Read more about the HHS offices and agencies included in this section.
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Health and Wellness
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Diseases and Conditions
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Reproductive Health
- Breastfeeding
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- Pregnancy
- 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)
- Making birth control better, safer, and more accessible for women
- CDC, Current Contraceptive Use in the United States, 2006–2010, and Changes in Patterns of Use Since 1995
- The White House Council on Women and Girls, Keeping America’s Women Moving Forward
- FDA, HIV/AIDS Historical Time Line 1981-1990
- FDA, Birth Control: Medicines To Help You
- OPA, Birth Control Pill Fact Sheet
- CDC, Current Contraceptive Use in the United States, 2006–2010, and Changes in Patterns of Use Since 1995
- CDC, Current Contraceptive Use in the United States, 2006–2010, and Changes in Patterns of Use Since 1995
- OPA, Title X Family Planning
- CMS, RE: Family Planning Services Option and New Benefit Rules for Benchmark Plans
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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.Making birth control better, safer, and more accessible for women
In the United States, 62 million women are in their childbearing years (ages 15 to 44). About 70% of them are at risk of unintended pregnancy.1
Because women typically use contraception for more than a third of their lives2, having safe and effective options is important. The FDA monitors the safety and effectiveness of birth control methods and may limit the use of a contraceptive method or remove it from the market entirely. In 1988, for example, the FDA withdrew birth control pills with more than 50 micrograms of the female hormone estrogen after reports of an increased risk for rare but fatal blood clots.3
Since 1984, the FDA has approved many new forms of contraception, giving women more options. In addition to male condoms and oral contraceptive pills, women can now choose from hormonal vaginal rings, shots, a skin patch, female condoms, IUDs, and implants.4 Today, some types of contraceptives can control acne and reduce menstrual pain and heavy periods, in addition to preventing pregnancy.5
Since 1995, the proportion of women who use a long-acting, reversible contraceptive method—such as implants, shots, the patch, the ring, and the IUD – has increased.6 These methods became more available in the 1990s, and they are associated with lower rates of unintended pregnancies compared with most other methods.7
Cost should no longer be a barrier. Since 1970, Title X family planning centers, administered by OPA, have provided birth control and other family planning services to low-income women. These clinics help avert an estimated 1 million unintended pregnancies each year.8 Since 1972, states have been required to provide family planning services and supplies to people on Medicaid.9 Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, insurance plans in the Health Insurance Marketplace and many other plans must cover FDA-approved birth control prescribed by a woman’s doctor without cost-sharing.
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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: April 01, 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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