Social support and memory in postmenopausal women: a careful null
A secondary analysis of the ELITE hormone-therapy trial found hints that social ties tracked with cognition, but none survived correction for multiple testing.
Women's Health
Menopause, reproductive medicine, and the research gap.
A first-trimester blood protein flags preeclampsia risk months early
Screening 2,904 proteins in early pregnancy, researchers found low maternal isthmin-2 was the strongest signal for later preeclampsia or fetal growth restriction, validated in two cohorts.
Higher pre-pregnancy weight tracks with offspring heart disease decades on
In 2.5 million Swedish births followed to adulthood, mothers' early-pregnancy obesity was linked to a stepwise rise in offspring cardiovascular disease, though sibling analyses temper the size.
A Shanghai cohort measured fathers' B12 too. It tracked with birth defects.
Among 3,032 couples sampled before conception, higher maternal and paternal vitamin B12 both tracked with lower predicted birth-defect prevalence. The paternal pattern was weaker, and this is observational.
A normal cycle is 24 to 38 days, not 28, and may bleed for up to eight
FIGO's system treats frequency, duration, regularity and volume as four separate questions. In 612,613 tracked cycles the mean length was 29.3 days, and the follicular phase did most of the varying.
Two perinatal sleep studies, one gap: nobody is asking the question
13% of women met criteria for insomnia disorder six weeks after delivery, and only two had been evaluated. In a separate cohort, restless legs in pregnancy tripled the risk of perinatal depression.
The morning-after pill works less well the later you take it — and at higher weight
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.
Traumatic birth ranged from 7% to 69% across 31 countries in one survey
The INTERSECT study asked 11,302 women 6 to 12 weeks postpartum about birth trauma. The spread between countries is far wider than the average, and that is the finding.
Your mammogram now reports breast density. Here is what that actually means.
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.
Vaginal oestrogen around prolapse surgery: better symptoms, same anatomy
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.
The six-week postpartum check is a milestone, not a finish line for recovery
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.
Long COVID before or during pregnancy was not linked to preterm birth in a US cohort
Among 603 RECOVER participants, 118 were classified as likely having Long COVID. The primary analysis found no association with preterm delivery, and one secondary signal that only appeared in a sensitivity analysis.
Breast pain is common, usually benign, and rarely a sign of cancer
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.
Eighteen years of follow-up tie menopause age to brain change. The effects are tiny.
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.
Heart health scores drop during perimenopause, a national analysis finds
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.
Pregnancy itself wasn't the injury risk military doctors expected, a big study finds
Overall musculoskeletal injury was lower during pregnancy and the year after than in non-pregnant periods. Spine and back injuries were the exception, rising through pregnancy and postpartum.
$215 million lands on menopause. Under 1% of aging research has ever studied it.
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.
The FDA pulled menopause hormone therapy's boxed warning. Prescribing was already rising.
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.
A father's age adds about two new mutations a year to the sperm he passes on
Whole-genome sequencing of 78 families put the figure at two mutations per year of paternal age. A cohort of 40 million US births found small increases in preterm birth and gestational diabetes.
Endometriosis has no disease-modifying cure. Every treatment targets the symptoms
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.
Brazil's childbirth haemorrhage deaths have not fallen in a decade
A national analysis of 2,985 haemorrhage deaths from 2015 to 2024 found no significant change over time — and Indigenous women dying at 2.87 times the rate of White women.
What actually manages PCOS, according to the international guideline
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.
Bacterial vaginosis keeps coming back — and treating the male partner cut recurrence
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.
What egg freezing actually delivers: age at freezing and egg count decide the odds
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.
For recurrent yeast infections, suppression works — but mostly while you keep taking it
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.
How much does fertility really fall with age? Less sharply than the scary numbers
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.
For recurrent UTIs, a non-antibiotic pill matched daily antibiotics in a trial
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.
Can a cycle-tracking app work as birth control? The evidence, honestly
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.
Does the pill change your mood or your weight? What the largest studies found
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.
PMS and PMDD are not the same thing, and only one has strong drug evidence
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 birth control failure rate on the box is the best case, not your case
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.
Europe has 32 versions of breast screening. The highest-uptake ones keep GPs out
A comparative survey finds four European countries still rely on opportunistic screening, and that where family doctors are most involved, participation tends to be lower — not higher.
In breast cancer survivors, vaginal estrogen beat a moisturizer for painful dryness
The VEMORA trial randomized 23 women with genitourinary symptoms. Vaginal estrogen improved dryness and pain scores more than Replens, with blood estrogen staying low.
Women with a pre-eclampsia history had lower breast cancer risk, Finnish data show
A Finnish registry of over 123,000 women found pre-eclampsia linked to an 11% lower breast cancer risk decades later. Hormone therapy raised risk by a similar amount in both groups.
Premature ovarian insufficiency is rising in Ontario, with endometriosis the top risk
Tracking 3.6 million women over 24 years, researchers found women with endometriosis were nearly 3.5 times more likely to develop the condition before 40. Seventy percent of cases still have no identified cause.
Cardiovascular burden fell for 20 years. US maternal mortality stayed an outlier.
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.
Tongan caregivers trust health workers. Only 41.5% ever got a vaccine recommendation.
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.
A 13-country survey finds menopause symptom burden varies enormously by country
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.
The mental health gap in endometriosis opens years before the diagnosis does
A Danish registry study of 136,842 women found elevated antidepressant and anxiolytic prescribing in the decade preceding diagnosis, with psychiatric hospital contacts rising about five years before.
Endometriosis raised coronary artery disease risk 47%, but only outside Europe
Pooling 11 cohort studies, researchers found a consistent cardiovascular signal in Asian and North American cohorts. European cohorts showed no elevated risk at all, a geographic split the analysis can't explain.
Women with the densest breast tissue reached menopause later, 429,000-woman cohort
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.
44 studies find no consistent cardiometabolic harm from hormonal contraceptives
Pooling a decade of research on women with hypertension, diabetes and obesity, researchers found modest blood pressure and metabolic shifts only in select high-risk subgroups.
Twelve diet scores compared across menopause. Two separated from the rest.
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.
Breast cancer is rising fastest in Korea and Japan — and slowest in Asian Americans
An age-period-cohort analysis across five registries finds annual increases of 5.3% in Korea and 3.8% in Japan, against 1.6% among Japanese Americans and flat or falling rates in US White women.
Estrogen beat progestin alone in perimenopause, with three times more side effects
A 150-woman real-world comparison found combination therapy cut symptom scores further and produced more clinical responders. Endometrial thickness rose slightly but stayed normal.
A genetics analysis ties screen time and mood swings to six gynecologic conditions
Using genetic variants as instruments, researchers found exercise and wellbeing lowered risk of PCOS, endometriosis and menstrual disorders, while screen time and mood swings raised it.
Lung function dropped as women moved through menopause — whether or not they had HIV
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.
Women enrolled unevenly in trials, then dosed as if the difference didn't exist
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.
One in five midlife women said self-pleasure eased their menopause symptoms
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.
Leuprolide and goserelin carry different adverse-event signatures, 12M reports show
Both drugs suppress ovarian and testicular hormone production, but two decades of FDA safety reports show leuprolide skewing toward reproductive and cancer-related signals, goserelin toward endocrine ones.
After hysterectomy, endometriosis patients used hormone therapy far more than others
A Finnish national registry of over 11,000 women found up to 94% of endometriosis patients used menopausal hormone therapy after surgery, against 82% of a comparison group. The mix of hormones used is changing too.
About 1,000 extra maternal deaths a year: modelling the USAID cuts in six countries
The estimate covers only populations in humanitarian need across Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria — and it assumes nothing replaces the lost money.
A Qatar birth cohort found tripled stillbirth odds in consanguineous pregnancies
The elevated risk showed up even in babies with no detectable malformation — which is not what the standard recessive-disease explanation predicts.
Earlier menopause, less gray matter: a Cambridge cohort finds both, and can't say why
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.
An estrogen-metabolism lifestyle score tracked with lower breast and uterine cancer risk
Women whose habits aligned with a favorable estrogen-metabolism pathway had up to 61% lower endometrial cancer risk. The score explains only a tenth of the variation it predicts.
A 34-study meta-analysis splits hormone therapy's breast cancer signal by regimen
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.
In premenopausal survivors, tamoxifen was linked to fivefold endometrial hyperplasia
A Taiwanese cohort of 26,000 women aged 20 to 50 puts numbers on a known tamoxifen risk in a population — younger, premenopausal — where data has been thinner.
Vitamin D before IVF raised blood levels and left live birth rates unchanged
An 876-participant double-blind trial across 24 Chinese fertility centres nearly doubled serum 25-OHD in women with PCOS. Live births were 52.0% against 50.2% on placebo.
Denmark followed 877,000 women for 14 years. Hormone therapy did not raise mortality.
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.
GLP-1 drugs alongside progestins tracked with lower endometrial cancer risk
A 444,000-patient records study found a two-thirds lower rate of endometrial cancer when GLP-1 receptor agonists were added to progestin therapy. The two groups differed by eight years in average age.
Three months of an osteoporosis drug matched twelve on bone density in a 50-woman trial
The LIDA trial tested whether romosozumab's bone-building window closes early enough to shorten treatment. It met non-inferiority on hip bone density — at a single centre, with 50 participants, over one year.
A 25-member panel says hormone therapy after breast cancer should be a shared decision
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.
A review of 158 studies grades the evidence for non-hormonal menopause remedies
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.
Lifestyle changes in pregnancy cut gestational diabetes — by how much depends on the test
An analysis of 104 trials found a 10 to 20 percent reduction under some diagnostic criteria and none under UK criteria. A separate review found a GDM diagnosis is not associated with more stillbirths.
A million women's worth of data on hormone therapy and dementia returns a flat line
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.
Nine percent of older women diagnosed with a menopause syndrome filled the treatment
A study of 1.8 million Medicare beneficiaries found vaginal estrogen prescriptions went unfilled by the overwhelming majority — and were least likely of all in women with recurrent urinary tract infections.
A trial screened women by risk instead of age. Late-stage cancers did not rise.
WISDOM randomised 28,372 women to annual mammography or a risk-tailored schedule. The risk-based arm met its non-inferiority mark for advanced cancers — with caveats about who enrolled.
In Colombia, most contraception is bought out of pocket, not through insurance
A national pharmaceutical database analysis found out-of-pocket purchases accounted for 78-86% of contraceptive use, with emergency contraception priced up to 25 times higher than the insured rate.
Two non-hormonal menopause drugs look similar on hot flushes, differ on sleep
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.
A hand-hygiene and sepsis-bundle programme cut severe maternal infection by a third
In 59 facilities across Malawi and Uganda where 431,394 women gave birth, the APT-Sepsis programme reduced infection-related death, near-miss events and severe illness from 1.9% to 1.4%.
WHO puts lifetime partner or sexual violence at 840 million women, barely moved since 2000
Intimate partner violence has declined by 0.2% a year over two decades. The report also produces the first national and regional estimates of sexual violence by someone other than a partner.
WHO issues its first standard of care for diabetes in pregnancy, covering 21 million women
The 27 recommendations cover monitoring, diet and medication for type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. WHO had guidance on diabetes and guidance on pregnancy, but never on the two together.
A saliva test for endometriosis reported 96.6% accuracy — in a 77% prevalence group
The external validation of a micro-RNA signature outperformed imaging in 971 symptomatic patients. How it would perform in a lower-prevalence population is the question the study does not answer.
Doubling the aspirin dose did not prevent more preeclampsia in a 365-woman trial
The 162 mg group had 14.1% preterm or severe preeclampsia against 17.1% on 81 mg — a difference the trial could not distinguish from chance. Eight placental abruptions occurred on the higher dose and none on the lower.
FDA approves elinzanetant for menopausal hot flushes, with liver reporting attached
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.
Guideline-consistent breast cancer surgery ranged from 13% to 82% by country
VENUSCANCER assembled individual records for 275,792 women from 103 cancer registries in 39 countries. The gaps it found are in what treatment women actually received, not only in whether they were diagnosed.
ER-negative breast cancer rates in Ghana matched those in US Black women
Age-standardised incidence was 42.3 per 100,000 in Ghana and 43.1 in US non-Hispanic Black women, against 24.0 in white women. ER-positive rates diverged sharply in the other direction.
Four vaginal energy devices tied on symptoms — with no sham arm to beat
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.
A Latin American statement narrows testosterone for women to one indication
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.
Asked which menopause symptom mattered most, 7,285 women said brain fog
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.
Endometriosis does not always stop at menopause. A European guide says so
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.
A mentoring scheme for pregnant teenagers halved deaths in a Sierra Leone pilot
In 12 clusters, 6% of girls in the intervention group experienced a maternal or perinatal death against 13% in control. The trial was a pilot, and the authors present it as such.