Birth Control News and Research

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Once the new over-the-counter birth control pill is available, What about cost and coverage?

Last week, the FDA approved Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive that will be available for sale over the counter in stores as well as online. Reproductive health advocates hailed the groundbreaking approval as a step that can help millions of people avoid pregnancy, which is unintended nearly half the time in the United States.

19 Jul 2023

Only 43% of parents use patient portal benefits for their children, poll finds

For many busy families, online access to a child's health provider for medical advice, health records or prescription refills is likely a convenient option.

17 Jul 2023

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The long road to reining in short-term plans

It took more than two years, but the Biden administration has finally kept a promise made by then-candidate Joe Biden to roll back the Trump administration's expansion of short-term, limited-duration health plans.

13 Jul 2023

Birth control pills disrupt women's stress response, study shows

New study shows that birth-control pills negatively impact women's stress response.

7 Jul 2023

UW Medicine reaffirms support for access to abortion care

The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, has had significant impacts nationally on healthcare justice, affecting the health, financial stability and opportunity for many people across the country.

29 Jun 2023

Researchers create a diagnostic test to identify functional sperm in infertile men

In a recent study, researchers created a diagnostic test to identify functional sperm in infertile men that could change the treatment of male infertility and assisted reproductive technology.

14 Jun 2023

Use of hormonal birth control linked to greater risk of postpartum depression in women

Inability to feel happy, low spirits, fatigue, and loss of appetite. These are common symptoms of postpartum depression.

17 May 2023

The crisis is officially ending, but covid confusion lives on

The formal end May 11 of the national public health emergency for covid-19 will usher in lots of changes in the way Americans get vaccines, treatment, and testing for the coronavirus.

11 May 2023

Gene discovery could pave the way for a non-hormonal male contraceptive

Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals.

17 Apr 2023

Current CVD risk assessments fall short for women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds

Non-biological factors and social determinants of health are important to include in CVD risk assessment for women, particularly for women of diverse races and ethnicities other than white, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published today in Circulation, the Association's flagship, peer-reviewed journal.

10 Apr 2023

A judicial body blow to the ACA

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act may have stopped trying to overturn the entire law in court, but they have not stopped challenging pieces of it — and they have found an ally in Fort Worth, Texas: U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor.

30 Mar 2023

Hormonal contraceptives and breast cancer: what's the risk?

The current study, reported in the PLOS Medicine journal, explored breast cancer risk linked to the current or past use of hormonal contraception during the reproductive period in women.

26 Mar 2023

Judge signals he could rule to halt sales of common abortion pill

During a four-hour hearing last week that could eliminate nationwide access to a common and widely used abortion pill, federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, of the Northern District of Texas, signaled his conservative Christian beliefs early and often.

20 Mar 2023

Biden budget touches all the bases

President Joe Biden's fiscal 2024 budget proposal includes new policies and funding boosts for many of the Democratic Party's important constituencies, including advocates for people with disabilities and reproductive rights.

10 Mar 2023

Girls in Texas could get birth control at federal clinics, until a Christian father objected

On the vast Texas Panhandle, raked by wind and relentless sun, women might drive for hours to reach Haven Health, a clinic in Amarillo.

8 Mar 2023

For young people on Medicare, a hysterectomy sometimes is more affordable than birth control

Sam Chavarría said her doctor was clear about the birth defects her medication could cause if she became pregnant but agreed to keep her on it as long as she had an IUD.

7 Mar 2023

One Texas judge will decide fate of abortion pill used by millions of American women

Federal judges in Texas have delivered time and again for abortion opponents.

24 Feb 2023

Hormone replacement therapy for gender dysphoria may increase risk of serious cardiac events

People with gender dysphoria taking hormone replacements as part of gender affirmation therapy face a substantially increased risk of serious cardiac events, including stroke, heart attack and pulmonary embolism, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology.

23 Feb 2023

Republican lawmakers shy away from changing Montana’s constitutional right to abortion

Republican lawmakers in Montana wield a supermajority that gives them the power to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would break the link between abortion rights and the right to privacy in the state's constitution.

16 Feb 2023

The Pill Club reaches $18.3 million Medicaid fraud settlement with California

The Pill Club, an online women's pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state's Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn't want them.

7 Feb 2023