For how we live.
A meta-analysis of 78 studies found the menstrual cycle has at most a trivial effect on performance. A randomised trial found timing strength training to cycle phase built no more muscle than training consistently.
Cochrane reviews rate anti-inflammatory painkillers a very effective treatment for menstrual cramps, roughly doubling the odds of good pain relief. Exercise helps too, but on lower-quality evidence.
Trials put the pregnancy rate after emergency contraceptive pills at roughly 1-3%. But the risk rose more than threefold in obese women, and the levonorgestrel pill fared worst of all.
Dense tissue raises breast-cancer risk and hides cancers on a mammogram. US facilities must now tell patients — but the evidence on what to do next is a real trade-off: more cancers found, more false alarms.
The professional guideline now frames recovery as an ongoing process through at least 12 weeks, and one pelvic-floor study found birth injuries still resolving a full year after delivery.
Most breast pain is self-limited, and cancer is rarely the cause — though it should be ruled out. A 2025 meta-analysis found no clear benefit from vitamin B6, a widely recommended remedy.
A Cochrane review found women doing pelvic floor muscle training were eight times more likely to report their stress incontinence cured than untreated women — with the strongest evidence for that one condition.
In a study of 543,167 cycles, calendar-based apps misclassified a fertile day as safe in two-thirds of cycles. Apps that track a real biological signal do better, but plain calendar apps remain the most common kind.
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.
In one study of 62,685 women, iron deficiency prevalence ranged from 3% to 15% depending on the ferritin threshold. On treatment, a recent trial found alternate-day iron caused fewer side effects than daily dosing.
Hormones, surgery and painkillers can reduce pain and improve fertility, but none reliably alter the disease itself — and even removing the uterus does not guarantee the disease goes with it.
The 2023 global guideline puts lifestyle first for everyone, letrozole first for fertility, and the pill for cycles and excess hair — while rating much of its own evidence low to moderate quality.
A systematic review of 43 studies judged cups a safe option, with leakage similar to or lower than pads and tampons. For the newer reusable products, published research is mostly about acceptability, not safety.
Cochrane pooled 47 randomised trials in 5,290 women. The drug most often named alongside minoxidil as first-line — spironolactone — had no randomised evidence, and the review asked for some.
Most women have a recurrence within a year of standard treatment. A 2025 trial stopped early once treating a woman alone proved inferior to treating her and her male partner together.
In two large clinics, the live birth rate per woman who returned to use her eggs was around 39-50% under 35 or 38, but far lower for older women — and most women who froze never came back to use them.
Weekly fluconazole kept most women free of thrush during treatment, yet by 12 months, six months after stopping, the advantage had narrowed sharply. A newer drug shows more durable suppression.
In modern couples timing intercourse, an estimated 18% of women aged 35-39 failed to conceive within a year — not one in three. The most alarming figures come from models, not from watching real couples try.
In the 240-woman ALTAR trial, methenamine hippurate was non-inferior to standard low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis over a year. Most other non-antibiotic prevention strategies still rest on weak evidence.
In a 22,785-user study of one temperature-based app, typical use failed 6.9 per 100 woman-years and perfect use 1.0 — but the study came from the maker, and traditional methods vary widely.
A million-woman Danish cohort found a modest rise in antidepressant use among hormonal contraceptive users. A Cochrane review of weight found no evidence the pill causes weight gain.
PMDD is the severe, mostly psychological form of premenstrual illness, affecting about 3.6% of women in one study. For it, SSRIs are the best-evidenced treatment, with side effects that are common and dose-related.
The numbers most methods advertise are perfect-use figures from clinical trials. In everyday use the pill fails about seven users in 100 a year, the condom about 13, withdrawal about 20.
A Global Burden of Disease comparison puts the 2023 US maternal mortality rate at 33.8 per 100,000 live births, alongside cardio-kidney-metabolic risk burdens several times those of other high-income countries.
A 398-caregiver study across all five island groups finds the single biggest predictor of HPV vaccination was knowing the vaccine was free — after a decade of the programme running.
Stress peaked during the fasting month and fell afterwards, but depression and anxiety stayed flat. The consistent finding across every phase was that sleep quality tracked mental health.
A systematic review of 27 studies finds women reach higher drug concentrations at the same psychotropic dose. A separate review of 103 atrial fibrillation trials finds 43% under-enrolled women against disease prevalence.