The “reproductive health” industry is mainly focused on killing unborn babies. This tragedy has left women who experience fertility issues at a loss, especially older women of reproductive age who were encouraged to wait to start a family until their later years.
While pregnancy termination pills are liberally prescribed, despite safety concerns, simple fertility boosters like oral progesterone medications are guarded as if they are as deadly as the abortion pills that are so often prescribed by the reproductive health industry.
Skyrocketing Abortion Drug Access
Sadly, on Sept. 30, the FDA approved the use of generic Mifepristone, the most commonly used abortion drug. This sparked a quick response from U.S. representatives seeking to protect life, who sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, urging him to look into leading drug approval officials for what they called a “reckless decision.”
Mifepristone has caused “significant morbidity and mortality,” according to a 2021 National Library of Medicine study that examined deaths related to the drug between 2000 and 2019. The FDA labeled it a safe drug despite also noting that 36 women were killed by it in 2024 alone, and the Mayo Clinic has noted a lengthy list of common side effects. These include: anxiety, coma, depression, and seizures, along with the less common side effects of heavy bleeding, fainting, and the unknown frequency of side effects like hives, chest pain, and trouble breathing.
The use of Mifepristone as an abortifacient has increased to such a rate that the Guttmacher Institute estimated that over one million abortions were performed in the U.S. last year, including medicated abortions. This was attributed to the popularity of Mifepristone prescriptions being obtained through telehealth exams, where a doctor does not physically examine a patient but prescribes treatment after assessing the situation via phone call or online interview, per Associated Press.
A Simple Solution Is Still Not the Standard
Meanwhile, progesterone medications for women in their late 30s and early 40s who are experiencing fertility struggles are not as easily prescribed. Progesterone is a hormone that fertile women naturally make. It is essential to maintain a healthy uterine lining that allows a fertilized egg to implant in the uterus and grow into a healthy embryo. Women produce less progesterone as they age. Harvard Health explained that this drop off begins in women’s 30s. Yet, a lack of studies connecting progesterone deficiencies to miscarriages is cited as the main reason that doctors are hesitant to prescribe the hormone to save pregnancies from termination, via Invia Fertility.
Costly IVF clinics routinely prescribe progesterone for healthy pregnancy outcomes, as highlighted in the 2015 National Library of Medicine study examining the Clinical use of progesterone in infertility and assisted reproduction. The Fertility Clinic of Illinois states, “Progesterone supplements are commonly used in women with infertility diagnoses,” but fails to note that this commonality is only through fertility specialists, as most OB/GYN doctors are still hesitant to prescribe progesterone.
According to the CDC, over 13 percent of women ages 15-49 experience fertility impairment. The number increases for married women. It rises to over 16 percent for married women, which is likely caused by Americans’ modern trend of getting married later in life. Although scientific data has yet to conclusively determine the exact age of peak fertility, the National Library of Medicine published a 2018 report which stated, “U.S. public posits fertility onset at (approximately) 13 years, peak fertility at 22, ideal first pregnancy age at 23, too late for pregnancy at 46, and infertility at 49.”
According to PBS News, an estimated one million pregnancies end in miscarriage per year, with no medical explanation for as many as half of those spontaneous pregnancy losses. Yet, no one in the reproductive health field is extensively studying why fertility rates drop when they do and what causes so many miscarriages every year.
What This Means For Women’s Health
Online forums, natural health care organizations, and even doctors have discussed the bias against progesterone supplements anecdotally online. When discussing the desire to have another baby in my early 40s with other mothers, multiple women in their late 30s and early 40s have personally detailed how they experienced miscarriage after miscarriage and had to beg their doctors for a simple oral progesterone prescription before having their last healthy pregnancy go full term.
If this is due to a lack of proper evidence and study, why is the medical industry ignoring this issue? Why are more studies not being done? Why is the main focus of reproductive health centered on killing unwanted babies instead of supporting healthy pregnancies for women who are experiencing later-cycle difficulties?
While abortion medications are made widely available despite serious side effects, oral progesterone prescriptions remain unpopular within medical practices. However, there are far fewer risks for prescribing this necessary pregnancy hormone. The Mayo Clinic lists cold and flu symptoms and problems urinating as the most common side effects, with changes in breast skin as less common. Furthermore, there have been no reported deaths from oral progesterone prescriptions.
This is completely backwards. Progesterone is a natural hormone. If women need a little boost to maintain a healthy pregnancy, prescriptions of the drug should not be kept from them. At the very least, more studies need to be done. By contrast, the concerns surrounding Mifepristone should at least warrant a less-than-satisfactory recommendation from the FDA.
This imbalance is felt everywhere. If women’s reproductive health is to be fully cared for by the medical industry, changes must be made. Reproductive health cannot be centered on abortion. This does a disservice to the millions of women who seek to become mothers who are ignored or forced to shell out thousands of dollars for infertility treatments, like IVF, which rely on highly scientific methods that raise concerns for women seeking more natural solutions.
Women shouldn’t have to beg to receive a prescription for a simple hormone that their body naturally makes if it declines biologically. They shouldn’t have to wait for the medical industry to decide it finally cares about procreation over pregnancy termination. If we are to have a fully balanced women’s health care system, fertility issues should be at the forefront of the reproductive health industry.