Mix-it-yourself Wegovy? Some are trying risky sources for weight-loss drugs

Websites are selling powders purporting to be the ingredients of popular new weight-loss drugs that have been difficult to access. These alternative and unregulated routes can be risky, doctors say, since Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly aren't selling their drugs to any other manufacturers. Read more.

By Elaine Chen

Sandy Huffaker for STAT

In a post-Dobbs world, pathologists who study pregnancy loss walk a thin line between medicine and the law

Mana Parast (above) is one of just a few physician-scientists in the U.S. specializing in perinatal pathology, an overlooked and underfunded field tasked with sleuthing out why a mother miscarried. And these pathologists are increasingly worried about the pressure they face to produce definitive cause of death determinations from law enforcement officials. Read more.

By Eleanor Cummins

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The addiction crisis is causing a spike in endocarditis cases. Hospitals are struggling to respond

The increased case count is one of the lesser-known side effects of the deadly addiction epidemic. But patients with endocarditis, an inflammation of the heart lining caused by infection, require complex, thoughtful care — care that the U.S. health system is ill-equipped to provide. Read more.

By Lev Facher

More great reads from STAT this week

'Hot mess': Abortion pills at pharmacies could face legal quagmires, especially in restrictive states
Telehealth patients are scrambling for in-person care amid crackdown on online controlled substances
Exclusive: Verily leans into Onduo as it looks to enter the lucrative world of running medical research
Hospitals gear up to expand market power, raise prices in 2023
Opinion: Stop blaming Biogen for putting profit at the expense of patients. Blame the systems that enabled it
Mental health benefits of gender-affirming hormones for teens persist for two years in new study