THE BIGGEST HEALTH BREAKTHROUGHS OF 2023

At Prevention, we've been encouraging you to make noise all year and your voices are being heard! Here are five important changes impacting your health that happened this year because people across America stood up and demanded results.

- MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU

WOMEN'S HEALTH saw some long-awaited ADVANCES

WHY IT'S A BIG DEAL:

It means more options and clearer guidance for all ages.

Scientific research on women's health has historically lagged way behind that on men's, but this year significant progress was made on three fronts.

BIRTH CONTROL: Women and girls will finally be able to get a contraceptive pill without a prescription. In July, the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the progestin-only mini pill Opill. The move is important, as nearly a third of womenespecially those who are uninsured, are Spanish-speaking, or have no regular doctor-say they've sometimes had trouble getting hormonal birth control. The ability to get Opill without needing to see a physician will likely reduce the number of unintended pregnancies (currently about 3 million) each year.

MENOPAUSE: Nearly every person born with a uterus will undergo this phase of life, but there hadn't been major new treatments for the symptoms accompanying its hormonal changes in more than eight decades. This spring the FDA approved Veozah, a daily pill that reduces the number and severity of hot flashes by tamping down overactive neurons in the hypothalamus. It's an option for women who can't or won't use hormone therapy, and now that a growing number of companies are offering menopause telehealth, women can get this and other treatments prescribed that way.

BREAST CANCER: Nearly 15 years ago, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force decreed that most women in their 40s didn't need routine mammograms. But following an alarming rise in cancer in younger women and with persistently high death rates in Black women-the group has now changed its recommendations, saying that if women have mammograms every other year starting at age 40, more lives will be saved.