Research, guidelines & industry insights
Plain-language breakdowns of the research, guidelines, and trends shaping the functional women's health industry — written for practitioners, coaches, and educators.
Clinical Guidelines
PCOS Is Now PMOS: What the Rename Means for Your Practice
In May 2026, a global consensus published in The Lancet officially renamed Polycystic Ovary Syndrome to Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. Here's what changes — and what doesn't — for practitioners.
Clinical Guidelines
The 2025 ESE Menopause Guidelines: A Practitioner's Guide
The European Society of Endocrinology published its first comprehensive menopause and perimenopause management guideline in October 2025, with endorsement from the Endocrine Society, EMAS, and BMS. Here's what's changed — and what it means for non-prescribing practitioners.
Practice Insights
GLP-1s and the Menstrual Cycle: What Practitioners Are Seeing in Clients
Ozempic, Wegovy, and other GLP-1 medications don't target reproductive hormones directly — but the metabolic and weight changes they produce ripple through the cycle. Here's what to watch for, what to support, and where the research is.
Research Update
ENDO-205: The First Non-Hormonal Endometriosis Therapy Enters Human Trials
A precision peptide designed to selectively target endometriotic lesions received FDA IND clearance in March 2026. It's the first disease-modifying — not symptom-masking — endometriosis therapeutic. Here's what practitioners should know.
Research Update
What the 1.4 Million-Woman Endometriosis Genetics Study Changes
The largest endometriosis study ever conducted — analyzing genetic data from nearly 1.4 million women — confirms what root-cause practitioners have argued for years: this isn't a gynecological disorder. It's a complex, systemic, multi-system disease.
Research Update
Yale's New Endometriosis Biomarker: Why Progesterone-Based Birth Control Fails 1 in 3 Patients
A March 2026 paper in Biomarker Research identifies why progesterone-based contraceptives fail about a third of endometriosis patients — and gives clinicians a way to predict it. Validation for practitioners who don't default to hormonal birth control.
Practice Insights
The 4 PMOS Phenotypes: Insulin-Resistant, Adrenal, Inflammatory, and Post-Pill
PMOS (formerly PCOS) isn't one condition — it's a category that contains four meaningfully different clinical presentations. Each phenotype has different drivers, different lab patterns, and different intervention priorities. Here's the framework.
Practice Insights
PMDD Diagnostic Pitfalls: Why the 2-Cycle DRSP Requirement Misses Patients
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder is underdiagnosed because the gold-standard tool — daily prospective tracking across two full cycles — is a real barrier for the patients who need it most. Here's how practitioners can support assessment within scope.
Research Update
Post-Pill Syndrome: What the 2025 Research Shows — and What's Still Missing From Conventional Medicine
A 2025 Frontiers in Global Women's Health paper finally examined post-pill syndrome through a research lens. Practitioners have observed the patterns for decades. Here's what the literature now supports — and what your role is in the 4-6 month transition window.
Practice Insights
The Menstrual Cycle as the Fifth Vital Sign: ACOG Committee Opinion 651, Explained for Practitioners
ACOG formalized the menstrual cycle as a fifth vital sign — alongside blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature. Here's what that framework means, what each cycle marker tells you, and how to make it part of practitioner intake.
Practice Insights
CGMs and the Luteal Phase: What the Dexcom Studies Are Showing
Continuous glucose monitor research is finally catching up to what practitioners have observed for years: glucose tolerance shifts dramatically across the menstrual cycle, with the luteal phase being the most metabolically vulnerable. Here's how to use that data clinically.
Practice Insights
Perimenopause at 35: Why Earlier Hormonal Disruption Is Rising
Practitioners are increasingly seeing women in their mid-30s with classic perimenopause symptoms — brain fog, mood lability, weight changes, sleep disruption. The pattern is real. Here's what's driving it, how to distinguish it from other hormonal patterns, and what to do.
Industry Trends
Why Functional Medicine Practitioners Will Be the Next Decade's Hormone Specialists
Three converging trends — perimenopause arriving earlier, rising PCOS/PMOS rates in younger women, and a generation of patients done with one-size-fits-all care — are creating the largest opportunity in functional women's health in a generation.