Tonight: the Trump administration wants to eliminate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program while conservatives complain teen birth rates are falling, what the UK just admitted about how medicine treats women, and more.
— Meghan McCarthy
THEY ACTUALLY WANT MORE TEEN PREGNANCIES // The Trump administration has moved to eliminate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program — which it called "radical indoctrination" last year — at the same time conservatives are publicly complaining that teen birth rates are declining. On Fox News, analyst Marc Siegel called it a "problem" that teens are having fewer babies. Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, tweeted that hormonal birth control is "poison" and that women's "biological destiny is to have babies — not slave behind desks chasing careers while our civilization dies." Clinicians told the National Memo that anti-contraception disinformation is already reshaping what patients say in exam rooms.
THE UK NAMED "MEDICAL MISOGYNY" A POLICY PROBLEM // The British government renewed its Women's Health Strategy this week with explicit language about eliminating long-standing patterns of women being dismissed or ignored by the health system — and said providers could have funding withheld based on patient feedback. The strategy also commits to streamlining gynecology care to cut wait times for conditions like endometriosis, which now takes an average of nine years and four months to diagnose in England. New pain relief standards for invasive procedures like IUD fittings and hysteroscopies are also included, addressing what the Health Secretary said was decades of inadequate care.
THE PANDEMIC MATERNAL MORTALITY SPIKE DIDN'T END EQUALLY // A study in Obstetrics & Gynecology tracked 8,298 pregnancy-related deaths from 2018 to 2024 and found that while overall rates have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, they remain significantly elevated for Black mothers. Maternal deaths rose more than 60% during the pandemic peak, from around 20 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 to 33 in 2021. Later postpartum deaths (those occurring beyond six weeks after delivery) are also still elevated across groups, a pattern researchers say warrants urgent policy attention.
YOUR REPRODUCTIVE HISTORY MAY SHAPE HOW YOUR BRAIN AGES // A large study published in Menopause using more than 30 years of data from over 14,000 women found that a longer reproductive lifespan, i.e. the years between first period and menopause, was associated with slower cognitive decline in later life. The finding adds to evidence that cumulative estrogen exposure may matter for brain health. One notable counterpoint in the same data: hormone therapy use, including within 10 years of menopause, was not associated with cognitive benefit in this analysis, which the authors say supports current guidelines against using HRT specifically to prevent dementia.
MALE AND FEMALE BRAINS EXPRESS GENES DIFFERENTLY AND IT MAY MATTER FOR DISEASE // NIH researchers analyzed gene activity in each cell in six certain areas of the brain in 30 adults. They found that biological sex explains only a small fraction of overall gene expression variation, but more than 3,000 genes showed some degree of sex-biased activity in at least one region. And many of those genes overlap with genetic variants linked to ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's. The authors are careful to note that some of these differences may reflect socialization and experience rather than biology alone, but the findings suggest that sex-specific patterns in brain gene expression could help explain why psychiatric and neurological conditions affect men and women differently.