House Maternal Health Panel to Hear Hormone Testing, Menopause Treatment Access

The Texas House Subcommittee on Maternal Health, Menopause, and Access to Evidence-Based Medicine will gavel in at 9 a.m. Oct. 5 in Room E2.030 of the Capitol Extension to hear invited testimony on two interim charges: baseline reproductive hormone testing and hormone replacement therapy for perimenopause and menopause. The public cannot testify in person, but Texas residents may file electronic comments on both topics through the House comment portal until the hearing adjourns, according to the official hearing notice.

Rep. Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall, chairs the three-member panel, according to Texas Legislature Online. The other members are Rep. Liz Campos, D-San Antonio, and Rep. Joanne Shofner, R-Nacogdoches, which makes the split two Republicans and one Democrat. The subcommittee was appointed Aug. 20 under the House Committee on Public Health, and no vice chair is listed. The charges are part of a set of six women’s health items that Speaker Dustin Burrows announced Aug. 12, Texas Policy Research reported.

The first charge, on hormone testing, directs members to study ways to increase preventive efforts and early detection of hormone imbalances, “including the provision of baseline reproductive hormone testing,” per the notice. Pierson has already floated legislation in this area. Her 12-part Texas Women’s Health Initiative includes a Hormone Baseline Testing Act that would require insurance coverage for baseline reproductive hormone testing at ages 35 to 40, with earlier coverage when medically indicated, according to the initiative materials, as the Dispatch reported. The materials list no bill number.

The second charge, on hormone replacement therapy, asks the panel to study the use of the treatment for perimenopause and menopause symptoms and to reduce associated risks. Members are also to evaluate HRT coverage availability, recommend ways to expand access to physician-prescribed therapy and review barriers that limit patients’ and doctors’ freedom to choose the best course of care. The Pierson package lists a Perimenopause and Menopause Treatment Coverage Act, described as a refile, that would cover physician-prescribed HRT, follow-up lab monitoring and non-hormonal therapies, and a physician liability proposal for hormone therapy, the Dispatch reported.

Federal regulators have moved on the same subject. On Feb. 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the removal of boxed warnings on cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and probable dementia from six menopausal hormone therapy products, following a literature review the agency began in November 2025. Any testimony on risk will arrive against that changed label language.

The initiative’s supporting claims deserve a careful read. The Dispatch noted that the materials cite figures on fracture risk and dementia that carry footnote markers, but the underlying citations are not listed in the documents provided. Witness testimony may fill that gap, though the notice names no witnesses.

Because this is an interim hearing, the subcommittee will take no votes, and no legislation is before it. What members hear will shape their findings and any women’s health bills filed for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.

Meeting at a glance

Committee members

• Rep. Katrina Pierson, R–Rockwall (HD-33) — Chair
• Rep. Liz Campos, D–San Antonio (HD-119)
• Rep. Joanne W. Shofner, R–Nacogdoches (HD-11)