Mind & Body · Tuesday, 13 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Menopause changes bone, liver and blood fat tests in one sudden step, not a slow slide, a study of 300 million lab tests finds

Researchers lined up more than a million women by the time since their final period instead of by age, and 52 of 90 common blood and body tests jumped at that moment while men's did not.

52 of 90

common lab tests that jumped at the final period in the US data

Men of the same ages showed no jump at all. [1]

300 million

lab tests, from more than a million women in the US and Israel

Earlier studies followed far fewer women, for only a few years before the final period. [1]

12-15 years

before the final period, hormone levels start changing faster

About seven years earlier than earlier studies had found. [1]

19% vs 11%

of women with moderate or severe depression scores, in the year after the final period against the 24 years after

Trouble falling asleep rose and settled in the same way. [1]

The lead story — what happened

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel studied more than 300 million lab tests from more than a million women. [1][2]
The tests came from two places: NHANES, a long-running US national health survey, and Clalit, a health insurer that covers about half of Israel's people. [1]
Most studies line women up by their age. This team lined each test up by the time since the woman's final period instead. [1]
Women reach that final period at different ages, half of them between 45 and 53. The team borrowed a maths method used to sharpen blurry telescope pictures to undo the blur this causes. [1]
Seen that way, 52 of 90 common tests jumped at the final period in the US data, in one step rather than a slow slope. [1][2]
Outside the sex hormones, the biggest jumps were in bone, the liver, blood fats and how concentrated the blood is. [1][2]
Men of the same ages showed no such jump, so the authors say it comes from menopause, not from growing older in general. [1][2]
Most of the jumps point towards more risk of disease. Iron and red blood cell tests improved, probably because monthly bleeding stops. [1]
In US women taking hormone therapy the jumps were mostly smaller, but only 9% of the women took it, and they may differ in other ways. [1]
Hormone levels began changing faster 12 to 15 years before the final period, about seven years earlier than past studies had found. [1][2]
Moderate or severe depression scores were found in 19% of women in the year after the final period, against 11% across the 24 years after that. [1]
Martha Hickey, a women's health professor at the University of Melbourne, said the word cliff suggests a dramatic physical and mental decline, which the study does not show. [2]
The study took one snapshot each of many different women and did not follow any woman through her final period. [1][2]

19%Year after last period

11%The 24 years after

Share of women with moderate or severe depression scores. The rise comes in the year right after the final period, then falls back.

Who is involved

Glen Pridham and the Weizmann Institute of Science

an Israeli research institute; Pridham, a cell biologist there, led the study
Clalit

a health insurer covering about half of Israel's people; its records held 1.3 million women aged 30 to 70
Martha Hickey

a women's health professor at the University of Melbourne, not involved; warned that 'cliff' sounds like a decline the study did not show
Mia Schaumberg

a scientist at Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast, not involved; noted the biggest changes were in parts of the body most sensitive to oestrogen

How it unfolded

15 years before AMH, a hormone that tracks the store of eggs, starts falling faster [1]
14 years before FSH, a brain hormone that pushes the ovaries to work, starts rising faster [1]
12 years before oestrogen starts falling faster [1]
Final period 52 of 90 tests jump in one step [1]
Year after depression scores and trouble falling asleep rise for a while, then settle [1]

Where this points

The next test is whether the same step appears when the same women are tested again and again through their final period, which this study could not do. [1][2]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Women's bodies left unstudied High→

Until now menopause was mostly studied in small groups of women followed for a few years. [1] In 1977 the US drug regulator advised keeping women who could become pregnant out of early drug trials, and the rule was not reversed until 1993. [3] Migraine hits women harder than men, yet how hormones change its treatment is barely studied. [7]

Side effects found late Building↑

In a new study, injected migraine drugs approved in 2018 were linked to a 40% higher chance of miscarriage. [6] People on weight-loss drugs like Ozempic reported nails lifting off four times as often as people not on them. [14] More than 90% of medicines approved in the US have an unknown risk of harming an unborn baby. [3]

Health advice moving online High↑

Some 38% of posts by US health influencers promote a product or service. [10] A Nigerian doctor who explains health online has 2.8 million followers on TikTok. [13] Cubans now find scarce medicines through WhatsApp groups. [15]

Patients paying where care falls short Building↑

In Cuba, informal sellers charge up to 1,000 pesos for blood-pressure pills that used to sell for 0.30 pesos. [15] Patients at public hospitals near Abuja, Nigeria's capital, say they must pay cash for beds and tests. [16] Families of children with dyspraxia waited 2.8 years on average for a diagnosis. [17]

The rest of the day

14 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Lancet panel names 17 threats to health

A panel of 37 experts set up by The Lancet, a leading medical journal, presented its report on Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin. [5] It names 17 threats to human health up to 2100, from obesity and smoking to climate change and germs that resist drugs. [4][5] Two of them, AI misused to make weapons such as new germs, and nuclear war with the famine after it, could end humanity, though the panel judges both unlikely. [4] The biggest loss that action could still prevent comes from obesity: 23.1 billion years of healthy life. [4][5]

23.1bnObesity, to 2100
about 0.5bnCOVID-19 pandemic
Years of healthy life, in billions. The first is what the panel says action could still save from obesity by 2100. The second is what COVID-19 took.

Why it matters — That is about 46 times the healthy years the COVID-19 pandemic took, and the panel wants governments to build health systems ready for such threats. [4][5] It warns its numbers cannot be added together, because one person can suffer from several threats at once. [4]
03
Migraine jabs linked to more miscarriages

A study in JAMA Neurology, a US medical journal, looked at 7,579 pregnancies in women with migraine, using US private insurance records from 2018 to 2021. [6] Pregnancies exposed to injected drugs that block CGRP, a body chemical involved in migraine attacks, had about a 40% higher chance of miscarriage in the first 20 weeks. [6] CGRP also helps an embryo attach and a placenta grow. [6] Propranolol, another migraine treatment in the study, showed no such link. [6] Migraine affects about 1.2 billion people, more of them women than men. [7]

Why it matters — The study shows a link, not a cause: these drugs go to people with the worst migraines, and the records do not say how bad each woman's migraine was. [6] More than 90% of medicines approved in the US have an unknown risk of harming an unborn baby. [3]
04
Anti-vaccine group targets measles doctors

Brian Hooker, chief scientist of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group Robert F Kennedy Jr once led, has filed complaints against two Texas doctors. [8] They treated two girls who died of measles last year; Hooker says the state medical board is reviewing the complaints, which the Guardian could not confirm. [8] Kennedy, now the US health secretary, has questioned Pennsylvania's measles deaths, and the CDC lists only two of the five the state reports. [8] Pennsylvania has had more than 1,000 cases this year, and New York state has declared a measles emergency. [9]

Why it matters — Lubbock's public health director says the accusations weigh on doctors who treat the sickest children. [8] Two doses of the measles vaccine lead to protection in 97% of people who get them. [9]
05
Cuba short of most basic medicines

Cuba's health ministry lists 603 basic medicines, and only a little over a third of them are available. [15] BioCubaFarma, the state drug maker, said in June that about 300 of the 395 medicines it should supply had not been made, for lack of imported materials. [15] In Havana, volunteers such as Laura Mendoza hand out donated medicines free through WhatsApp groups. [15] In July Cuba's government allowed private pharmacies, a historic change to its state-run health system, and about 36 plans are under review. [15]

Why it matters — Cuba's government says US financial limits make imports hard to pay for, and that shipments are stranded because shipping firms fear US penalties. [15] Informal sellers now charge up to 1,000 pesos for a pack of blood-pressure pills that once cost 0.30, more than 30% of one 69-year-old's monthly pension. [15]
06
Weight-loss drug users report more nail trouble

Researchers compared 575 people taking weight-loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic with 1,329 similar people who had never taken them, in France, the US, Brazil and Mexico. [14] Nails lifting off the skin were reported by 39% of users and 9% of the others. [14] Half the users reported unusual hair loss, against 34% of non-users. [14] The work was presented at the 2026 congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, a body of skin doctors. [14]

Drug users39%
Non-users9%
Share reporting nails lifting off the skin. The two groups were asked once, so the gap shows a link, not a cause.

Why it matters — The researchers say it shows a link, not a cause: about half the users had nail problems before starting, and people reported their own symptoms. [14] The study was supported by Ducray, a company that sells hair and scalp products. [14]
07
What health influencers post, counted

The Pew Research Center, a US research group, studied 535,512 posts by 6,334 health influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube from February to April. [10] About 54% of posts were about everyday healthy living, like fitness and food, and 34% about illnesses or treatments. [10] Some 38% promoted a product, service or subscription. [10] Only 9% cited an outside source when making a health claim. [11]

38 of 100
of every 100 influencer posts promote something to buy
Pew counted posts over three months in 2026. Nearly every influencer it studied did this at least sometimes.

Why it matters — Posts about illness and treatment came mostly from influencers who say they are doctors or other health workers. [11] Protein came up in 42% of food posts, and the US food regulator does not test protein powders for lead or check their muscle claims. [10][12]
08
Abuja hospital patients say they must pay cash

Patients at public hospitals in towns around Abuja, Nigeria's capital, say staff demand cash for hospital cards, tests and beds, a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria found. [16] Some say they got no receipt, or were told to pay into private accounts. [16] Nigeria's government has been pushing people to pay electronically instead of in cash. [16] Bwari and Kubwa General Hospitals denied knowing of any such scheme and asked patients to bring evidence. [16]

Why it matters — Cash stands beside hospitals in Nyanya, Kubwa and Bwari are busy with relatives raising money for treatment. [16] Without receipts, patients and officials cannot check where the money goes. [16]
09
A Nigerian doctor spreads health facts like gossip

Chinonso Egemba, a Nigerian doctor known online as the Aproko Doctor, has millions of followers, including 2.8 million on TikTok. [13] An aproko is Nigerian slang for someone who cannot keep other people's news to themselves. [13] He began after a patient died of a stroke that one cheap blood-pressure pill a day could have prevented. [13] Nigeria has about four doctors for every 10,000 people, and he is now building health channels in local languages such as Hausa. [13]

Why it matters — He co-founded Awadoc, a doctor service run through WhatsApp that more than 200,000 people have joined. [13] About seven in every ten naira spent on health in Nigeria comes straight from people's own pockets, WHO figures show. [13]
10
Gene signals mark children badly ill with COVID

Researchers measured which genes were switched on in the blood of 333 South African children. [18] Of these, 41 were in hospital with severe COVID and 71 had mild or no symptoms; others had RSV, a common chest virus, or tuberculosis. [18] More than 5,000 genes behaved differently in children with severe chest infections, many of them in the immune system. [18] The team found 82 genes that could tell severe COVID from mild COVID. [18]

Why it matters — Children with COVID, RSV and tuberculosis often arrive at hospital looking alike, so a blood test that tells them apart could guide treatment. [18] The authors say the genes must be tested in larger groups of children first. [18]
11
Dyspraxia wears children out by the afternoon

Dyspraxia, a condition that makes everyday movements slow and hard, affects about two children in every class of 30. [17] Researchers surveyed 241 parents of children aged 5 to 18 who have it. [17] Families waited 2.8 years on average between first asking for help and getting a diagnosis. [17] Some 92% of parents said everyday movements tire their child more than other children, and 36% of the children met the hour-a-day activity target, against 45% nationally. [17]

Why it matters — Parents say this tiredness is often mistaken for laziness or bad behaviour. [17] Most of them, 72%, want teachers trained to support these children. [17]
12
Parents' adjustments track child social anxiety

A study in Scientific Reports, a research journal, compared 333 young people: 121 with social anxiety disorder, 65 with a single strong fear and 147 with neither. [19] Social anxiety disorder is a lasting, strong fear of being judged by others. [19] Parents of children with social anxiety disorder did more 'family accommodation': changing routines, reassuring again and again, or helping the child avoid what frightens them. [19] The more parents did this, the more severe the child's anxiety. [19]

Why it matters — The study cannot say which comes first: anxious children may draw more help, or the help may keep the fear going by keeping the child from facing it. [19] A wider parenting style that pushes children to try things was not linked to how severe the anxiety was. [19]
13
Welsh teenager cancer-free again after a trial

Ethan Griffiths, 14, from Maesteg in Wales, was found to have Burkitt lymphoma, a fast-growing cancer of white blood cells, in January. [22] He was declared cancer-free in May, then the cancer came back. [22] He joined a UK-wide trial of two new drugs for children whose lymphoma had returned, at Bristol's children's hospital. [22] After more chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, he came home cancer-free in September. [22]

Why it matters — He says he coped by keeping his mind apart from the illness, advice from his father, who also survived cancer. [22] He still tires when walking and plans to return to school slowly. [22]
14
Regular exercise and calmer medical students

Researchers surveyed 1,127 students at three medical training colleges in China in late 2024. [20] How many days a week students exercised told the most about their mental health. [20] Frequent moderate exercise, the kind that makes a person breathe harder, went most often with low anxiety and low depression scores. [20] A computer model sorted students by risk well overall, but it caught only about three in four of those in severe distress. [20]

Why it matters — The survey took one snapshot, so it cannot show whether exercise lifts mood or whether calmer students exercise more. [20] The authors say it describes links and is not a screening tool. [20]
15
Oxford tool reads exercise from wrist sensors

Researchers at the University of Oxford released ActiNet, a free program that reads how hard a person is moving from a wrist-worn motion sensor. [21] They trained it on up to a day of sensor data from 151 volunteers aged 18 to 91. [21] It sorted activity levels more accurately than an older method from earlier studies, scoring 0.82 against 0.76 on a standard accuracy score. [21] Its lead held across ages and across men and women. [21]

Why it matters — Large studies of exercise and health count activity from these sensors, so a better reader can change how much activity people are counted as doing. [21]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a sudden change looks slow when you line everyone up by age

Each woman reaches menopause at her own age, so an average by age blends women before and after it into a slow slope.

The twist

The slow slope was never in any one woman's body. It came from mixing women who had reached the step with women who had not reached it yet.

The picture

1A quarter of women have had their final period45 years
2Half have50 years
3Three quarters have53 years

Ages at the final period in the US data. Any age between 45 and 53 holds women on both sides of the step, which is what blurs it.

How it works

In each woman, many body tests change in one step at her final period
Women reach that final period at different ages, half of them between 45 and 53
At any one age, a group holds some women before the step and some after it
So the average by age rises slowly, year after year
Line women up by years since their final period, and the step shows again

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Migraine jabs linked to more miscarriages

The researchers counted risk over the days each woman was actually exposed to the drug, not over her whole pregnancy, so drug-free weeks did not water the risk down.
Gene signals mark children badly ill with COVID

The immune changes appeared in the 41 children with severe COVID and not in the 71 with mild illness, so one average over all 112 would have made them look smaller.

Where you've seen this

Growth spurts

each child shoots up in a year or two, at a different age, so average height by age climbs smoothly

Retirement and income

each person's pay stops on one day, but average income by age falls gently because people retire at different ages

A new phone in a town

each person switches in a day, but the share of the town using it creeps up over months

The catch

The method works only when you know how spread out the ages of the change are. It rebuilds an average path from snapshots of different women, so it cannot say how sharp the step is for any one woman.

And the whole of it

Most of what any of us knows about our own body comes from averages of other people. A woman at 50 feels her own change, a doctor sees one test at a time, and a study sees the average, and each sees only one part of what is happening.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

A study of 300 million lab tests says a woman's body changes in one step at her final period, not slowly over years, and that the step appears smaller in women taking hormone therapy. [1] It changed the picture by lining women up by their last period instead of their age, but it followed no single woman through it, so it describes an average path, not any one woman's. [1][2]

Why it works on us — The word cliff sticks because it sounds like a fall, and one outside expert warned that it suggests a dramatic decline the study did not show. [2]

Who gains

Makers of menopause hormone therapy — The study found most jumps smaller in women taking it, a result that can be quoted although it came from records, not a trial. [1]
Ducray, a hair and scalp products company — It supported a study finding more hair loss and scalp trouble in weight-loss drug users, a large new group of possible customers. [14]
Health influencers who sell products — Some 38% of their posts promote something to buy, and only 9% cite a source for a health claim. [10][11]
Children's Health Defense — Complaints against the Texas doctors move the argument from measles deaths to medical mistakes, which the group's own scientist says caused them. [8]
Informal medicine sellers in Cuba — With state shelves short of about two thirds of basic medicines, they charge up to 1,000 pesos for pills that once sold for 0.30 pesos. [15]
Cash stands outside Abuja-area hospitals — One owner near Nyanya General Hospital says his business has boomed because relatives need cash for treatment. [16]

Who pays

Women with severe migraine who may become pregnant — The newest migraine drugs have little safety evidence in pregnancy, and most US medicines carry an unknown risk to an unborn baby. [6][3]
The doctors who treated the Texas girls — They face complaints over the antibiotics they gave, built on a review by a doctor with no training in children's medicine. [8]
Cuban pensioners — One 69-year-old says a pack of her blood-pressure pills now costs more than 30% of her monthly pension. [15]
Families at public hospitals around Abuja — They say they must find cash for cards, tests and beds during emergencies, often with no receipt. [16]
Children with dyspraxia — They wait 2.8 years on average for a diagnosis, and their tiredness is often taken for laziness. [17]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

Whether one woman, tested again and again, really changes in a single step.

The study rebuilt the path from one snapshot each of many women, and an outside expert called the results interesting but not conclusive. [1][2]
02

Whether hormone therapy causes the smaller jumps.

Only 9% of the US women took it, and they may differ in health care and in other ways that also shape their tests. [1]
03

Whether the migraine jabs cause miscarriage, or the severe migraine behind them does.

The insurance records do not say how bad each woman's migraine was, or whether she actually took the drug. [6]
04

How many people have died of measles in Pennsylvania this year.

Pennsylvania says five people died of measles this year. The CDC, the US public health agency, lists only two and has called the others into question. [8]
05

Whether the Texas medical board is investigating the doctors who treated the two girls.

Only Children's Health Defense says so, the Guardian could not confirm it, and the doctors have not been named. [8]
06

How big each of the 17 threats really is.

The figures are the gap between a best and a worst case in a model running to 2100, and the panel says they cannot be added and are not a ranking. [4][5]
07

Whether weight-loss drugs cause the nail and hair problems.

People were asked once about their own symptoms, about half had nail problems before starting, and the work was funded by a hair-care company. [14]
08

When Cuba's private pharmacies will open, and at what prices they will sell.

About 36 plans are under review, Cuba's government did not answer questions, and imports must still go through state companies. [15]
09

Whether cash demands at Abuja-area hospitals are a scheme or a few staff.

Patients describe them, other patients say they never met them, and the hospitals say no formal complaint has been made. [16]
10

Whether parents' adjustments keep a child's social anxiety going, or follow from it.

The study measured both at one time, so it cannot tell which came first. [19]

04 Hope carry this

Ethan Griffiths, 14, from Maesteg in Wales, relapsed with a fast-growing lymphoma soon after being declared cancer-free in May. After a UK trial of two new drugs, more chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, he came home cancer-free again in September.

Also true today

In Lubbock, Texas, parents who had held back from vaccines brought their children to be vaccinated as soon as they heard measles cases had appeared, the city's public health director said.
In Havana, Laura Mendoza hands out donated medicines free twice a week, and she estimates about 100 projects like hers now run in the city.
More than 200,000 Nigerians have joined Awadoc, a doctor service run through WhatsApp, most of them after hearing about it from someone they trust.