over the counter coming soon?

November 3, 2026

Welcome to a special early edition, thanks to the midterm elections. We'll be back Thursday with analysis on what the results mean for women’s health.

And for tonight: the rules protecting pregnant workers, a sharp drop in newborn deaths in Flint, and more.

— Meghan McCarthy

The Trump administration is preparing to narrow workplace protections under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, The New York Times reports. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission plans to revisit how it defines "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions." Current regulations cover miscarriage, postpartum depression, lactation, abortion, fertility treatment, endometriosis, and menstruation. They can require employers to give workers time off for an abortion, including travel. The administration is also reportedly considering broader religious exemptions that could allow employers to deny some reproductive health accommodations. A proposed rule is expected this month, with public comments expected to close in January.

The FDA has approved removing what it calls outdated warnings about heart disease, breast cancer, and dementia from three more estradiol patches. Six hormone therapy products got the same change in February. The agency is also working with companies to explore selling vaginal estrogen over the counter, a move that would require FDA approval and evidence that women can use it safely without a prescription. The FDA says patch production has doubled over the past year and it is "not aware of an imminent risk of a nationwide shortage." But the agency again made its warning-label decision without convening an advisory committee, The Guardian reports. Asked for the evidence behind the change, officials said they could provide it later.

Newborns in Flint, Michigan, have historically died at about twice the rate of those in the rest of the state. In 2024, the city launched Rx Kids, a program that gives expectant mothers $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 a month through their baby's first year. A year later, deaths in the first week of life had fallen 74%, and deaths in the first month had fallen 50%, compared with 2021–2024, according to a JAMA Pediatrics research letter. Flint's newborn death rates were no longer statistically different from those in the rest of Michigan. The numbers are small: just two first-week deaths among 980 births in 2025, and that year's data are still provisional. Researchers caution that the findings are preliminary and don't prove the payments caused the decline but say direct cash support may help improve newborn survival.

Cervical cancer rates may decline worldwide by 2050, but the number of women diagnosed is projected to rise 20%, and deaths 39%, according to a Nature Medicine study. In 2023, an estimated 887,000 women developed cervical cancer, and 369,000 died from it. The disease was more than four times as common in low-income countries as in high-income ones, and death rates were more than seven times higher. Researchers attributed the entire burden of cervical cancer to HPV infection. The projected decline in age-adjusted rates remains uncertain, even as the total number of cases and deaths is expected to grow. The increase reflects a growing and aging population, while gaps in HPV vaccination, screening, and treatment continue to leave women in poorer countries at much greater risk.

A technique developed to prevent mothers from passing on rare, sometimes fatal mitochondrial diseases is being sold as a fertility treatment for older women, despite little evidence it works, a STAT investigation found. So-called "three-parent IVF" is illegal in the U.S., and professional medical groups recommend against using it to treat infertility. An Illinois-based company connects American and European patients with clinics abroad, including one in Albania that greets patients with a sign declaring itself an "FDA registered facility." STAT found poor record-keeping, incomplete research published in marginal journals, and questions about whether patients received the procedure they were promised. In one case, a child's ancestry test raised doubts about where the child's DNA came from.