Here are the most interesting items we saw this week in women’s health:
🚫 The Trump administration has moved to kill a teen pregnancy prevention program while conservatives publicly complained that teen birth rates are falling. On Fox News, analyst Marc Siegel called it a “problem” that teens are having fewer babies. Anti-contraception messaging, clinicians say, is already reshaping what patients say in exam rooms.
🧬 Male and female brains express thousands of genes differently, and it may explain a lot. NIH researchers found more than 3,000 genes with sex-biased activity across six brain regions. Many overlap with genetic variants tied to ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's — conditions that affect men and women at different rates.
🤰 Montana approved Medicaid reimbursement for doulas, then reversed course. The rollback hit especially hard on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, where the nearest hospital that delivers babies is 100 miles away. Doulas there are still working, mostly unpaid, filling the gaps the system keeps leaving behind.
TOP CLICKED STORIES THIS WEEK
2. New BSC study reveals, for the first time, that the female immune system changes much more than that of men with age — EurekAlert
3. This Northern Cheyenne Doula Was About To Start Getting Paid — Then Medicaid Cuts Hit — KFF Health News
4. Longer Reproductive Span Linked With Slower Rates of Cognitive Decline — The Menopause Society
5. Recovery of Pregnancy-Related Death Ratios After COVID — Obstetrics & Gynecology