Good morning. It's Wednesday, May 13. Welcome to this week's Health & Medicine newsletter. Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here or click here to share with friends. |
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This week, our theme is women's health and strength. We'll first tackle menopause before diving into hormone replacement therapy. And we'll explore resistance training, navigating what the science says about this area of strength training and how best to harness its promise in our lives.
Feel free to get in touch. Just hit "reply" on this message and start typing. I aim to respond to every email—thanks!
—Dina Fine Maron, 1440 Health & Medicine Section Editor |
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Menopause 101
Menopause is defined as when a woman has gone 12 consecutive months without menstruating. This occurs naturally when the ovaries reduce their production of estrogen and progesterone. Menopause is most often accompanied by symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, and this life phase generally can be divided into three stages: perimenopause—the yearslong menopausal transition with irregular periods when a person can still get pregnant—menopause, and postmenopause, which lasts the rest of a woman's life.
Menopause is a natural development in a woman's life as she ages, but sometimes it can be triggered by chemotherapy or surgery (such as removal of the ovaries or radical hysterectomies). On average, women reach menopause just after age 50 in the United States.
Early menopause, happening between the ages of 40 and 45, affects about 5% of women. Premature menopause, which occurs before age 40, affects around 1% of women. Genetics likely play a big role in whether a woman experiences earlier menopause, and certain autoimmune diseases (like thyroid disease and rheumatoid arthritis) can increase that likelihood. On the other end of the spectrum, late-onset menopause is when a woman 55 or older hasn't started menopause. While women who go through late-onset menopause lower their risk of osteoporosis, they're at an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer.
Explore everything else we've found on Menopause.
Also, check out ...
> Women are born with all the eggs they will ever produce in their lifetime. (Read)
> Menopause may become a $600B industry. (Read)
> Menopause affects the brain in complex ways. (Watch)
> "Menobelly" is real, with more fat stored around the abdomen as estrogen levels drop. (Read) |
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A primer on hormone replacement therapy
Hormone replacement therapy uses medication to supplement hormone production in the human body. The vast majority of HRT is for menopause symptoms. It's used more rarely for testosterone deficiencies or as part of gender-affirming care for transgender people. HRT formulations may include injections, patches, gels, creams, sprays, and pills.
HRT was extremely popular for treating menopausal symptoms and lowering certain women's health risks in the 1990s, but its use plummeted in the early 2000s after the well-known Women's Health Initiative found it increased the incidence of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke in some women. Those findings were subsequently found to be overblown and largely disproved. In 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration removed its warning label about such risks, and in 2026, the supply of estradiol patches—which have lower blood clotting risks than other estrogen formulations—has been unable to keep up with demand.
Testosterone therapy for men with "low T"—typically defined as below 300 nanograms per deciliter of blood—has been buoyed by recent positive cardiovascular safety data and the FDA's 2025 related decision to drop its cardiovascular warning. Prescriptions for testosterone, though low overall, roughly doubled for injectable formulations between 2019 and 2025.
The third typical use for HRT is gender-affirming care. About 1% of America's adults, or more than 2 million people, identify as transgender, and estimates vary on what percentage of the transgender community may use HRT. Transgender women may use estrogen and anti-androgens (to suppress testosterone), and transgender men may use testosterone, causing physiological changes somewhat similar to puberty.
Explore everything else we've found on Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Also, check out ...
> Estrogen is a really important hormone for men, too. (Read)
> Premarin, the hormone medication, is derived from pregnant horses. (Listen)
> It's never too late to start HRT for menopause symptoms. (Read)
> Testosterone therapy can cause infertility, and has been explored as a contraceptive. (Watch) |
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Pumping Iron–or Water Bottles |
What's resistance training?
Resistance training is a type of strength and endurance exercise that works muscles against an external force, helping preserve muscle mass and bone density. It includes exercises like squats, pushups, shoulder presses, and more, to boost the brain and body—whether we're lifting body weight, dumbbells, barbells, or using resistance bands.
Exercise physiologists suggest starting the practice early, noting it particularly benefits women in menopause because estrogen reductions can lead to bone density loss, which increases the risk of osteoporosis and bone breaks. Resistance training complements aerobic exercises like swimming or running, which typically keep your heart rate elevated over extended periods, improving cardiovascular health.
Adult fitness recommendations include resistance training twice weekly and performing 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise—though about 80% of us don't achieve this. When done consistently, resistance training is linked with reduced depression and anxiety and elevated cognition. It improves glucose control, reduces fall risks, and supports grip strength—the amount of force someone can generate with their hand and forearm muscles—a strong predictor of broader health risks, including falling and early death.
Explore everything else we've found on Resistance Training.
Also, check out ...
> Explore this how-to video series on how to start strength training. (Watch)
> Strength training—with cans, water bottles, and shopping bags. (Read)
> Arnold Schwarzenegger fueled a lot of the interest in strength training, beginning in the 1980s. (Watch)
> Strength training appears to make for a healthier, youthful-looking brain. (Read) |
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Medical Developments Spotlight |
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We love spending time learning about the latest medical breakthroughs and spotlighting research that piques our interest, may influence future research directions, or inform healthcare conversations. Here's what we found this week.
> Bear poop is providing new insights about antibiotic resistance in the environment
Nautilus | Devin Reese. A study involving genetic analysis of microbes found in wild black bear feces detected antibiotic-resistant pathogens that the animals would have encountered by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. The microbes' presence indicates that the environment has been seeded with these pathogens and suggests that, going forward, bear poop could be one way to monitor their prevalence in the wild, since their presence has implications for human and wildlife safety. (Read)
> Yawns are contagious—even for fetuses
Current Biology | Study authors. Ultrasounds of prenatal faces indicate that shortly after a mother yawns, their fetuses tend to yawn, too. This work, involving 38 pregnant women and fetuses between 28 and 32 weeks, suggests that yawns are contagious in utero—even when a fetus can't see the behavior to mirror. (Read)
> People learned to fly in VR, and their brains then accepted wings as body parts
Science News | Yujia Huang. After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts. The brain research has potential implications for how VR training may help people adapt to prostheses. (Free with email.) (Read) |
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