Mind & body, in brief

ACOG, the main US group of doctors who care for women in pregnancy and menopause, released new guidance on treating menopause symptoms on Thursday, its first since 2014. [1]

Robert Kauffman, a co-author, said hormone therapy is probably the best option for women with symptoms who are under 60 or within 10 years of their last period. [1]

Catherine Cansino, who chairs ACOG's guideline committee, said the safety of hormone therapy is now well established. [1]

Hormone therapy gives back estrogen, the hormone whose fall mainly drives menopause. [4] Women who still have a womb also take a second hormone, progestogen, because estrogen alone can thicken the womb lining and raise the risk of cancer there. [1]

Women who have had certain cancers of the reproductive organs, blood clots, a stroke, a heart attack or liver disease are told to avoid it. [1]

The guidance also lists two newer medicines with no hormones in them, fezolinetant and elinzanetant, approved in the US in 2023 and 2025. [1] They block chemical signals in the part of the brain that controls body heat and sleep. [1]

Talking therapy, exercise, hypnosis and acupuncture can ease some symptoms, ACOG says, but the evidence for them is weaker than for hormones. [1]

The fear of hormones began in 2002, when a large US trial called the Women's Health Initiative linked them to more breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. [2][3]

Hormone use fell by 46% within six months. [2] In 2003 the FDA, the US medicines regulator, put its strongest warning, a black box, on every estrogen product for menopause. [2]

Later studies found most women in that trial were 60 or older, and the risks were much lower for women who started earlier. [1][3] In women under 60, long follow-up found no clear rise in heart disease. [5]

The FDA removed the black box warning in November 2025. [2][4][7] Some menopause doctors said the decision skipped the usual public expert review and overstated the benefits. [6]

Demand is already rising, and estrogen skin patches have been hard for US pharmacies to keep in stock. [1]

Why it matters. The next test is whether US pharmacies can keep estrogen patches in stock as demand rises, and whether doctors follow ACOG's age limits rather than the wider benefits US officials claimed last year. [1][6]

The UK government said this week it will review the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, which pays people badly harmed by a vaccine. [9] In April the UK Covid Inquiry, the official investigation into the pandemic, called the scheme not supportive enough. [9][12] By September, 24,260 claims linked to Covid jabs had been made, and 264 had been paid. [10] Each payment is a one-off 120,000 pounds, only for people judged at least 60% disabled. [9] Running the scheme has cost 83 million pounds, against 32 million pounds paid out. [10]

Why it matters. Vaccine Injured and Bereaved UK, a campaign group, says the UK government gave no timetable and named no changes. [9] Most claims are about the AstraZeneca jab, which is credited with saving millions of lives. [10]

A new study in Nature Communications, a science journal, followed 234 pregnant women with symptoms of depression. [13] By chance, one group was given MOMCare, eight 50-minute sessions of talking therapy about their relationships and support. [13] An earlier report from the same trial found 36% of the women had depression before the therapy and 6% after. [13] Scans a few weeks after birth found the hippocampus, a brain part used for memory and feelings, was 5% smaller in their babies. [13]

Why it matters. At six months, babies with a smaller hippocampus reacted less badly to a strange, noisy toy, a reaction earlier studies tie to less anxiety later on. [13] The team says it does not yet know how the therapy reaches the baby's brain, or whether the difference lasts. [13]

Australia's government put a bill to parliament this week that would make social media firms let users turn off suggested posts and see only accounts they follow. [14] The switch would stay on unless each user turns it off. [14] The wider Digital Duty of Care bill would make online services protect children from harmful posts, such as ones that push eating disorders, with fines of up to 100 million Australian dollars. [14] Australia already bars under-16s from social media, since December 2025. [15]

Why it matters. Instagram's boss says feeds without suggestions would show fewer posts from friends, and the Trump administration says the bill risks censorship. [14] More than 20 countries are looking at bans for children, and early research doubts that bans alone help young people's mental health. [15]

Doctors in the United Arab Emirates say more children are coming to them with trouble sleeping and concentrating, linked to heavy screen use, The National reported on 17 October. [16] Sudha Rao, a children's doctor in Dubai, said late-night use upsets children's body clocks and harms their eyesight. [16] She pointed to a study of 500 children aged 6 to 12 in Saudi Arabia. [16] Of those on screens more than four hours a day, 66.7% struggled to fall asleep, against 9.5% of those on under an hour. [16]

Why it matters. One Dubai school keeps pupils' phones out of sight all day, and school heads say sleep lost at home still shows up in class. [16] The doctors are describing what they see in clinics, not a count of cases, and the Saudi study shows a link, not a cause.

The share of US flu tests coming back positive reached 3.6% in the 9 October report of the CDC, the US public health agency, against 0.6% a year earlier. [17] In the region covering Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada it was 9.5%. [17] Almost all positive tests, 98.4%, were H1N1, one type of flu. [17] That H1N1 has drifted a little from the strain in this year's vaccine, said Andrew Pekosz, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins. [17]

Why it matters. Experts say an early start does not show how severe the winter will be. [17] US flu usually peaks between December and February, and it is too early to know how well the vaccine will match. [17]

Researchers matched 112.9 million emergency hospital admissions in Germany, from 2005 to 2021, to each district's weekly temperatures. [18] The study is published in a Nature journal this week. [18] In the least deprived rural districts, each extra hot day brought about 17.6 more emergency admissions per 10,000 people. [18] In the most deprived rural districts there was no rise. [18] Among people 65 and older, middle-income districts saw the biggest rise. [18]

Why it matters. The authors say the pattern only shows when districts are compared on several things at once, such as wealth, age and how rural they are. [18] They say health services and other public bodies need to plan for heat together. [18]

Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps from the ground into homes, and it causes an estimated 3% to 14% of lung cancer deaths worldwide. [19] A study in a Nature journal modelled people adapting to hotter weather by running air conditioning, staying indoors and moving to cooler basements. [19] With all three, it estimated 46 extra lung cancer deaths per 10,000 people by age 85 in the US. [19] For France, Germany and Italy together, the figure was 42. [19]

Why it matters. These are modelled scenarios, not counted deaths. [19] The authors say the extra risk comes if known fixes for radon in homes are not used. [19]

Mental health hospitals sometimes hold patients down, lock them alone in a room or sedate them quickly when staff fear harm. [20] Researchers examined 35 research papers and policies from 46 NHS mental health trusts, the groups that run those hospitals in England. [20] NHS guidance says patients should get support afterwards, but the policies describe and organise it very differently. [20] Patients said a talk offered straight after can feel like one more demand. [20]

Why it matters. A patient who turns down that first talk may get no second chance, the researchers found. [20] Some patients have nightmares or symptoms of post-traumatic stress long afterwards, and fear of being restrained can stop people asking for help. [20]

Elizabeth Struhs, eight, died in Toowoomba, Queensland, in January 2022 after her father stopped giving her insulin for her type 1 diabetes. [21] He had joined a religious group that rejects medicine. [21] At the coroner's inquest on 16 October, the child safety officer on her case said it was not treated as a priority. [21] She had 25 to 28 children in 15 families. [21] Child safety had returned her to her father's sole care against specialist doctors' objections, then ended its help after 17 weeks. [21]

Why it matters. Elizabeth first came to child safety's attention in 2019, after she was taken to hospital in a coma. [21] The officer said the family's well-off home may have swayed her, and the inquest continues. [21]

A court in Gansu province, China, jailed six people on Friday over lead poisoning at the Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui. [22] More than 200 children were poisoned, in what the South China Morning Post calls the country's worst food safety scandal in almost two decades. [22] The owner, Li Huifang, was jailed for life and fined 500,000 yuan, about 75,000 dollars. [22] The principal, Zhu Jinglin, was jailed for 15 years. [22]

Why it matters. The six were convicted of making or selling harmful food. [22] Lead harms how a child's brain grows, which is why poisoning in young children is treated so seriously.

Ebbw Fawr Learning Community, a school in Blaenau Gwent, Wales, has begun escorting some older pupils to the toilet during lessons. [23] It says vandalism has cost thousands of pounds and pupils spent too long out of class. [23] After meeting 50 pupil representatives, it limited the rule to pupils high on its behaviour scale or often late, in the lessons either side of lunch. [23]

Why it matters. Molly Fenton, who campaigns on periods, says pupils who need the toilet for periods or other health reasons may simply stop going. [23] The Welsh government says councils set toilet rules, and they must meet pupils' basic needs. [23]

Researchers tested more than 157,000 stool samples from pet cats across the US and Canada for Giardia, a gut parasite that can cause diarrhoea and stomach pain. [24] They found it in 6.3%, about one cat in 16. [24] Kittens carried it far more often than cats aged 10 or older, 10.7% against 1.3%. [24] Rates were higher in winter than in summer, because the parasite survives longer in cool, damp places. [24] The study is in PLOS One, a science journal. [24]

Why it matters. Only about 1.2% of samples held kinds that can also infect people. [24] The authors suggest routine checks for cats living with young children, older people or people with weak immune systems. [24]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, treats depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder with magnetic pulses from a coil held against the head. [25] Researchers in Denmark gave 20 people the pulses used in approved treatments and asked what hurt. [25] Most discomfort sat under the coil, and it was worse over one spot at the left front of the head. [25] How loud the clicks sounded tracked the discomfort, but how hard face muscles twitched did not. [25]

Why it matters. The team says quieter machines and better-shaped pulses could make treatment easier to bear. [25] Twenty people is a small group, so the finding needs checking in more.

A study in a Nature journal surveyed 464 breastfeeding mothers in Ankesha Guagusa, a district in northwest Ethiopia, in July and August 2025. [26] Using a standard eight-question scale, it found 70.9% were short of food. [26] Food insecurity means not being sure of getting enough safe, nourishing food. [26] Mothers in the countryside, and mothers who had been ill, were more likely to go short. [26]

Why it matters. A breastfeeding mother needs extra food, and too little can mean less milk and poor nutrition for her. [26] The survey covers one highland district, not the whole country. [26]

A survey of 129 dental students treating patients at Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University in Turkey found 76% had faced violence from patients during training. [27] Most of it was spoken abuse, reported by 51.2%, and physical violence was rare, at 0.8%. [27] Women reported it far more often than men, 85.6% against 53.8%. [27] It happened most during treatment, and root-canal work was the most common setting. [27]

Why it matters. Students suggested stronger laws, better patient education and more security. [27] One university and 129 students is a small sample, so the figures may not hold elsewhere.