Girls are hitting puberty earlier than ever before

What to know about early and premature menopause

Although it's rare, some women may experience menopause early. Early menopause describes women that are menopausal between the ages of 40 and 45. Women that go through menopause before age 40 experience premature menopause. Early experiences of menopause impact under 6% of women, and doctors can’t point to a specific reason why it happens. Learn about what we do know about the conditions here.

Understanding the global crash in fertility rates

This article breaks down the global crash in fertility rates. According to researchers, a global crash in children being born will have a “jaw-dropping” impact on societies. Women are choosing to have fewer children as a result of more women in...

Teen depression levels jumped during the pandemic

US government data published in 2025 but gathered from August 2021 through August 2023 indicated that depression prevalence among teens aged 12 to 19 was at 19.2%. It was even higher among females of that age group—26.5%

Cancer rates are on the rise among GenXers and Millennials

Cancer rates are rising among Gen X and Millennials, with more cancer diagnoses being made in their 30s and 40s than previous generations. Factors such as prenatal exposures, environmental toxins, and lifestyle choices may contribute to this trend. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's experts discuss these issues, exploring how these insights could reshape cancer risk understanding.

Why are kids increasingly diagnosed with myopia?

According to the World Health Organization, 40% of the world will have myopia—nearsightedness—by 2030. This NPR podcast episode details why people are being diagnosed with myopia at increasingly younger ages. Early onset myopia can lead to...

Women are born with all the eggs they will ever produce in their lifetime

Girls are born with an estimated 1 million to 2 million eggs in their bodies, but around 10,000 die monthly before puberty. Scientists have not yet figured out why there's such an excessive number of eggs prior to menstruation, but they've calculated that there are roughly 300,000 to 400,000 eggs left at puberty.

Autism occurs among women, too

Males have higher rates of diagnosed autism than females, but recently scientists and people with autism have been exploring if females have been disproportionately missed in screening and if girls are perhaps masking their symptoms better, leading to missed diagnoses.

Obesity rates have more than doubled worldwide since 1990

In the US alone, the percentage of the population meeting the clinical standard of obesity rose from less than 20% to more than 40% over the past three decades. This rise has been matched by many countries across the globe, from industrialized to developing nations.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Do people really look younger than they used to?

Why do people today look younger than they used to? From style to science, there are 3 surprising reasons we age differently now.

In 2019, videos on TikTok convinced children they had Tourette syndrome

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, an "outbreak" of Tourette syndrome was attributed to videos from a German TikToker who documented his life with the condition. The children experiencing the symptoms all had the same tics, which experts say was a case of mass sociogenic illness, also referred to as mass hysteria.

Why young women experience the most workplace ageism

While one might assume that older women face the most unfair treatment due to age in the workplace, some research from McKinsey & Co. suggests otherwise. The consulting firm found that while ageism impacts older women and men at similar rates, women in their 20s and 30s report much higher instances of ageism than both older women and their young, male colleagues. Learn more from the research here.

Circadian rhythms shift as we age—making older adults want to go to bed earlier

Throughout our lives our internal biological clocks shift. Early-to-rise toddlers become hard-to-wake teens and eventually early-to-sleep seniors. Circadian rhythm fluctuations throughout our life cycle explain some of these changes.

Why we should care about renaming the hormonal disorder PCOS to PMOS

The new name, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, nods to the hormonal disruptions that cause this condition, which affects roughly one in eight women. People with PMOS may have symptoms including irregular periods, trouble conceiving, weight gain, acne, undesired hair growth, and more. The earlier name, polycystic ovary syndrome, was a misnomer because women with the condition don't have cysts in their ovaries. Rather, they have masses that are actually immature follicles. World health experts think the condition often goes undiagnosed.

At least 7 eastern college campuses experienced surprisingly large HFMD outbreaks in 2018

The outbreaks at the college level caused a particularly nasty set of symptoms, including the usual blisters in the mouth and on the hands and feet—but also affected the genitals. They surprised health officials who weren't sure why so many young adults were being sickened, including more than 120 kids at Johns Hopkins University. The disease also caused outbreaks at campuses including Princeton, Dartmouth, West Virginia University, Lehigh University, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and Mars Hill University in North Carolina.

Gender-affirming hormone therapy cues changes similar to puberty

When HRT is part of gender affirmation care, people receive regular doses of estrogen or testosterone to alter hormone levels to more closely align with those of cis individuals of that biological sex. HRT may affect voice pitch, body hair, bone density, and more. Many of those changes are not reversible with the cessation of therapy, though the effects may diminish.

Aurea is the first US baby born following polygenic analysis

The child, born in May 2020, was selected by her parents to optimize for certain health qualities based on an analysis of her multifactorial genes by a New Jersey-based company called Genomic Prediction. Her embryo was selected for implantation based on polygenic risk scores for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Before Title IX, boys competing in high school sports far outnumbered girls

In 1971, the year before Title IX was passed, about 294,000 girls were playing high school sports. That paled in comparison to the number of boys: 3.7M.

Prolonged Grief Disorder has certain recognizable risk factors

This official diagnosis is characterized by intense, daily symptoms of grief a year after the loss of a loved one among adults and faster—around at least six months—for kids and teens. Factors that put people at increased risk of this disorder include being single, attachment anxiety, violent or unnatural death, low education, low income, and multiple losses, among others.

Children are at increased risk of contracting swimmer's ear

Kids may be more likely to spend time at the pool so they have that water exposure. They also tend to have narrow ear canals, a prime location for water to get trapped. Frequently wearing earbuds or excessively trying to rid ears of earwax, however, can also increase the chances of painful swimmer's ear infections at any age.

Taylor Swift's songwriting resonated with teenage girls around the world

One fan recalls that the themes of Swift's early songs included hope, betrayal, and a sense of being unremarkable but wanting to be special. She argues that these themes were especially powerful to young girls, regardless of where they were from.

Many female-founded companies were branded with the color 'millennial pink'

Many of the female-founded companies of the “girlboss era” in the mid-2010s had one thing in common: A certain light shade of pink was core to their brand book. The color—deemed “millennial pink”—was found on the packaging of makeup company Glossier, the walls and logos of coworking space The Wing, and the suitcases of luggage company Away.

Hormone and peptide compounds imported from China soared in 2025

US customs data indicates that these imports doubled to $328M in the first three quarters of 2025, from $164M in the same period of 2024. The imports include GLPs, among other products. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

South Koreans grew roughly 7 inches in a century on average

A hundred years ago, the average Korean woman was only 4’7”. Today, she stands nearly eight inches taller than her great-grandmother did, the largest jump of any country on earth. This video from Vox tries to explain why. Turns out, South Korea’s increasing postwar quality of life gave its people a (literal) leg up.

Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide lead plants to produce more pollen

Pollen issues are emerging earlier in the year and lasting longer as rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere boost plants’ pollen production and also simultaneously extend warmer, pollen-producing seasons.

Deepfake pornography poses significant challenges in combating sexual abuse

In 2017, 96% of deepfake videos involved image-based sexual abuse, which has disproportionately targeted minority women, LGBTQ individuals, adolescents and celebrities. Cultural norms, misogyny and AI advancements have contributed to the proliferation of explicit deepfake content.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.