Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Four States Petition FDA To Remove Mifepristone Restrictions
The New York Times: Four States Ask F.D.A. To Lift Special Restrictions On Abortion Pill
In a strategy aimed at countering efforts to further restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, attorneys general of four states that support abortion rights on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to do the opposite and lift the most stringent remaining restrictions on the pill. The petition filed by Massachusetts, New York, California and New Jersey might seem surprising given the opposition to abortion expressed by Trump administration officials. (Belluck, 6/5)
Fortune Well: How GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs Can Mess With Birth Control And Pregnancy, U.K. Agency Warns
Anecdotes abound about “Ozempic babies”—when women wound up with unplanned pregnancies while taking both birth-control and the popular GLP-1 drugs for diabetes or weight loss. But today marks the first official agency warning about the possibility of these drugs—specifically Mounjaro—decreasing the effectiveness of oral contraceptives. (Greenfield, 6/5)
Regarding IVF —
Newsweek: Parents Can Choose Genetic Makeup Of Their Children With New IVF Option
U.S.-based biotech company has unveiled a new in vitro fertilization (IVF) option that allows parents to select embryos based on genetic markers tied to health and longevity. DNA testing and analysis company Nucleus Genomics has announced the world's first genetic optimization software that "helps parents pursuing IVF see and understand the complete genetic profile of each of their embryos." (van Brugen, 6/5)
The Guardian: IVF Is Life-Changing For Infertile Families. But The Christian Right Says It’s Not In ‘God’s Plan’
As soon as they arrived home, Tyler, seven, and Jayden, three, rushed to a small green tent perched on the living room table and pressed their faces against its mesh windows. Inside, several gray cocoons hung immobile as the boys’ eyes eagerly scanned them for the slightest sign of movement. “We’re waiting for butterflies to emerge,” explained their mother, Alana Lisano. “It’s our little biology experiment.” Within seconds, the boys were off to play with their cars, having no patience for such waiting. But Tyler and Jayden, Alana told me, were like those butterflies not so long ago, suspended in a different kind of stasis for two decades. Technically, they existed long before Alana met her husband, Steven Lisano, in veterinary school. Before they got married, tried to get pregnant and learned that Alana’s eggs were of such poor quality that even in vitro fertilization probably wouldn’t help. (Oosterhoff, 6/5)
Antibiotics during pregnancy, gut microbiota, and menopause —
CIDRAP: Antibiotic Taken During Pregnancy Doesn't Increase Infant Birth Weight, Trial Finds
A randomized controlled trial involving nearly 1,000 women in Zimbabwe found that a daily dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic during pregnancy did not significantly increase infant birth weight, an international group of researchers reported yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. But women who received prophylactic (preventive) trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole had fewer preterm births than those who received a placebo, a finding the study authors say needs to be further explored. (Dall, 6/5)
CIDRAP: Right Blend Of Gut Microbiota Could Avert Hospitalization For Viral Respiratory Infection In Babies
An optimal mix of gut bacteria (microbiome) found in infants born vaginally could help children fight off severe viral lower respiratory-tract infections (vLRTIs) for the first 2 years of life, UK researchers wrote yesterday in The Lancet Microbe. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)
CapRadio: California Lawmakers Want Doctors To Know More About Menopause
Former middle school teacher Lorraine Carter Salazar isn’t easily embarrassed. But when she began having hot flashes at school, she worried about how she came off to coworkers, students and parents. “It doesn't convey competence,” said Carter Salazar, 62. She recounted how parents could tell she was uncomfortable in meetings. One time, a student even fanned her and remarked that she was used to seeing her grandma feeling the same way. (Myscofski, 6/4)
