The FDA has approved Bayer's Lynkuet, a hormone-free drug to treat moderate to severe hot flashes and night sweats in menopausal women. The drug, elinzanetant, works by blocking brain chemicals responsible for vasomotor symptoms and will be available in the US in November.

Women may need less exercise than men to protect against coronary heart disease, according to a study in Nature Cardiovascular Research. The study of more than 85,000 adults finds that women who engage in four hours of moderate exercise weekly lower their heart disease risk by 30%, whereas men need eight hours for similar benefits.

Postmenopausal women who are using hormone therapy experience greater weight loss with tirzepatide than those who are not using hormone therapy, according to a study presented at the Menopause Society's annual meeting. The study found that postmenopausal women on hormone therapy also had more total body weight loss than premenopausal or perimenopausal women taking tirzepatide.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children is facing a funding crisis as the government shutdown threatens to extend into November, and millions of families may lose benefits starting Nov. 1, according to the National WIC Association. The USDA has indicated it will use tariff revenue to fund WIC for now, but it's unclear how long these resources will last. The association, in a joint letter with 40 organizations including Consumer Brands, is calling for an additional $300 million in emergency funds to sustain the program into November, warning that some state agencies may have to furlough staff beginning today without additional funding.

A research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that stillbirths affect about 1 in 150 pregnancies in the US, higher than the CDC's reported rate of 1 in 175. Researchers used commercial insurance claims data, which they said is more reliable than fetal death certificates. They also found disparities in stillbirths, with rates rising to 1 in 112 births in low-income areas and 1 in 95 in Black families, compared with white families.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists President Steven Fleischman criticizes a proposal to change acetaminophen labels to warn about a potential link to autism, saying the link is unsubstantiated and that the change would create unnecessary fear among pregnant patients. Fleischman emphasizes the safety of acetaminophen during pregnancy, citing studies that support its use.

Pregnancy centers in the US that discourage abortion are expanding medical services, including STI treatment and primary care, especially after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. This expansion is gaining momentum as Planned Parenthood closes clinics due to Medicaid changes. Critics argue that these centers lack accountability and comprehensive care, while supporters say they fill a crucial gap in health care.

The CIRCUIT trial found that a closed-loop insulin delivery system helped pregnant women with type 1 diabetes spend more time in a pregnancy-specific glucose range compared with standard care. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found women using the system spent 65.4% of time in the target range, compared with 50.3% for those who received standard care.

Armor Medical co-founder and CEO Kelsey Mayo was inspired to address postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal deaths, after a personal experience with hemorrhage. The startup's wearable device uses a laser and a camera to detect early signs of blood loss by monitoring changes in peripheral blood flow. Mayo said the device is effective across varying skin pigmentations and can detect blood loss five times earlier than current methods.

A study in the European Journal of Pediatrics associated the use of surfactant with improvements in aeration in the right lung more than the left lung in extremely preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome. "We hypothesize that surfactant probably reaches the right side more easily and the basal regions of the lung to a greater extent than the apical ones, leading to focal heterogeneous air distribution that might reflect a combination of both over-expanded and collapsed alveoli, observations that warrant continued future studies," researchers wrote.