Hi, everybody. Welcome to Smarter News. We have a big headline from the FDA and some unique

insight to this story. So I wanted to make sure to highlight it for you because of the potential

impact for all of us and all of our families. Today, the FDA announced that they are initiating

the removal of black box warnings on hormone replacement therapies for women. So what does that

mean? And why does it matter? Well, black box warnings, similar to warnings that you may see on

medications, are these stark, you know, very visible

warnings about potential scary side effects. Now, we've all seen those commercials that list off

all the different side effects of a medication, but these are very different. You'll see these

black box warnings when you go and pick up your prescription. And many, including the FDA

commissioner, Dr. Marty McCarrie, believe that these sort of warning

labels have deterred both physicians and patients from taking a medication that could really,

really help them at a specific time in their life. And any medication that could help women

affects American society overall. So the FDA is initiating the removal of these

black box warnings. It won't happen overnight, but they're moving in that direction. And the hope is

that this will open up more access for both physicians and patients to feel more comfortable with

these treatments. It's not that these treatments weren't available for

the last several decades. It's just that the concern was so high about side effects that many

believed that it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth the chance. This was a big topic of conversation

that I talked to Dr. Marty McCarrie about, the head of the FDA, back in September.

And the reason why I talked to him about this topic is it was very clear when he assumed the leadership

role of the FDA that women's health was going to be a top priority for him. In fact, one of the

first panels that the FDA broadcast under his leadership was about hormone replacement therapy and

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