The Guardian Health

Most IVF ‘add-on’ treatments have no effect on fertility or remain unproven, study says

Review shows majority of procedures offered alongside standard IVF not backed by reliable evidence Most IVF “add-on” treatments sold to people hoping to boost their chances of having children are not backed by reliable evidence, fail to boost fertility and may be a complete waste of money, the largest study of its kind has concluded.There has been a surge in extra procedures, medicines or techniques offered to patients in addition to standard IVF with bold claims they will increase the probabili

health  Jun 23, 2026

The Guardian Health

How worried should we be about bird flu? – podcast

Having wiped out millions of birds worldwide and devastated wildlife populations around the globe, Australia has watched as the H5N1 strain of bird flu crept ever closer.And now it’s here, on the last continent to be hit. Birds have been discovered on beaches in Western Australia and tested positive for the virus.Reged Ahmad speaks to Graham Readfearn about how governments and wildlife experts alike are anxiously waiting to see if this is just the beginningRead more: Continue reading...

health  Jun 23, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘I’d pause then carry on’: Peter Marinker, star of Krapp’s Last Tape, on performing with Alzheimer’s

The 84-year-old actor has spent decades bringing Samuel Beckett’s plays to life. Does his recent diagnosis give him new insights into playing ‘sad clown’ Krapp in a drama about age and the battlefield of memory?What a lot of Krapp. Pardon my French but Samuel Beckett’s haunting 1958 masterpiece about regret and isolation is having a moment. Stephen Rea recently took Krapp’s Last Tape on an international tour, Gary Oldman returned to the stage after decades away to deliver the tragicomic one-man

health  Jun 23, 2026

The Guardian Health

New Trump book’s authors detail how they pried loose White House secrets: ‘We nearly killed ourselves’

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the reporters behind Regime Change, were up against an administration that is ‘very good at keeping secrets’They cracked the White House situation room, unearthing secrets from the heart of a secretive administration. But the reporters behind Regime Change, a blockbuster new book on Donald Trump’s second term, ran up against a wall when reporting on one issue surrounding the 80-year-old US president: his fitness for office.“His health has always been a very spe

health  Jun 23, 2026

WHO News

WHO urges scale up of newborn screening to improve early detection and care of birth defects

The World Health Organization (WHO) today calls on countries to expand newborn screening for birth defects, highlighting how early detection and treatment can save lives and reduce lifelong disability for millions of children.A new WHO report, Strengthening capacity for newborn screening, diagnosis and management of birth defects, identifies newborn screening as an important opportunity to accelerate progress in child survival.Many conditions can be successfully treated if identified early after

health  Jun 23, 2026

The Guardian Health

Can I get sick from bird flu? What are the symptoms, and are chicken and eggs safe to eat?

As the deadly H5N1 virus makes landfall in Australia, experts hope strong biosecurity will protect poultry and dairy cattleBrown skuas and giant petrels rarely make landfall. When they were found in WA, scientists feared ‘bad news’ for wildlife‘A genuine wildlife emergency’: everything you need to know about the arrival of H5 bird flu in AustraliaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia was the only continent free of H5N1 bird flu until last week, when a brown skua wi

health  Jun 23, 2026

The Guardian Health

How to start strength training in midlife, according to female trainers 40 and over

Experts share a few tools, from dumbbells to resistance bands to cooling towels, to help women get strongerSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsUnfortunately, muscle mass peaks long before wisdom does. After age 40, we lose about 3% to 8% of it per decade, and after 50 the losses accelerate. Known as sarcopenia, this decline means our muscles don’t respond to exercise the way they once did. For many women, perimenopause makes the uphill climb even

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off

Unions condemn ‘insensitive’ internal cybersecurity test sent to healthcare workers in Newfoundland and LabradorFor years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and under-appreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Brown skuas and giant petrels rarely make landfall. When they were found in WA, scientists feared ‘bad news’ for wildlife

Experts thought H5N1 bird flu would more likely reach Australia’s north. But an arrival from Antarctica had always been possibleGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBrown skuas and giant petrels are a common sight offshore in southern Australian waters in the winter months, but they will rarely risk venturing on to land.So when two of these birds were discovered sick – on beaches a few kilometres apart on Western Australia’s southern coastline – it was a sign something migh

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘Truly horrific’: the stories of five people affected by the NHS maternity scandal

Some see publication of the Nottingham report as a landmark moment, others as bittersweet and traumaticThe long-awaited report into maternity failures at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust (NUH), the largest investigation of its kind involving about 2,500 families, will be published later this week.Led by the senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the inquiry investigated stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths and babies or mothers who suffered brain damage and other injuries between 2012

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Is it true that … beards are unhygienic?

People assume that those with facial hair are more likely to harbour bacteria on their faces than the clean-shaven – but the truth is more tangledThe idea that beards are dirtier than clean-shaven faces has been floating around for decades, says John Tregoning, professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London. There is even research that shows people perceive bearded men as less hygienic: one study found restaurant customers rated waiters with facial hair as dirtier. Sci

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Report on Nottingham NHS maternity scandal to reveal ‘horrendous’ failings

Insider indicates Ockenden inquiry has uncovered appalling behaviour including racism toward mothersThe report of the inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history will outline “horrendous” failings in the care provided to women in Nottingham, the Guardian can reveal.A catalogue of appalling behaviour over many years by staff at the city’s two hospitals – Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City hospital – included racism towards mothers, it will say. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

I disagree with Andy Burnham’s politics. But as former health secretaries, we both know the NHS needs to be fixed | Jeremy Hunt

As prime minister, he would have a unique chance to turn the world’s most bureaucratic health service into its most innovative oneIf Andy Burnham moves from Manchester to No 10, he will be the first prime minister to have been health secretary in the history of the NHS. What might that mean for the troubled service? His commitment to social care is well known. But when the Treasury tells him there is no money, he is going to have to think hard about how to make his mark.The UK now spends the fif

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

Jeremy Clarkson says he’s in remission from prostate cancer: ‘The doctors caught it early’

Former Top Gear host urges others to get tested after revealing diagnosis in fifth season of Clarkson’s FarmJeremy Clarkson says he is officially in remission from prostate cancer, less than a week after revealing he had an “aggressive” form of the disease in the final episodes of Clarkson’s Farm’s fifth season, which were filmed in 2025.“I am without a doubt, officially, the world’s luckiest man,” said the former Top Gear presenter in an interview with the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

health  Jun 22, 2026

The Guardian Health

The Guardian view on nicotine: we shouldn’t buy the idea of addiction without harm | Editorial

The UN is set to review the legal status of nicotine. An outright ban would go too far, but there is no case for its easy availabilityThe health case for banning cigarettes is ironclad. As the then head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, put it in 2000, “a cigarette is the only consumer product which when used as directed kills its consumer”. Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Many countries, including the UK, have taken strong meas

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

How much preventive health screening should I be getting?

Screenings can find treatable conditions before they’ve caused too much damage – but ‘overscreening’ can cause harmI couldn’t help but roll my eyes when tech entrepreneur and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson posted about his girlfriend’s “vaginal microbiome report” in April. (He said it was in the “top 1% of vaginas”.) While the vaginal microbiome is genuinely interesting, most clinicians don’t routinely recommend this test to patients.As medical technology has become more powerful – and more

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

Lives are being ruined by undiagnosed hypermobility and lack of treatment | Letter

Ignorance around hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a public health catastrophe, say readers in response to an article on how sufferers have to wait 21 years for a diagnosisYour coverage of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a vital start to addressing a systemic public health catastrophe (UK hypermobility sufferers wait up to 21 years for diagnosis, study suggests, 15 June). I am 34 and a former drama student who is unable to build any career as hEDS dismantled my life. The co

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘A genuine wildlife emergency’: everything you need to know about the arrival of H5 bird flu in Australia

What is the virus? Where did it come from? Are humans at risk? What does it mean for wildlife and the agriculture sector? Experts answer your questionsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA deadly strain of bird flu, known as H5 bird flu, has arrived on the Australian mainland.The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, this weekend confirmed that a brown skua – that had been found sick in Western Australia – had died from the H5N1 virus. The skua is a wild migratory b

health  Jun 21, 2026

The Guardian Health

The real reason a hantavirus disaster was averted | Letters

Dr Matthew Dryden praises an astute doctor and the value of teamwork across continents. Plus a letter from Dr Brian JonesDevi Sridhar writes about some of the global public health responses to the outbreak of hantavirus centred on the MV Hondius, but her conclusions as to how the world avoided another global outbreak failed to recognise the real reason disaster was averted (Right now, we could be living through a hantavirus disaster. The world avoided that, and this is why, 15 June).The UK Overs

health  Jun 19, 2026

The Guardian Health

Emergency medicine is in crisis – why is this allowed to continue? | Letters

Dr Carole Gavin says if the government fails to act it will bear the responsibility for yet more avoidable deaths, while Sarah Brown describes her mother’s experienceThe experience of working in A&E described by Sophie (Patients are dying in A&E corridors – but I’ve seen how things could be different, 11 June) will be familiar to every member of staff working in a UK emergency department. Not only are patients dying on our corridors with no privacy or dignity due to lack of space and hos

health  Jun 19, 2026