Women's Health

A presentation at the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health's 2024 Women’s Health Summit discussed how payers, including employers and public entities, can strategically influence health care purchasing to prioritize maternal health and equity.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether patient data were exposed in the cyberattack on Change Healthcare; a new study claims that the US’ high maternal mortality rates are the product of flawed data; HHS secretary is open to drug testing recipients of welfare.

The Democratic Women’s Caucus is urging insurers to comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraception requirement to cover birth control without cost sharing.

"It’s time for our industry to recognize the consequences of the lack of investment in maternal health and come together to bring forward innovations," Charlotte Owens, MD, stated.

A record low of 7.7% of Americans had no health insurance at the start of 2023; the American Academy of Pediatrics renewed its backing of gender care for children while requesting a research review; 2 lots of an oral contraceptive were recalled for possible reduction in effectiveness.

Project CARA, a perinatal substance exposure clinic, has implemented a contingency management program that targets appointment attendance for patients with any use disorder, regardless of substance or urine drug screen results.

Lawyers were questioned in a federal lawsuit intending to overturn approval of a drug used for medication abortion; during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, US maternal mortality increased for the third year in a row; the Alzheimer’s Association is lobbying Congress to push for Medicare coverage of new Alzheimer drugs under early access.

Findings of a meta-analysis showed that women with epilepsy were at increased odds of miscarriage, stillbirth, and maternal death, and risk of poor perinatal outcomes increased with greater use of antiseizure medication.

Online communities are important for individual’s facing infertility, but they should be carefully managed by professionals, a review finds.

Models containing a national database of demographic and reproductive data predict the probability of a live birth success after in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Reproductive and infertility care providers need to be aware of economic, racial, and ethnic disparities that act as barriers to care, and to work to lessen the impact of these barriers, according to a recent review.

Higher levels of self-perceived stress were negatively associated with Antral Follicle Count (AFC) and serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels in women seeking fertility care.

A single session of self-managed virtual reality (VR) exercise may help reduce endometriosis pain, a study suggests.

Limited affordability and availability make consulting with a gynecologist and receiving surgery for ovarian cancer difficult for many minority women.

A DNA sequencing analysis associated Q192R polymorphism in the paraoxonase 1 gene with female infertility in Saudi women.

The United States possesses the highest infant and maternal mortality rates compared with any other high-income country, even though it spends the most on health care.

A study finds certain employment types may be associated with higher rates of pregnancy loss, including early abortive outcomes, stillbirths, and no live births.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) ends late-stage HIV vaccine trial; mothers in states with abortion bans are almost 3 times more likely to die before, during, and after birth; Sanofi hopes to release a drug for hemophilia A in 2023.

Most influencers on YouTube are promoting the discontinuation of hormonal birth control and promoting inaccurate medical information, according to a recent study.

Expanded health coverage sees an increase in enrollments; Antiabortion activists protest against CVS and Walgreens; $26,500 Alzheimer’s drug limits affordability

Adetunji T. Toriola, MD, PhD, professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, explains how breast cancer prevention campaigns for premenopausal women have changed and how RANK ligand inhibition could influence screening accuracy.

Expanded Medicaid coverage reduced hospitalizations by 17% in the first 60 days of the postpartum period, a study found.

A substudy of the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes trial, which compared 3 highly effective, reversible methods of contraception, concluded that women assigned either a copper intrauterine device or the levonorgestrel implant may have had condomless sex more frequently than women assigned to intramuscular depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate.

In the last 2 years, half of women reported needing mental health services compared with only 35% of men. Women who needed mental health care cited provider availability and cost, especially for those who are uninsured, to be 2 major barriers to receiving care.

Our top coverage from this year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) included updated data on tamoxifen and trastuzumab deruxtecan, treatments long proven effective in the breast cancer space.

This year’s most-read articles on women’s health surrounds racial inequalities, barriers to care, and other topics that affect a woman’s quality of life.

Bipartisan lawmakers aim to pass bill that could incentivize development of new antibiotics; the right to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be enshrined in law; CDC director says that vaccine misinformation is a public health threat.

The recently published study may shed light on a potential connection between sleep quality and IVF success.

Infertility and mental health have a complex relationship, with the impact of mental distress in evaluating for infertility and fertility treatments being quite significant.

No difference was shown regarding pregnancy and childbirth outcomes among patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who receive oocytes from women with or without PCOS.