Read more about the HHS offices and agencies included in this section.
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Reproductive Health
- Breastfeeding
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- Patient Materials
- Increase in breastfeeding
- Increasing women's lifespan
- Policy of inclusion of women in clinical trials
- Improvements in breast cancer screening
- Improvements in mental health care for women
- Decrease in breast cancer deaths
- Decrease in smoking rates for women
- Decrease in teen pregnancy
- Cervical cancer prevention and screening
- Decrease in HIV/AIDS deaths in women
- Federal funding to address violence against women
- Decrease in lung cancer deaths in women
- Mother-to-child transmission of HIV decreased
- Decrease in deaths from women's leading killer – heart disease
- Making birth control better, safer, and more accessible for women
- Creation of Offices on Women's Health at the federal level
- Cancer and Steroid Hormone (CASH) study
- Approval of emergency contraception
- Building better osteoporosis treatments
- Efforts to improve pregnant women's health and outcomes
- Dangerous drugs and devices for women removed from market
- Improvements in support to caregivers
- Improvements in older women's health
- Largest women's health prevention study ever – Women's Health Initiative
- FDA helps women and families meet their nutritional needs
- Addressing sex differences in health
- Addressing minority women's health
- Recognizing the needs of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women
- Creation of women's health information resources
- Affordable Care Act improves women's health
- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
- HHS and women's health: Agency and office descriptions
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- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
- Decrease in smoking rates for women
- CDC/NCHS, Table 54 (page 1 of 2). Current cigarette smoking among adults aged 18 and over, by sex, race, and age: United States, selected years 1965–2012
- CDC/NCHS, Table 54 (page 1 of 2). Current cigarette smoking among adults aged 18 and over, by sex, race, and age: United States, selected years 1965–2012
- OSG, Smoking and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General
- CDC, Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
- women.smokefree.gov, 11 Harmful Effects of Smoking on Women’s Health
- OSG,—The Health Consequences of Smoking
- CDC, Tobacco Use by Pregnant Women, United States
- CDC, Tobacco Use and Pregnancy
- CDC, Trends in Smoking Before, During, and After Pregnancy — Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, United States, 40 Sites, 2000–2010
- CDC, Press Release
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30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
Call the OWH HELPLINE: 1-800-994-9662
9 a.m. — 6 p.m. ET, Monday — Friday
OWH and the OWH helpline do not see patients and are unable to: diagnose your medical condition; provide treatment; prescribe medication; or refer you to specialists. The OWH helpline is a resource line. The OWH helpline does not provide medical advice.
Please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if you are experiencing a medical emergency.Decrease in smoking rates for women
Today millions more women are smoke-free than 30 years ago. In 1985, 28% of adult women in the United States reported smoking.1 In 2012, that percentage had dropped to 16% of adult women.2
The landmark Surgeon General’s 1964 report, Smoking and Health, was the first federal report to highlight harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy and the first federal report to identify lung cancer as a probable result of smoking in women. The highest smoking rate among American women was in 1963, when 34% were smokers.3
Subsequent reports from the Surgeon General in 1980 and 2001 focused specifically on the health risks women face because of smoking. Women and men who smoke have a greater risk for many health problems, including heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.4 But smoking also affects women in different ways than men. Smoking can cause painful periods, earlier menopause, infertility, and depression.5 Pregnant women who smoke also increase their baby’s risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and low birth weight.6
Since 1987, the CDC’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System has collected data from new mothers on their health, including tobacco use. In 1989, 19.5% of women reported smoking during pregnancy.7 In 2010, over half of the women who smoked before pregnancy (54%) quit during pregnancy.8 In 2012, the prevalence of women smoking during pregnancy was down to 12%.9
In 2012, the CDC began the Tips From Former Smokers campaign, resulting in 1.6 million additional smokers making a quit attempt and adding a half a million quality-adjusted life-years to the U.S. population.10
The 2014 Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health highlights the success of federal and state programs and outlines a national strategy for ending the tobacco epidemic. The 2010 Affordable Care Act expands access to smoking cessation services and now requires most insurance companies to cover cessation treatments and medications. The federal government offers free smoking cessation services in many formats – by phone, app, texts, websites, and print publications. Learn more about these free quit smoking resources for women.
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All material contained on these pages are free of copyright restrictions and may be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without permission of the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Citation of the source is appreciated.
Page last updated: January 30, 2019.
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A federal government website managed by the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201
1-800-994-9662 • Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET (closed on federal holidays).
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