Stacker-Women’s Health

By their 30s and 40s, most women probably feel like they have a good sense of what works for their body. Stick to certain foods, workouts, and routines, and you generally know what to expect. Until one day, you don’t. Seemingly out of nowhere, your period starts keeping its own schedule, sleep turns patchy, your

Seven in 10 women in an October 2026 Hone Health survey didn’t recognize — or weren’t sure — that their symptoms were related to perimenopause. That includes 8% who didn’t know what perimenopause was. Most people have heard of menopause, which is technically a single day one year after a woman’s last period. But many

Your joints ache. Your knees creak when you climb stairs. Your hands feel stiff every morning. If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s, these symptoms might not be random aging: they’re likely connected to menopause. The relationship between declining estrogen and joint pain is well-documented, yet many women don’t realize their hormones are

Deciding whether to become a gestational surrogate — someone who carries a pregnancy for intended parents using an embryo created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) — is a personal choice that affects both you and your family. While every surrogacy process is unique, all journeys require careful thought, honest conversations, and a clear understanding of

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are reminded that one in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. In fact, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, besides skin cancers. Yet, many women aren’t aware of a modifiable lifestyle factor that could be putting them at increased risk:

According to a new survey of women who recently graduated from college, nearly two-thirds (64%) often felt that talking openly about periods could lead to embarrassment or judgment. The poll of 2,000 women who graduated from college in the last five years also found 61% think more open conversations about periods would have made their

Half a century of progress against breast cancer comes down to a pair of numbers most patients never hear. “In the 1970s, the five-year survival was in the 70% range,” said Dr. Alberto Montero, a medical oncologist, associate professor of medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and clinical director of the

It’s a sobering statistic that one in eight women in the United States will face a breast cancer diagnosis at some point in their lifetime. This means that, sooner or later, someone you care about deeply may share this news. Knowing how to respond in that moment–what to say and what not to say–can make

Perimenopause — literally meaning “around menopause” — describes the years leading up to menopause. People often talk about how difficult menopause is, but perimenopause can be just as challenging. For many people, perimenopause and anxiety come together in a way that makes life feel more stressful. In one study, over half of perimenopausal women experienced

Experienced workers in women’s health may notice that the questions women actually have about menopause are rarely the ones they ask out loud. They Google them at midnight. They mention them offhandedly at the end of a doctor’s appointment, already halfway out the door. Or they don’t say anything at all and just wonder if

  A few weeks after a healthy delivery, a young mother became convinced her husband was having an affair. There was no affair. But her parents believed her. Her sister believed her. So did her therapist and, later, her lawyer. Everyone believed her, because nothing about her looked like an illness. Only when the fear

  Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which affects more than 170 million women worldwide, is now polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). But what drove the change? New data reveals that the term PCOS is misleading, and has even been shown to delay diagnosis and prevent effective medical care. The updated term, PMOS, more accurately reflects how

  Women often manage work and family demands for months, all while pushing their own exhaustion aside. So by the time they ask a doctor why they still feel drained every day, stress may sound like the most reasonable explanation. But as Sleeping.com examines here, sleep specialists now warn that sleep apnea may remain overlooked

  Eating disorders are still widely assumed to be a teenager’s condition, not something that surfaces in a 52-year-old woman juggling a career, children, aging parents and the physical whiplash of menopause. That blind spot helps explain why this illness is so often overlooked in midlife. Online, people have begun calling it “menorexia”: disordered eating

  Creatine is not a new product. It’s a commodity ingredient that every supplement brand on earth already sells, and it’s been that way since the early 1990s. This makes what’s happening on Amazon right now genuinely strange: The creatine subcategory is up 90% over the last 12 months. That’s $57.5 million per month, $721

  Women with higher blood levels of several common “forever chemicals” reached menopause about a year earlier than women with lower levels, according to a 2026 study of nearly 5,000 women. Forever chemicals, collectively called PFAS, are found in everything from tap water and nonstick cookware to some makeup, clothing, and cleaning products, and have

  Postpartum psychosis is one of the most serious (but most misunderstood) perinatal mental health conditions. It’s a psychiatric emergency that requires urgent care, yet many people don’t recognize what it can look like. Unfortunately, lack of knowledge, stigma, and fear often delay diagnosis and treatment. What matters most is that it is treatable, and

  Between her two young toddlers, her work as a seaweed farmer on Humboldt County’s coast, and a third baby on the way, Leslie Booher doesn’t have a lot of spare time. But her prenatal appointments with her midwife, Laura Doyle, give Booher the opportunity to really focus on the pregnancy. “For me, feeling more

  More than 34% of women don’t know what reproductive stage they’re in, according to a new study published in The Menopause Society’s journal Menopause. That confusion peaks in a key group: 42% of women ages 40 to 44 said they are not sure if they are in perimenopause. The study found that women who’d

  Taylor Townsell remembers her OBGYN reassuring her that her IUD insertion would feel like “just a pinch.” The pain came a split second later. The 32-year-old described it to Truthdig and 19th News in still-vivid detail: “Bright, electric, as if my body had become nothing but nerve endings.” She passed out. Six years later,

  The early postpartum period—often called the fourth trimester—is a time of major transition. While you’re getting to know your baby and settling into a new rhythm, your body is also doing significant work behind-the-scenes. You’re healing from pregnancy and birth. Your hormones are shifting quickly. If you’re breastfeeding, your body is producing milk day

Northwell Health reports that women’s heart health requires unique attention due to historical male bias in research affecting diagnosis and treatment.