Mind & body, in brief

NHS England, which runs the health service in England, published guidance on Thursday. It says patients go on single-sex wards and bays by biological sex, not by gender identity. [1][2]

Staff toilets and changing rooms follow the same rule. [2] Every trust, the local body that runs hospitals, should check its buildings and offer other options, such as single toilets or lockable single rooms. [1][2]

Where the single-sex rule and a patient's medical needs cannot both be met, medical need comes first, including in emergency units. [1][2] Some decisions will be made case by case. [2]

The old guidance let patients and staff use wards and facilities by gender identity. [2] It was withdrawn after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that 'sex' in the Equality Act, the law against discrimination, means biological sex. [2]

The equality watchdog's code, in force since August, says the same. [4] It also says leaving a trans person with no facilities at all could be discrimination. [3]

Hospitals already struggle to keep wards single-sex. Breaches of the rule against mixed-sex wards rose from 3,853 in June 2025 to 5,520 in August 2026. [2]

TransActual and the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, two trans rights groups, said the rules will not work in hospitals short of resources. They said the rules would push trans people away from care. [1]

Sex Matters, a charity that campaigns for rights based on sex, welcomed the guidance. [1] Its head, Maya Forstater, said NHS records list potentially thousands of trans people under the opposite sex, so it is unclear how the rule will be applied. [1][2]

In January a tribunal found Darlington Memorial Hospital had violated the dignity of nurses made to share a changing room with a trans colleague. [5] The nurses are seeking 400,000 pounds in legal costs from the NHS. [2]

In December 2025, 15 mental health charities, including Samaritans and Mind, warned that rules like these posed a significant risk to trans people's mental health. [7]

In June, 135 MPs, 69 of them Labour, signed a motion to block the watchdog's code. [10] The code had waited months for ministers, and in January the equalities minister blamed the watchdog's slow replies. [11]

Ending mixed-sex wards is an old goal. In 2010 England's health secretary planned to name and shame hospitals that still had them. [8]

Why it matters. The next test is the trusts' own checks: whether hospitals already breaking the mixed-sex rule 5,520 times a month can find the single rooms the guidance asks for. [2][1]

A study of 479 men serving in the US Army found 26% had testosterone below 300 nanograms per decilitre. [12] That is the level the American Urological Association, a body of US urology doctors, calls low. [12] Among men aged 30 and over it was 33%. [12] In July the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered yearly testosterone tests for all troops aged 30 and over, with hormone treatment offered to those who test low. [13] In September the US Defense Department took down its draft clinical guidance for the tests, while the interim rules stayed in force. [14]

Why it matters. Testosterone swings by the hour and with sleep, food and stress, so one test can catch a low moment rather than a lasting lack. [12][15] Treatment can lower sperm production and fertility. [12][16]

In late September the Trump administration said it had removed 760,000 people from health plans bought on Healthcare.gov, the US government's insurance marketplace. [17] It said many sign-ups were fraudulent. [17] It flagged nearly 1.2 million that had four warning signs, such as no premium paid and no contact with the insurer. [17] Those who did not answer a call or letter within 30 days were cut. [17] Insurers say some real members have now been put back, and another 419,000 sign-ups are being checked, with answers due after the November midterm elections. [17]

Why it matters. More could follow if people find out they have no cover only when they go to use it. [17] The Trump administration has not said how many removals were mistakes. [17]

In 2026 about two in three US employer health plans paid for GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, weight-loss medicines that copy a gut hormone. [18] A year earlier it was about one in five. [18] Now at least 10% of plans that pay say they will likely stop in 2027, a survey by the Business Group on Health found. [18] Cigna and the consulting firm PwC dropped the cover for their staff this year, and PepsiCo and Starbucks were due to follow in October. [19] The drugs still cost 600 dollars or more for a month's supply. [18]

Why it matters. In Massachusetts the number of privately insured people taking these drugs halved between 2025 and early 2026 as cover fell away. [18] An employer pays for the drug now, while most of the health savings come years later, often after the worker has moved job or retired. [18]

About 22 million Americans use cannabis to help them sleep. [20] Researchers at Northwestern University in the US studied 1,266 middle-aged people from CARDIA, a study that has followed adults since 1985. [20] Some wore a wrist tracker for a week. [20] Each extra year of cannabis use went with 21% higher odds of lying awake for 30 minutes or more in a night. [20] Recent users slept about 20 minutes longer but woke more often. [20] Yet users did not rate their own sleep as any worse. [20]

Why it matters. The study watched people and did not test the drug, so it cannot show cannabis caused the poor sleep. [20] It did not record how strong the cannabis was or when it was taken. [20]

Researchers at PSE Healthy Energy, a US research group, measured the air in 27 commercial kitchens, from restaurants to school canteens. [21] Nitrogen dioxide, a gas also found in diesel exhaust, was above the WHO guideline for indoor air in 17 of them, all cooking with gas or propane. [21] Every kitchen met US legal limits for workplaces. [21] The three all-electric kitchens had the cleanest air. [21] In two-thirds of the gas kitchens, pollution was higher overnight, because pilot lights burn all day and night. [21]

Why it matters. About 16 million people work in catering and hospitality in the US and 3.6 million in the UK. [21] Pollution in the dining rooms was above the WHO guideline for outdoor air, so diners breathe some of it too. [21]

Researchers led by Petter Brodin at Imperial College London tested a supplement on 223 formula-fed babies in Manila, in the Philippines. [22] Chance decided which babies got formula with it and which got plain formula. [22] The supplement held sugars found in breast milk, plus a gut bacterium, Bifidobacterium longum infantis, that feeds on them. [22] By six months, 23% of the babies on the supplement had a recorded breathing infection, against 40% on plain formula. [22] Nestle, which makes formula, paid for the trial. [22]

Why it matters. Formula-fed babies catch more of these infections, and many Western babies lack this bacterium. [22] An immunologist not involved warned that a stronger immune response might raise the risk of allergies, and the team plans to test that. [22]

A coroner in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, reported the state's sixth measles-linked death this week: an unvaccinated 39-year-old woman with other illnesses. [23] The state has recorded 1,137 cases and 219 hospital stays in an outbreak that began in April. [23] The CDC, the US national public health agency, still lists two measles deaths for the whole country. [23] In September it switched to counting only deaths that national death records list as caused by measles, instead of those states report. [24][25]

Why it matters. A former CDC chief medical officer said those death records are built for slow, long-term counts, not for confirming single cases in an outbreak. [25] Fewer than 1% of Pennsylvania's cases were in fully vaccinated people. [23]

US doctors wrote more than 90,000 off-label prescriptions of testosterone for women in 2025, up 58.7% on 2024. [26] Off-label means the FDA, the US drug regulator, has not approved it for that use. [26] Testosterone does not fall sharply at menopause, said Susan Davis of Monash University in Australia. [26] Trials against a dummy treatment have not shown it helps brain fog, mood or bones. [26] An FDA workshop on 17 September concluded that more evidence is needed. [26]

Why it matters. A review of 36 trials found skin patches gave women about 0.85 more satisfying sexual events a month, the one use with some evidence. [26] In the US women are given products made for men's doses, and the effects of high doses on the heart and breasts are poorly known. [26]

Four Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs want Samantha Jones, the top civil servant at England's health department, to stay out of plans to regulate private ADHD and autism clinics. [27] ADHD is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [27] Weeks after she was appointed in 2025, a care company she chaired bought ADHD360 for 22.5 million pounds. [27] ADHD360 has earned 26 million pounds from the NHS in six years. [27] She sold her shares before starting the job. [27]

Why it matters. Last week the UK government accepted a review by Prof Peter Fonagy that found private assessments had money reasons built in to diagnose. [27] England's health secretary, Yvette Cooper, has promised a much tougher regime for these clinics. [27]

A King's College London review of 63 studies, covering more than 265,000 people, linked cannabis use to about twice the odds of violence. [28] A critique in The Conversation says 46 of those studies measured both things only once, so they cannot show which came first. [28] Studies that followed people over time found 17% higher odds, not double. [28] The review's own extra material rated the certainty of its evidence as very low. [28]

Why it matters. Poverty, alcohol and other drugs go with both cannabis use and violence, and could explain part of the link. [28] When violence is common, twice the odds is much less than twice as likely, the critique says. [28]

Instagram removed Irene Breen's adverts for pregnancy pillows in January 2025. [29] Meta, which owns Instagram, later told her the problem was the word 'pregnancy', and it took ten months to lift the limits. [29] In a survey by CensHERship, a campaign group, 96% of nearly 200 women's health creators, charities and clinics reported some kind of restriction. [29] The Eve Appeal, a cancer charity, says the hashtag #vaginalcancer does not appear at all. [29]

Why it matters. A researcher at the London School of Economics says automated systems flag posts and can repeat earlier mistaken decisions, often with no person to appeal to. [29] Meta says it allows women's health content and is consulting health groups to improve its systems. [29]

Liberty York, from Warwickshire in England, died in June 2025 aged 19 from angiosarcoma, a rare cancer of soft tissue. [30] Her breast swelling was first treated as an infection, then put down to hormones. [30] By the time it was removed the tumour weighed 4.5kg. [30] CCLG, a UK children's cancer charity, has now launched guidelines to help health workers recognise soft-tissue sarcomas in children and young people. [30] These cancers make up about 7% of childhood cancers. [30]

Why it matters. Their early signs look like common problems, which is why diagnosis is often late, experts say. [30] Her mother is backing the campaign and says that with this cancer, days and weeks matter. [30]

The Happy Mums Foundation has supported more than 1,000 families in Cumbria, England, since 2015. [31] It runs groups for mothers with mental health problems after a birth. [31] Its 13 weekly groups have already fallen to five, and without new money it will move online or close. [31] Its director said that talking about suicidal thoughts in a safe group helps prevent suicide. [31] Papyrus, a suicide prevention charity, closed in September. [31]

Why it matters. The local NHS trust said such support is valuable but cannot formally be part of its clinical services. [31] Suicidal thoughts are a matter for a doctor or a crisis line.

Northern Ireland's health minister, Robbie Butler, said there is no money for a new emergency department at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry. [32] The unit is the oldest round-the-clock one in Northern Ireland. [32] It was built for about 40,000 patients a year and now sees up to twice that. [32] A new one would cost about 73 million pounds. [32] One patient said he waited 15 hours after a heart attack without seeing a doctor or a nurse. [32]

Why it matters. Northern Ireland's government has not agreed a budget this year and says the UK's funding formula leaves it short. [32] Another patient described a 91-year-old sitting for two full days on a hard chair. [32]

A researcher at CalMatters and The Markup, two US news sites, tried to stop an Ohio hospital sharing her records through Care Everywhere. [33] That system is run by Epic, which makes the MyChart patient app and says it holds more than 305 million patient charts. [33] She went through more than 40 menu items and got no reply to messages. [33] A phone call to the hospital's medical records office finally worked. [33] One company's form marked optional data sharing as 'Required'. [33]

Why it matters. Shared records cut repeat tests and help emergency doctors, but some patients with sensitive conditions want control. [33] In one review of 1,138 breaches, almost 10% came from health workers misusing their access. [33]

A 2025 US law ended federally funded health cover for refugees and people granted asylum who do not yet hold a green card, the document for permanent residents. [34] KFF, a US health research group, found more than 275,000 of their green card applications waiting in June 2026. [34] The average wait rose from 7.8 to 13.3 months for refugees. [34] For people granted asylum it rose from 10.7 to 19.9 months. [34]

Why it matters. While they wait they cannot get Medicaid, the US public cover for people on low incomes, or subsidised marketplace plans. [34] Longer processing means longer gaps in care for people who have already applied. [34]

Ketamine poisonings reported to US poison control centres doubled between 2019 and 2023 and are the highest on record, writes an emergency doctor at the University of Virginia. [35] Ketamine is an anaesthetic, approved in 1970, that can also make people feel cut off from themselves. [35] A former Cornell University student says in a lawsuit filed in September that men pressured her to take it before raping her. [35] Most hospitals cannot detect it on standard urine tests. [35]

Why it matters. Wider medical use and new street versions both feed the rise, he writes. [35] Drugs used in assaults leave the body quickly, so they are often gone before anyone tests for them. [35]

Lung disease is common around the Salton Sea, California's largest inland lake and a big source of airborne dust. [36] Researchers collected dust at three sites around it from 2020 to 2022 and had mice breathe it for seven days. [36] The dust had been filtered to remove living germs first. [36] Dust from Wister, a site south-east of the lake, caused inflammation in the lungs and changed the bacteria in the lungs and gut. [36]

Why it matters. The study was in mice, not people. [36] The researchers set out to find the root causes of the lung disease in towns around the lake. [36]

Researchers screened 29,820 primary school children in four Chinese cities. [37] They compared 948 with dyslexia, a lasting difficulty with reading, against 948 children without it. [37] How much reading happened at home was the biggest factor they found. [37] Other factors linked to dyslexia included the child's learning habits, the mother's education, parents working away from home and long screen use during pregnancy. [37] Children with the highest genetic risk score had about twice the risk. [37]

Why it matters. The study compared groups, so it shows links, not causes. [37] The authors argue for screening that looks at a child's genes and home life together. [37]

Sixty people aged 20 to 40 came to six specialist headache clinics with their first headache. [38] Each had an in-person exam, then a video consultation at the same clinic 45 days later. [38] The headache history they gave matched very closely between the two. [38] How often the headaches came and how long they lasted matched only moderately. [38] Where the pain sat matched in more than 80% of cases. [38]

Why it matters. It is a small study. [38] It also compared the cost, the time taken and the work missed for each kind of visit. [38]

Researchers used Korea's national health insurance records to follow 9,496 people with lupus and 28,488 people without it. [39] Lupus is an illness in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissue. [39] People with lupus got age-related macular degeneration, which damages the centre of sight, at 49.1 cases for every 10,000 years of follow-up, against 26.7. [39] The risk of the 'wet' form, with leaking blood vessels, was about three times higher. [39]

Why it matters. People who had taken hydroxychloroquine, a common lupus drug, for five years or more had four times the risk of the wet form. [39] More severe lupus was not linked to a higher risk once other factors were allowed for. [39]