WASHINGTON — Surrounded by hot pink lights and cherry blossom pink drapes on a ballroom stage, family doctor Marguerite Duane offered a seemingly simple solution to infertility: Doctors should have conversations with young girls about whether they want to have children one day. “I have these conversations with children starting at 8, 10, 12 years […]

The federal government on Thursday moved to regulate the booming e-cigarette industry, including banning electronic cigarette sales to minors, and required all tobacco products to undergo government review, even many already on the market. E-cigarettes, along with similarly categorized devices such as vaporizers and vape pens, will be regulated as tobacco products because they use […]

Evidence is mounting that opioid pain medication may have played a role in the death of pop legend Prince. While the medical examiner hasn’t yet released the results of the autopsy and toxicology tests in this case, opioid overdose in middle age is all too common. In 2013 and 2014, according to the The Centers […]

The Food and Drug Administration has dropped a recall of some 2,800 scope-cleaning machines in use at hospitals and clinics nationwide despite a finding by a top agency scientist last year that the action was “necessary to protect public health.” The FDA had ordered the equipment off the market in November because it said Custom […]

The relatively high percentage of American women who die as a result of pregnancy, which exceeds that of other developed nations, is prompting a new national prevention campaign that is relying on the states to take a leading role. The key element in that effort is to encourage all states to go beyond the information […]

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books requiring health insurers to cover autism treatments. But new research evaluating the so-called “insurance mandates” suggests these efforts are failing in key ways to help people — especially children — get needed therapy. These findings, which were to be presented Wednesday at a […]

Felicita Soto remembers finding blood in the oddest places. On her pillow in the morning. In her sandwich after she took a bite. Once, a coworker whispered with disgust: “Felicita, you’re bleeding.” Soto felt mortified. She’d recently kicked a smoking habit she’d had since age 12. But it was too late for her teeth. Eventually, […]

Veterans are still waiting to see a doctor. Two years ago, vets were waiting a long time for care at Veterans Affairs clinics. At one facility in Phoenix, for example, veterans waited on average 115 days for an appointment. Adding insult to injury, some VA schedulers were told to falsify data to make it looks […]

When it comes to the issue of religious rights versus no-cost contraception, the only thing the Supreme Court could agree on was not to decide the case. In an unsigned opinion issued Monday, the court sent a series of cases back to a raft of federal appeals courts, with instructions for those courts and the […]