The hormonal disorder PCOS was recently renamed PMOS, but the shift has greater implications than semantics.

Symptoms of menopause and perimenopause (the premenopause period) can be varied enough that clinicians dismiss them in patients in their mid-30s and onward as just a symptom of hormone level change. In this story, a woman's itching was dismissed as a hormonal change, but after two years and 11 separate doctor consultations, was diagnosed as cancer.

Sometimes referred to as the menopausal transition, perimenopause often lasts around four years as the ovaries' production of the reproductive hormones progesterone and estrogen decline. It may be accompanied by mental and physical symptoms, including irregular periods, hot flashes, sleep issues, mood swings, and alterations to a woman's sex drive.

Menopause, a natural biological process, occurs in three stages: perimenopause (hormone fluctuations), menopause (end of menstrual cycles), and postmenopause (12 months without menstruation). Hormonal shifts during this time can affect neurotransmitters, increasing the risk of mood disorders.

Yet menopause isn't talked about as much. In this podcast episode by Houston Methodist, a Texas-based hospital, the host speaks with a gynecologist with a specialization in menopausal medicine about what menopause really is, and how women and the people in their lives can navigate this next life stage.

Medical menopause is when menopause is induced from either surgery or medicine. Chemotherapy and radiation, as well as oophorectomy (a surgical procedure that removes the ovaries) and a radical hysterectomy can cause a woman to become menopausal. Women that go through medical menopause experience the same symptoms as women that experience natural menopause. Learn more about the medical condition here.

Defined as when a woman starts to experience perimenopause after age 55, late-onset menopause is linked to an elevated risk of developing breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.

An estimated 25 million women pass through menopause annually, with a projected increase in the number of women in menopause in both lower-resource and higher-income populations in the years ahead, highlighting the social and economic value of focusing on menopause care.

Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist studying the impact of menopause on the brain, explains in this video how menopause directly impacts a woman's brain health and explores why this is an important and often overlooked area in menopause and women's aging healthcare discussions.

The menopause transition may begin in one's mid-40s with erratic periods and a decrease in estrogen. It can trigger health complications, including hot flashes, palpitations, and elevated risks of osteoporosis.

Yet it's still unanswered what may account for that difference. To better understand this disparity researchers are exploring factors including hormonal changes that occur around puberty, pregnancy, and menopause, as well as gut microbe differences, and aspects of X-chromosome protein-coding genes.

Nearly all studies (99%) researching the biology of aging don’t consider menopause in their setup. A Harvard professor noted that about 75% of aging-related diseases are likely influenced by menopause. In this article, she discusses how gaps in research are negatively impacting how the medical system can effectively treat aging women. Read her analysis of the issue here.

Women going through these aging transitions may experience some common physical and mental symptoms to varying degrees, including hot flashes, bladder control issues, brain fog, and vaginal dryness. This article dives into some of the most common symptoms women might expect during perimenopause, plus what they can do to relieve them.

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.

Though the disease is more common in women, men's symptoms progress more quickly, with men more often diagnosed with progressive MS and men's cases typically resulting in more severe symptoms—perhaps due at least partly to more delayed diagnosis—and more severe disability over time.

Chemotherapy and radiation, as well as oophorectomy (a surgical procedure to remove one or both ovaries) and a radical hysterectomy, can cause a woman to become menopausal. Women who go through medical menopause experience the same symptoms as women who go through menopause caused by natural hormonal cycles.

Around the world, there has been a spike in children—especially girls—experiencing early puberty and doctors are seeking to understand why. The rise has been particularly strong post-2020. Early-maturing girls are at a higher risk for developing...

Menopause has long been a topic left out of film and TV. But some shows, like "The Change," and celebrities, like Jennie Garth, are now openly talking about it. This article breaks down how Hollywood is starting to come around to the menopause conversation and how celebrities are talking about their own personal experiences, as well as advocating on Capitol Hill.

Menopause is officially when a woman stops getting her period, meaning she has stopped ovulating and can no longer get pregnant. A woman has to go a full year without bleeding or spotting to know she has hit menopause.

Self-care has become a $1.5T economy that idealizes restraint and willpower, leaving behind those who can't shake off human nature. This article explores how Ozempic and similar weight loss medications pick up where self-care left off.

Some potential causes of early menopause include autoimmune disorders, chemotherapy, smoking, and certain surgeries that cause the body to produce lower levels of estrogen and progesterone.

For people with allergies, their immune systems recognize substances as a harmful "other"—cuing an inflammatory response. This podcast explores allergy details and related topics, including how scientists are interested in if the same allergic response mechanisms could underpin other health issues, including severe, painful symptoms around the time of menstrual cycles. Since estrogen acts on white blood cells called mast cells, which leads to the release of histamines—similar to what happens during allergic responses—an understudied question is whether the same process is fueling some of the uncomfortable symptoms around menstruation. An allergist guest notes this raises questions about if antihistamine medications like Pepsid might alleviate them, something that hasn't yet been explored in clinical trials.

Postmenopause is the final stage of menopause, occurring once a woman hasn't had any vaginal bleeding for a full year. She is then considered postmenopausal for the rest of her life. While some of the intense symptoms she might experience during postmenopause will decline, her risk for certain conditions and diseases will increase.

Perimenopause typically lasts about four years, beginning at around age 45; however, some women experience it as early as their 30s. Smoking and thyroid disease are factors that can trigger early perimenopause. Early menopause, which can increase health risks, occurs in about 5% of women. Researchers are still investigating why it occurs.

In popular culture OCD has been incorrectly overused to describe neatness or perfectionistic behaviors, but the disorder involves intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that take over a person's actions.

While there is no cure for menopause, there are ways to treat some of the intense symptoms women experience during perimenopause. There are two main hormone therapies used, one in the form of a pill, gel, or patch to treat symptoms like hot flashes, and another in the form of a cream or ring to treat symptoms like vaginal dryness. Read this article to learn more about the different hormone therapies available for menopausal women.

Before professional standards were adopted, practitioners used varying criteria to diagnose mental health disorders. By the 1970s, more objective lists were organized, culminating in this list of polythetic criteria—a list of symptoms where no single criterion is required, but a minimum number must be present.

The fallout of studies in the early 2000s linking hormone therapy for menopause and elevated cancer, stroke, and other health risks meant that even decades later—yet before the FDA removed its black box warning in 2025—use of HRT remained extremely uncommon.

Ozempic, one of the brand names for the drug semaglutide, was originally developed in 2012, to help treat Type 2 diabetes. Among other effects, the drug mimics a naturally produced hormone known as GLP-1, which is released while eating to let our bodies know we are full.

This essay follows a writer whose Ozempic journey involves a dramatic loss of appetite, leading them to stop compulsive snacking and even lose some of the joy of eating. As a result, he becomes fixated on watching food videos and eventually tries to "beat" an all-you-can-eat steak buffet. The experience leaves him feeling disappointed and lacking in desire.

GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic can help with weight loss, diabetes, and anti-inflammation. For some users, normal doses are too much. So, they've started "microdosing"—taking a smaller amount than the lowest increment of the drug available. While not yet backed by clinical trials, some doctors observed positive effects for certain people.

Researchers analyzed the DNA of more than 53,000 people with OCD and identified 30 areas in the genome linked to the disease, containing 249 genes of interest. Of those, several were linked to other brain disorders, paving the way for genetic treatments of various mental illnesses.

Semaglutide, the key ingredient in Ozempic, is proving to be more than just a diabetes and weight loss drug. Research suggests it may also help prevent strokes, improve heart health, and slow Alzheimer’s.

This PBS documentary traces a filmmaker's personal journey with MS after being diagnosed at age 26. It encompasses both his efforts to stymie the disease's progression and his search for answers about the disease, when, statistically, he seemed at low risk due to his gender, lack of known family risk, and other factors.

These tests claim to show how at-risk a hypothetical baby would be for genetic syndromes. The newfound industry has prompted ethical and medical debates, with critics questioning their accuracy and highlighting the potential problems behind pursuing the perfect baby.

Being able to predict an individual’s risk of common conditions is regarded by many as the holy grail. So, where are we now?

Researchers theorize that environmental factors, including shifts to less healthy diets, air pollution, infections, stress, climate change, and exposures to xenobiotics—substances like pesticides, plastics, and toxins that incite immune responses—may all be fueling epigenetic changes to our bodies that make people's immune responses go awry.

The FDA approved Ozempic to help patients with diabetes, but the popularity of semaglutide as a weight loss drug led doctors to prescribe Ozempic to nondiabetic patients who needed to lose weight. Ozempic became so popular that manufacturers could not keep pace with demand, posing risks for Ozempic-users with diabetes.

Companies marketing products and supplements to alleviate menopause symptoms and make life easier during this life stage have become a gold mine. This 2022 article explores how and why companies have swooped into this space, and whether you should trust them or not.

There are two types of this disorder. Bipolar 1 features a significant manic episode—abnormally elevated mood and frantic energy—followed by repeated depression, while Bipolar 2 vacillates between depressive episodes and hypomania, a milder form of mania, but not a full mania. Listen to this podcast as experts explain the condition.

Studies in the US and the UK, though conducted decades ago, have underscored that autoimmune diseases, when grouped together, are a top killer of women.