For how we live.
Menopause, reproductive medicine, and the research gap.
An Ontario cohort of 1,035,927 pregnancies found excessive gestational weight gain was linked to more severe maternal morbidity in every BMI category, adjusted rate ratios 1.16 to 1.33 (observational).
In nearly 40,000 UK women, abnormal blood pressure six weeks after a hypertensive pregnancy roughly doubled later cardiovascular disease. A Dutch cohort shows pregnancy history sharpens risk prediction.
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.
A prospective UK surveillance study followed 210 pregnancies in 209 women with a pre-pregnancy cardiomyopathy diagnosis over three years. There were no maternal deaths; 10% had heart failure and 8% an arrhythmia.
A nationwide study of 624,713 first births found quadrivalent HPV vaccination before pregnancy associated with modestly lower odds of preterm birth and growth restriction, strongest among women vaccinated youngest.
Among privately insured patients, 63% with IVF coverage had a baby within 2.5 years versus 53% without. The gap was driven mostly by covered patients starting more cycles — not a higher success rate per cycle.
In a Canadian cohort of 228 women with HIV, antibody titres matched those of women without HIV and cervical precancer was not recorded — but protection tracked with viral suppression.
In 1,448 pregnancies, lower early placental growth factor was linked to more preterm births — yet adding it to a prediction model lifted accuracy only from 0.59 to 0.68.
In the MONEAD cohort, six-year-olds whose mothers breastfed while taking antiseizure medicines scored no worse on language or adaptive behaviour — and longer breastfeeding tracked with slightly better scores.
A post hoc analysis of the BAMBINI trial asked whether losing too much weight could backfire on fertility in PCOS. It did not: every degree of weight loss was linked to a better chance of ovulating.
There has been no reliable way to prevent pre-eclampsia at term. PREVENT-PE screened over 8,000 women late in pregnancy and offered earlier birth to those at highest risk — and pre-eclampsia fell by nearly a third.
Injecting one sperm into each egg was meant for severe male-factor cases, yet clinics now use it widely. Pooling six randomised trials found no live-birth advantage over standard IVF when sperm is not the problem.
A meta-analysis of 36 studies and 2.6 million women found iatrogenic menopause raised stroke and cardiovascular risk. The death-rate excess was confined to menopause before 45, with null estimates after.
A Korean cohort of 1.37 million women found more dementia after hypertensive pregnancies. The association did not survive adjustment for the vascular and metabolic conditions that followed.
Falling cervical cancer rates after HPV vaccination are well known. A 2026 analysis of mortality data goes further: among women vaccinated at 12–13 with ~90% coverage, no deaths were recorded against about 23 expected.
In a double-blind trial of 65 etonogestrel-implant users with frequent or prolonged bleeding, a five-day course of tranexamic acid worked no better than placebo on any bleeding measure.
In a 76-woman randomised trial, a six-hour daily eating window and standard calorie restriction each produced about a 4% weight loss over six months, with no advantage for either approach.
A European trial stopped early for futility: clinical pregnancy occurred in 15.7% of women given transdermal testosterone before IVF and 14.9% given placebo. The trial was funded by Ferring.
In a 4,376-woman trial across 24 Chinese centres, natural-cycle embryo transfer gave the same healthy-live-birth rate as a programmed hormone regimen, with less pre-eclampsia and postpartum haemorrhage.
Heartburn is one of the most common complaints in pregnancy. Diet and posture changes come first; a Cochrane review found antacid-type medicines relieve it, but the trial evidence is thin and drug choice needs care.
In 410 German women, 68% who had liposuction met the pain-reduction target at 12 months versus 8% on conservative therapy. Serious adverse events were higher after surgery.
Guidelines set weight-gain ranges by starting BMI, not a doubled appetite. A large meta-analysis links gaining outside those ranges to worse outcomes at both ends — smaller and larger babies alike.
About 7.5% of sexually active women in Britain reported pain lasting three months or more, a national survey found. The usual causes — dryness, vulval pain, infection, endometriosis — are treatable.
Popular extras like embryo genetic testing and endometrial scratching did not raise live-birth rates in their biggest randomised trials, and the UK regulator warns most patients need none of them.
For the HPV tests now used in primary screening, a self-collected vaginal sample is about as accurate as one a clinician takes — and mailing kits to under-screened women roughly doubles uptake.
For most women without complications, activity in pregnancy is safe and beneficial. Trials link exercise to lower odds of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, with a rough dose to aim for.
There is no reliable screening test, so symptoms matter. Bloating, feeling full quickly, pelvic pain and urinary urgency — new, frequent and persistent — are the cluster a 2007 study built into a symptom index.
The Women's Preventive Services Initiative now endorses patient-collected HPV tests for average-risk women aged 30 to 65. HRSA has adopted the update for no-cost insurance coverage from 2027.
A positive urine LH test was followed by ovulation within 48 hours in 92% of cycles in one study. But the tests predict ovulation rather than confirm it, and a surge can occur without an egg released.
Nausea in early pregnancy is common and usually mild. Ginger has the best trial support for nausea, vitamin B6 and doxylamine are options, and acupuncture shows no clear benefit.
The chronic skin disease is often missed for years. In a cohort of 507 women, those who kept up topical steroid treatment developed no vulval cancers; those who did not had a 4.7% rate.
In 370 nulliparous women, instilling mepivacaine into the uterus before IUD placement lowered pain by about 15 mm on a 100-mm scale versus saline. It is a real effect, not a cure for the procedure.
A 140-woman randomised trial found diet-and-exercise coaching, added to hormonal treatment, cut some pain scores more than usual care — but the differences were small and menstrual pain did not budge.
Two systematic reviews point the same way: for the pill, IUDs, implants and most methods, about 8 in 10 women conceive within a year of stopping — similar to using no method at all.
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.
Long seen as a disease of women over 40 found only at hysterectomy, it turns up on ultrasound in about one in five gynaecology patients — and every option short of surgery controls symptoms, not the disease.
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.
A retrospective analysis of 54,114 women on a digital weight-loss service found those with PCOS lost as much as those without. But only 40 PCOS users reached the 10-month mark, and the data are observational.
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.
Two large African trials gave anaemic pregnant women intravenous ferric carboxymaltose or oral iron. Neither found less anaemia near term, or heavier babies, with the infusion.
A 4,153-woman trial found progesterone did not raise live births overall. The benefit concentrated in women who were bleeding and had had three or more previous miscarriages.
An individual-participant meta-analysis found metformin given in pregnancy did not lower the odds of gestational diabetes, though it modestly lengthened gestation and reduced preterm birth.
The E-MOTIVE trial, across 80 hospitals and 210,132 births in four African countries, paired objective blood measurement with a first-response bundle — and severe outcomes fell sharply.
The 2025 USPSTF statement keeps a B recommendation for women 65+ and for higher-risk younger postmenopausal women. The fracture benefit is real but small, and evidence gaps remain.
In the LIFTMOR trial, brief twice-weekly heavy lifting raised spine bone density in postmenopausal women with low bone mass, while a gentle home programme lost ground. A Cochrane review finds a smaller but real effect.
In a study of 750 women, those with 'low' ovarian-reserve hormones were no less likely to conceive. Professional guidance says the test shouldn't be used to counsel women who aren't already infertile.
In the SKYLARK trial, a 14-day course improved depression scores faster than placebo. The effect was real but modest, and the label carries a driving-impairment warning.
In LIBERTY 1 and 2, more than 70% of women with fibroid-related heavy bleeding responded to the once-daily pill, versus under 20% on placebo. The label caps use at 24 months over bone loss.
A postpartum smoking programme and a safe-sleep video series each failed the question they were designed to answer. What they reported next is where the interpretation gets difficult.
A secondary analysis of the ELITE hormone-therapy trial found hints that social ties tracked with cognition, but none survived correction for multiple testing.
Analysing 64.8 million births from 2005 to 2022, researchers found policies such as physician-only requirements and 20-week bans tied to higher odds of preterm birth or low Apgar scores.
A Norwegian study of 204,663 children found no raised risk of autism or most neurodevelopmental disorders after maternal COVID in pregnancy — with one exception in the early pandemic.
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.
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.
In the 571-woman ECLIPSE trial, the hormonal coil improved quality-of-life scores more than standard tablets over two years, and far more women stuck with it. A Cochrane review reaches the same conclusion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
US guidelines now let women aged 30 to 65 screen every five years with an HPV test. One major body would make that the primary test from age 25 — and self-collected samples work about as well.
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.
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 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.
A 200,000-woman trial found that screening caught more early-stage disease. It did not save lives — a result that explains why guidelines recommend against screening the general population.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
A study of more than 72,000 women found simple ovarian cysts carried no higher cancer risk than normal ovaries, while complex or solid masses did. A large screening cohort found most cysts resolve on their own.
Two randomised trials tested whether thyroid-hormone tablets help women who carry thyroid antibodies but have normal thyroid function and a history of miscarriage or infertility. Live-birth rates did not move.
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.
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.
Endometriosis takes up to a decade to diagnose. A modelling study estimated a digital symptom checker could cut that by 4.36 years — but the tools still lack the external validation to trust in practice.
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.
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 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.
The VEMORA trial randomized 23 women with genitourinary symptoms. Vaginal estrogen improved dryness and pain scores more than Replens, with blood estrogen staying low.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A double-blind trial found a lidocaine paracervical block lowered pain during IUD placement, most in women who had never given birth. A separate meta-analysis found the benefit hinges on the drug and route.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The elevated risk showed up even in babies with no detectable malformation — which is not what the standard recessive-disease explanation predicts.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
A double-blind trial randomised 750 women with polycystic ovary syndrome to one drug or the other. Letrozole produced more live births and more ovulation — and is now the guideline's first choice for fertility.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.