Good news ladies! 

Starting yesterday, millions of American women will no longer pay for birth control pills, Pap smears or mammograms -- not even a co-pay. Women also have the right to free breast-feeding support, supplies for pregnancy-related diabetes, also known as gestational diabetes, and even screening for domestic violence.

It's not clear how many women will take advantage of the new policy, but the US Health and Human Services Department estimates that 47 million women, ages 15 to 64, have private health insurance plans that will be affected. The 2010 health reform law requires that policies provided by private health insurance companies pay for a list of women's health preventive services, starting August 1.

However, there may be a delay in services for many women. The law applies to new policies -- women with existing coverage may have to wait for their policies to renew for the requirements to kick in, which

One in eight people with the painful condition fibromyalgia self-medicate with pot and other cannabis products, according to a new Canadian study.

"That is not unusual behavior, in general, for people with chronic medical illnesses for which we don't have great treatments," said Dr. Igor Grant, who heads the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California and was not involved in the study.

"People start looking around, they look for other types of remedies, because they need the help," he told Reuters Health.

The question is if self-medicating with cannabis is really helpful for people with fibromyalgia, researchers say. Marijuana has been shown to ease certain types of pain in patients with HIV and other conditions. But Grant said he doesn't know of any research showing the drug can relieve the pain associated with fibromyalgia.

Federal health officials are warning consumers and medical providers about fake versions of the ADHD drug Adderall being sold on the Internet. The counterfeit 30-milligram tablets contain the wrong active ingredients, according to preliminary laboratory tests by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Instead of containing the four active ingredients in prescription Adderall, the fake tablets contain only tramadol and acetaminophen, medications used to treat acute pain.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the manufacturer of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, contacted the FDA after a consumer reported buying the counterfeit drugs online. Authentic Adderall is a controlled substance that requires special dispensing controls for pharmacists.

The counterfeit drugs are round, white and do not have any type of markings, such as letters and numbers. Authentic Adderall 30-milligram tablets are round, orange or peach and scored, with "dp" embossed on one side and "30" on the other side of the tablet. The Teva products are packaged only in a 100-count bottle with National Drug Code 0555-0768-02 listed.

In addition, the fake drugs are sold in blister packs and they have misspellings on the packaging, FDA officials said.

Healthy men shouldn't get routine prostate cancer screenings, says updated advice from a government panel that found the PSA blood tests do more harm than good.

Despite strenuous protests from urologists, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is sticking by a contentious proposal it made last fall. A final guideline published Monday says there's little if any evidence that PSA testing saves lives - while too many men suffer impotence, incontinence, heart attacks, occasionally even death from treatment of tiny tumors that never would have killed them.

The guideline isn't a mandate. The task force stresses that men who want a PSA test still can get one, but only after the doctor explains the uncertainties. That's in part because the panel found PSA testing hasn't been studied adequately in black men and those with prostate cancer in the family, who are at highest risk of the disease.

The Obama administration said Monday that Medicare will continue to pay for PSA screenings, a simple blood test. Other insurers tend to follow Medicare's lead.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel Tuesday asked the agency to let an HIV test be sold in retail stores so consumers do not have to go to a health facility to get tested for the virus.

The mouth-swab test, made by OraSure Technologies Inc., is sold commercially to health professionals to be used at facilities. If approved by the FDA, the test results could be obtained in the home like tests for pregnancy and blood sugar. The FDA usually follows panel recommendations.

The test was reviewed Tuesday by the FDA's blood-products advisory panel, which is made up of non-FDA medical experts. The panel voted 17-0, saying the "projected benefits" of OraSure's in-home HIV test outweighed the "potential risks of false positive and false negative results." The panel also voted 17-0 in support of a question that asked if the data submitted by OraSure showed the test was safe and effective.

If the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test is approved, it would mark the first time that HIV test results could be obtained in the home. Other home HIV tests require a fluid sample to be sent to a laboratory for testing.