October 9, 2026
Tonight: the abortion pill review that won't land until after the midterms (of course), the doctors' group that put estrogen first, and more.
— Meghan McCarthy
THE ABORTION PILL REVIEW LANDS AFTER THE MIDTERMS
Under pressure from abortion opponents, the FDA is revisiting mifepristone’s safety, despite decades of evidence that the drug is safe and effective. The agency won’t finish the review until March, it told a federal judge Wednesday. (Convenient timing for the midterm elections.) Its own ongoing monitoring has identified no new safety concerns. The review will compare side effects among roughly 100,000 women who took the pill with those of patients who had surgical abortions through 10 weeks. It could lead the agency to reinstate an in-person dispensing requirement, threatening telehealth access that has helped patients in abortion ban states get the medication since Roe fell.
THE INTERNISTS SAY: ESTROGEN FIRST
The American College of Physicians, the country's largest medical specialty group, now recommends estrogen as the first treatment for hot flashes and night sweats, both in perimenopause and after menopause. Women who still have a uterus would take it with a progestogen. For women who can't take or tolerate estrogen, the group suggests the antidepressants venlafaxine or desvenlafaxine next. After those come SSRIs, gabapentin, and the hormone-free drugs fezolinetant and elinzanetant. The group also urged doctors to ask about symptoms, since many women won't bring them up.
FREE BIRTH CONTROL, $2,097 A YEAR
Insurers are still charging women for birth control the Affordable Care Act guarantees at no cost, according to a report from the National Women's Law Center. It draws on more than 8,500 requests to the group's CoverHer hotline since 2013. Plans are excluding whole categories of contraception and refusing to cover related care, like office visits and anesthesia for sterilization. They're also making women "try and fail" other methods first, which the group calls unlawful. Callers who were denied coverage from 2022 to 2025 reported paying an average of about $2,100 a year out of pocket. Since Dobbs, more women are seeking permanent birth control: by 2025, 55% of hotline requests involved coverage for removal of both fallopian tubes.
YOUR MAMMOGRAM, NOW WITH A HEART CHECK (IN MARYLAND)
Since Oct. 1, Maryland mammography centers must tell patients in their results letter if the scan showed calcium deposits in the breast arteries. Those deposits are linked to higher risk of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke. The Washington Post reports Maryland is the first state to require the notice. Heart disease is women's No. 1 killer, yet many women are more likely to get a mammogram than a heart screening. No trial has yet shown that acting on the finding prevents heart problems.
WHO GETS IVF? FOLLOW THE MONEY.
About 15% of women ages 18 to 49 say they or a partner have needed fertility care, according to a survey of around 3,500 women by KFF. A quarter of them didn't get the care they needed, most often because of cost. Among women who needed help, 17% of those with higher incomes got IVF, compared with 3% of those with low incomes. No federal law requires fertility coverage, Medicaid rarely pays for it, and only about a quarter of large employers that offer health benefits cover IVF.