Journal

Written by the people who see you, not by a content agency. Nothing here replaces an appointment, but a lot of it will make the appointment shorter.

The smear test takes ten minutes. The worry takes longer. Here is exactly what happens.

Most women who put off cervical screening are not lazy, they are anxious, and nobody has told them what the ten minutes involve. Dr Hannah Kowalczyk walks through it step by step, including the bits people are embarrassed to ask about.

Dr Hannah Kowalczyk, read the post

Periods are not an illness, and they should not be taking days out of your month

Medicine has tools that remove period pain and flooding for the great majority of women. Many never ask, or were told by their mothers that this is simply what it is like. It is not. Time to retire the myth.

Dr Priya Sethi, read the post

Perimenopause starts earlier than most people think, and it rarely starts with hot flushes

Sleep, mood, joints, memory and a cycle that has quietly changed. Dr Alder on the early signs, what to track, and when a blood test helps and when it does not.

Dr Imogen Alder, read the post

Sleeping in the third trimester is a skill, and nobody teaches it

Our midwife Ruth Mensah on positions, pillows, the two o'clock wake, and when a bad night is worth a phone call.

Ruth Mensah, read the post

Vitality after fifty: the guide we give every patient in the menopause clinic

Bone, heart, muscle, mood and sleep. What the evidence says, what we recommend, and the handful of tests worth doing each year.

Dr Priya Sethi, read the post