whose screening showed no cancer, about 14 per 10,000 in the 3D group were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer over the next two years, compared with about 19 per 10,000 in the standard group. That suggests 3D scans may have caught more cancers earlier, leaving fewer to be discovered between screenings. Those cancers tend to be more aggressive than cancers found during screening. The two-year difference—roughly a quarter fewer cases—wasn’t statistically significant, meaning researchers couldn’t rule out chance, though the first-year difference was significant. Pandemic disruptions left the trial about 20,000 women short of its recruitment goal, which may have made a real benefit harder to detect.