For how we live.
Among 84 women on aromatase inhibitors, CO2 laser did no better than a fake laser for sexual function at 12 months. Both groups improved — on moisturisers and vibrators given to everyone.
From 300 million laboratory tests, an Israeli team reconstructs trajectories and finds bone, liver, kidney, hormone and lipid markers shift abruptly at the final menstrual period — changes starting a decade earlier.
"Brain fog" is a lay term for trouble concentrating and remembering, not a disease. Common drivers include poor sleep, low mood, the menopause transition, thyroid or B12 problems, and the tail of an infection.
In midlife women the usual cause is the menopause transition, where hot flushes and night sweats last a median of seven years. In older adults they are common, mostly benign, and rarely a mortality signal.
Products promising to 'balance your hormones' lean on botanicals like maca, black cohosh and phytoestrogens, and on the hormone DHEA. When those ingredients are put in controlled trials, the evidence is limited or null.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is one of the few non-hormone options the North American Menopause Society backs at its top evidence level. What it changes is how much flushes bother you, not the thermostat.
A landmark US cohort found frequent hot flushes lasted a median of 7.4 years, and 4.5 years after the last period. When they start earlier in the transition, they tend to last far longer.
Sold as natural, safer and tailored by hormone testing, custom-compounded menopausal hormones are untested against approved options — and expert panels advise restricting their use.
A secondary analysis of the ELITE hormone-therapy trial found hints that social ties tracked with cognition, but none survived correction for multiple testing.
A 293-woman Dutch trial found more women reported improvement at 12 months with perioperative oestriol cream than placebo. Anatomical success, surgical success and reintervention were unchanged.
A cohort with serial MRI and autopsy data found earlier menopause tracked faster cognitive decline and white matter damage. The per-year coefficients are very small.
A study of 9,248 US women published in May 2026 found perimenopausal women twice as likely to fall into the lowest cardiovascular health band. The design cannot show that the decline happens within individuals.
The June commitment is the largest private push into midlife women's health yet. The named grants so far fund clinician training and maternal mental health — not the preclinical gap the field keeps citing.
Six products got revised labels in February 2026, removing cardiovascular, breast cancer, and dementia language. The scientific societies that welcomed the change also listed the distinctions the new label does not make.
The UK and Rwanda reported the highest anxiety, depression, and vasomotor symptom scores; Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore reported the lowest. Burnout emerged as the symptom most connected to everything else.
Extremely dense breasts on a routine screening mammogram were linked to a 20% lower likelihood of menopause over the following years, a possible marker of reproductive aging.
In 38,283 nurses tracked through the transition, low-insulinemic and planetary-health eating patterns had the strongest associations with less weight gain. The average woman still gained 0.8 kg a year.
In women 41 to 50, late perimenopause and postmenopause brought measurable declines in lung volume, with postmenopausal women losing up to 310 mL of FEV1. HIV status didn't change the pattern.
Rated against other symptom-management strategies women already use, masturbation scored among the highest for relieving mood changes and sleep disturbance. Nearly half said they'd try it if a doctor suggested it.
747 postmenopausal women were tested; 182 were scanned. Gray matter volume partially mediated the link between menopause age and cognition — in a cross-sectional design that cannot establish direction.
Pooling decades of research, the combined estrogen-progestin regimen showed a 44% higher breast cancer risk. Estrogen-only therapy showed none in observational studies — and trials suggested it lowered risk.
A nationwide register study found a hazard ratio of 0.96 for all-cause death among users of menopausal hormone therapy. The raw death rate in users was higher — which is the part worth understanding.
The consensus statement does not claim the treatment is safe after breast cancer. It says some women may reasonably accept an increased relapse risk in exchange for symptom relief.
Black cohosh, Chinese herbal medicine and vitamin D reached moderate certainty for specific outcomes. Most of the rest of the field — 158 studies deep — sits at low or very low certainty.
Pooling ten studies, researchers found menopause hormone therapy neither raised nor lowered dementia risk. The certainty of that evidence ranged from moderate to very low.
An industry-standard indirect comparison of fezolinetant and elinzanetant found comparable reductions in vasomotor symptoms. Elinzanetant improved sleep disturbance more, without a difference in overall quality of life.
Lynkuet is the second neurokinin-targeted drug cleared in the US for vasomotor symptoms. The trials found no hepatotoxic effects; FDA still asked for three years of enhanced liver-injury reporting.
A Brazilian randomised trial found laser and radiofrequency equally effective for genitourinary syndrome of menopause. The one trial that used sham treatment found no benefit at all.
ALEG's position holds that testosterone in postmenopausal women should be limited to hypoactive sexual desire disorder, and that pellets and compounded formulations are not recommended.
A UK-wide survey found cognitive and psychological symptoms outranked the ones menopause care is organised around, with higher ratings among Asian and Black respondents.
An EMAS clinical guide sets out how to manage endometriosis after menopause, advising against oestrogen-only hormone therapy even in women who have had a hysterectomy.