WW International, Inc. (NASDAQ:WW) announced Monday the launch of WeightWatchers for Menopause, a program designed to support women through perimenopause to post-menopause stages.
Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actress Queen Latifah will serve as the program’s first official spokesperson. Currently navigating menopause herself, Queen Latifah brings personal experience to the role.
"Menopause has been a new journey for me—one that’s changed how I see and care for my body," Queen Latifah said in the press release.
The program combines nutritional guidance, lifestyle support, and community resources. For U.S. members, it includes access to menopause-trained clinicians who can prescribe treatments including hormone replacement therapy and GLP-1 medications when appropriate.
According to company data cited in the announcement, women of menopausal age following WeightWatchers’ nutritional guidance lost nearly four times more weight than those managing on their own. U.S. members enrolled in WeightWatchers Clinic lost an average of 18.6% of their body weight in one year.
The Russians are either incredibly optimistic that bilateral ties with the US can improve, or else they are just stoking Trump's ego, with the same end goal in mind.
At a moment the US and European leaders are consulting on a potential 19th round of major energy and banking sector sanctions against Russia, Kirill Dmitriev, top Kremlin negotiator and senior aide on international economic affairs, touted that Presidents Putin and Trump are closer to ending the conflict in Ukraine.
He went to as to say their efforts could help avert a potential World War III. He wrote on X over the weekend, to the surprise of many that "Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill won WWII. Putin & Trump will prevent WWIII." The post featured a photo of the 1945 Yalta Conference, where the leaders of the US, Soviet Union, and the UK met to shape the post-World War II order following the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill won WWII. Putin & Trump will prevent WWIII. 🇷🇺🤝🇺🇸🕊️ pic.twitter.com/sWdsf72hGj
Separately, he pushed back against US and Western officials who accuse Moscow of intentionally slow-playing and ultimately thwarting peace efforts in Ukraine, while at the same take taking more territory on the ground.
Specifically in response to former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Dmitriev said: "Wrong. Peace is close precisely because of Trump-Putin dialogue. Idiotic [former US President Joe] Biden’s approaches failed. Isolation attempts failed. Sanctions failed. Dialogue, respect, understanding each other, problem-solving to find [a] long-term solution is the way."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also added his voice to the ways in which the West has failed to bring Russia to its knees. He spoke in fresh comments on the drive to dismantle Russia: "More recently, facts have been cited, which said that some fringe figures in the West are still planning to split the Russian Federation into various regions."
He continued as cited in TASS: "It amazes me that the West cannot draw conclusions from centuries of history in the context of its repeated attempts to rein in, subjugate, and punish Russia."
Commenting on events in China has week, Lavrov described that merely a joint photo of Putin, Modi, and Xi unleashed "anger and frenzy among some Western leaders, who called this photo a challenge to the rules-based world order."
The top diplomat concluded, "After the start of the special military operation, there were predictions that Russia would collapse, fall into complete isolation, and the country and its leadership would turn into pariahs, but statistics from Western banks, including the World Bank, show that Russia has become the fourth-largest economy in the world after the United States, China, and India by purchasing power parity, and Europe’s top economy by this indicator."
European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is beingwidely mocked after a clip of her latest remarks on Russia and China went viralstarting last week.
While speaking at an event hosted by the EU Institute for Security Studies, Kallas presented some strange analysis claiming that Russians are strong in social sciences but weak in tech, and that the Chinese are the reverse. The comments lacked explanation or nuance, and came off as utterly simplistic and based merely on overly broad stereotypes in her mind.
"Chinese are very good at technology but they are not that good in social sciences," Kallas said. "The Russians… are not good at technology at all, but super good in social sciences."
Kaja Kallas: “Chinese = good at tech, bad at social sciences. Russians = bad at tech, brilliant at social sciences.”
Thank you for this groundbreaking PhD thesis. Next week: why cats are good at climbing trees but not so good at economics. pic.twitter.com/PEoVXvKf0h
She's also being called out for her reflections on the Soviet Union and China in World War 2. Her comments were a response to President Xi's massive military parade in Beijing.
Kallas, who is from Estonia, of course very much hates Russia and so does not want to give credit to Moscow's immense role in WWII against the Nazis. She dismissed the Russians and China's role in defeating the axis powers.
She had said the following which has additionally angered both countries:
I was at the ASEAN summit, and something seemed interesting to me. Russia turned to China and said: "We, Russia and China, fought together in The Second World War, we won the Second World War, we defeated Nazism together.
And I thought, "Okay, this is something new. If you know a little history, then a lot of questions immediately arise in your head. But you know, today people read and remember history less and less, so, unfortunately, many people believe in such narratives."
On Sunday the Russian foreign ministry blasted her analysis, calling Kallas "critically uneducated". Specifically on her labeling Russian and Chinese societies, the FM spokesperson said--
“On the same note, China would not be able to govern a billion citizens without being strong in social sciences,”Zakharova wrote. “Kallas is critically uneducated.”
China's foreign ministry has also responded, saying, "The statement made by the relevant EU official is full of ideological bias and lacks basic historical common sense, and blatantly stokes rivalry and confrontation. This is disrespectful to the history of WW2 and undermines the EU's own interests. It's preposterous and irresponsible."
One China commentator, Arnaud Bertrand, concluded: "It takes a lot for China to officially call a senior foreign leader an idiot but that's what they essentially just did."
Home tests have rapidly moved into the mainstream worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, offering discreet access to diagnostics without a clinic visit. The annual sales in Germany alone are estimated at €500 million, reflecting the speed of market growth.
These self-test kits now cover a wide spectrum, including measurements of hormones such as testosterone, infection screening for gonorrhoea and chlamydia, colorectal cancer screening, thyroid function assessments, vitamin D measurements, and drug testing for substances.
For many patients, the appeal lies in privacy and speed of the process. Avoiding HIV or chlamydia diagnoses in official medical records, as well as long waits in clinics, has made home tests an attractive alternative that delivers rapid results at home.
Medical associations caution that this trend is creating a form of “parallel medicine,” where results are generated without medical history or clinical context. Self-tests only provide an indication, not a diagnosis, and without professional interpretation, the risk for false reassurance, misdiagnosis, or unnecessary consultations remains high.
Quality Concerns
One study reviewed the information provided for self-testing devices sold in the UK. The researchers evaluated over 30 self-tests that assessed 20 biomarkers for 19 different conditions. These results are concerning.
Packaging and instructions were often incomplete or unclear. Only eight of the 30 tests provided information on who should or should not use the test.
Only 23 included clear instructions on how the results should be interpreted. Information regarding the action to be taken after the test was absent from most of the test boxes.
Many devices did not explain whether high or low results required medical attention. Seven provided no guidance on the limit of detection or threshold used to define an abnormal test result.
Interpretation becomes particularly challenging when the results involve more than one laboratory value.
Conditions such as vaginal infections or vitamin D deficiency require clinical context, including symptoms and risk factors, which necessitate medical expertise. Without this context, the results can be easily misinterpreted.
This can lead to unnecessary consultations in some cases and missed serious conditions in others. Clinicians also face difficulties when patients present results without information on the test accuracy or thresholds applied.
Vitamin D testing shows how self-testing can conflict with medical guidance.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) self-testing raises the greatest concerns. It is often marketed as part of routine health checks or cancer screening tools.
Such tests without medical advice are risky and cannot replace specialist screenings.
The main concern is that patients may see normal results as reassurance or mistake abnormal results for a definite cancer diagnosis.
The European Union law sets strict requirements for self-testing. Under the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation, tests must demonstrate sensitivity and specificity, ensure usability, and provide clear information so that users understand the significance of the results. Only after meeting these criteria can a product receive the European Conformity (CE) mark required for its legal distribution.
System Flaws
A scan of major online retailers shows a wide range of products, from cancer and infection tests to PSA, hormone, and vitamin D kits, often without a CE mark. Many of these products originate in China, are not legally authorized, and are barely regulated.
No reliable figures exist on the sales, use, or consequences of routine care. It is also unclear how many preventive screenings or necessary procedures are missed because patients rely on these questionable results.
Family physicians have long been responsible for preventive care and interpreting laboratory findings in a patient’s medical history. Millions of individuals are now generating and reading results on their own without professional guidance, putting the role of professionals to question.
The wider issue is whether self-testing reflects convenience or a loss of trust.
The popularity of these products may signal flaws in healthcare systems, such as long wait times, barriers to access, lack of transparency, and poor communication. The decline in the acceptance of electronic medical records points to the same concerns.
When a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) closes or a patient with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) completes revascularization, it can feel like the battle is over. But, as the recentInternational Wound Journalanalysisshows, that moment is often just the start of a high-risk phase — one that rivals aggressive cancers in the likelihood of recurrence.
Three-year DFU recurrence rates hover around 58%, and CLTI reintervention rates after endovascular therapy approach 50%. These figures are not outliers; they are the median reality. In oncology, physicians would never consider a patient with a resected tumor margin “finished” with treatment. The presence of that margin signals the need for vigilant, structured follow-up — and DFU and CLTI remission should be approached the same way.
Language Matters
One of the most powerful shifts we can make is linguistic: replacing “healed” with “in remission.” This small change reframes both clinician and patient expectations. It signals that the ulcer or ischemic event was not a one-off but a manifestation of an ongoing disease process that demands surveillance and intervention.
Patients who hear “in remission” are more likely to remain engaged in follow-up, adhere to preventive strategies, and recognize early warning signs, all of which directly reduce recurrence risk.
Limb-Preservation Plans
Clinicians can borrow a page from oncology’s use of cancer survivorship care plans and create limb-preservation plans for their diabetic patients. Here’s how to translate that concept into practical action:
Conduct structured surveillance. This involves foot checks every 1-3 months in the first year post-healing, then at risk-based intervals for patients with DFUs and regular vascular assessments, particularly within the first 18 months when reintervention risk is highest, for patients with CLTI.
Promote technology-enabled prevention. This entails encouraging patients to use thermometry to detect early inflammation and to consider remote monitoring tools that alert their clinicians to concerning temperature, moisture, or pressure changes.
Address the importance of footwear. This means prescribing protective footwear designed for pressure redistribution and reinforcing the message that footwear is not optional; it’s part of the therapy.
Educate patients on self-management. This involves training patients to perform daily self-checks (or have caregivers assist) and emphasizing the significance of even small skin changes or redness.
Provide lifestyle and comorbidity management. This entails aggressively managing glucose, lipids, and blood pressure, as well as encouraging patients to engage in physical activities that maintain circulation without increasing ulcer risk.
Monitor patients’ psychosocial support. This includes screening for depression and social isolation, both of which are associated with worse self-care and higher recurrence.
Making It Stick
We have data, technology, and proven prevention strategies. The barrier isn’t evidence — it’s implementation. Integrating survivorship thinking into limb preservation means establishing clinic protocols, securing multidisciplinary buy-in, and advocating for policy and reimbursement structures that recognize DFU and CLTI as chronic, high-risk conditions.
The cancer analogy isn’t a dramatic metaphor; it’s a call to match the vigilance, structure, and urgency that oncology has embraced for decades. By treating the end of a DFU or CLTI episode as the start of remission, we can improve long-term outcomes, protect limbs, and, most important, help our patients stay on their feet and in their lives.
David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Department of Surgery and Neurological Surgery; Director of Limb Preservation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Disclosure: David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Eight percentof US adults older than 65 years have taken a GLP-1 agonist either to lose weight or to treat comorbidities like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Older adults are drawn to the medications because of the many antiaging benefits — some medical experts have even called them a veritable “fountain of youth.”
But both patients and physicians should also be aware of some of the drawbacks and potential side effects for which older adults are particularly susceptible like a dangerous reduction in muscle mass, bone loss, low blood pressure, and dehydration.
Understanding this age group’s particular vulnerabilities can help physicians know what to look out for while also staving off some potential side effects before they become an issue.
Benefits in Older Adults
Researchers point to a wide breadth of research showing the proven cardiovascular and renal benefits for older adults taking GLP-1s.
A May 2024 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Cardiology followed a large group of over 83,000 people and found that cardiovascular and renal outcomes were significantly better in the group who took GLP-1s, including improved blood flow, reduced risk for stroke, improved kidney function, and improved overall mortality.
“Older adults are generally at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and poor renal outcomes so this is a group that can see a lot of benefits,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, a physician and clinical epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who has extensively studied GLP-1 medications.
Ziyad Al-Aly
Other research has shown that GLP-1s can reduce the risk for hospitalization for heart failure, which is also of particular importance to older adults. A study released last month in the Journal of Cardiac Failure found that taking GLP-1s mildly reduced ejection fraction, when the heart muscle pumps but doesn’t relax and refill as it should, leading to symptoms of heart failure. The disease directly causes 8.5% of heart disease deaths in the US annually.
Early data has also shown that these medications are helpful for staving off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia which affect nearly 10% of patients older than 65 years. As the data becomes clearer, this is another place where older adults especially could see significant benefits.
Muscle and Bone Health
It’s clear that these medications are beneficial to older adults, but there’s also some concern around side effects that could be more harmful to this age group. A study published in November 2024 in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology found that there was a substantial increase in loss of muscle mass in older patients who had taken GLP-1s.
It’s already harder to maintain muscle mass as you age and in fact, after age 30 muscle mass begins to decrease from 3% to -8% naturally each decade. To make matters worse, once patients lose muscle in this age group, it’s difficult to regain it because of the reduced muscular fiber and protein synthesis that comes with age.
“If you take a GLP-1, no matter how old you are, you’re going to lose a fair amount of weight and part of that weight loss is going to be muscle,” said Steven B. Heymsfield, an author of TheLancet study and professor of Metabolism & Body Composition Laboratory at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This could accelerate a patient’s entry into the sarcopenia range, defined as a loss of 5%-13% muscle mass in individuals between 60 and 70 years old, he added.
While you might not worry about someone in their 30s losing muscle mass, for those older than 65 years, it can mean that they become frail and in danger of falling and breaking a bone, said Al-Aly.
Steven B. Heymsfield
Heymsfield said part of combatting muscle loss is ensuring that you’re getting enough protein in your diet and are also being intentional about what you eat. Older adults require between 90 g and 120 g of protein daily, depending on their body weight in conjunction with daily weight or resistance training exercises.
Additionally, when people lose weight, they also lose bone mass and bone density because the bones don’t have to work as hard to hold up the body’s frame.
“Bone density is a function of how much the bone carries and while it’s a bit paradoxical, people with obesity actually have a stronger bone mass,” said Al-Aly.
Bones are living tissues that are constantly remodeling, which is why really thin people can have issues with frailty and osteoporosis, when bones become weaker and are more prone to breaks and fractures.
In order to combat this bone loss, patients need to ensure that they’re getting enough protein as well as calcium and vitamin D to help with bone growth. Adults older than 70 years should be getting at least 1200 mg of calcium and 800 IU of vitamin D daily.
Blood Pressure and Kidney Function
Another concern in taking GLP-1 medications is low blood pressure, also called hypotension. This can happen when someone taking a GLP-1 loses weight, which reduces strain on the heart and lowers their blood pressure as a result.
Often patients who are still on blood pressure medications may start to experience low blood pressure, which can be so severe that it leads to fainting in some patients. In this case, physicians need to check vitals regularly to ensure that their blood pressure medications are titrated to the correct dosage or stopped completely.
Carolynn Francavilla, MD
Finally, GLP-1 medications can also cause dehydration, which can be problematic for older patients, said Carolynn Francavilla, MD, a nationally recognized obesity physician who owns and operates Green Mountain Partners for Health and Colorado Weight Care, both in Denver. Much of the fluid that we take in comes from the foods we eat like a salad or a big juicy peach and when appetite is suppressed, so too is the amount of fluids that a patient is consuming.
“Older people tend to have more renal disfunction or kidney disease, which means that they could be more susceptible to the risks of dehydration,” said Francavilla.
But Francavilla adds that this is easy to remedy by making sure that patients are drinking enough fluids each day and for those at higher risk, ensuring their doctor is monitoring their kidney function at least a few times annually. If doctors are aware of these potential concerns, they can be safely dealt with in patients.
“All of these medications are going to come with risks and benefits, that’s why discussing them with your doctor at any age is so important,” said Francavilla.
Oocyte cryopreservation (OC), or egg freezing, to preserve fertility has increased exponentially from 2014 to 2021, according tostudy findings publishedrecently in theAmerican Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Researchers, led by Mabel B. Lee, MD, obstetrician-gynecologist with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues performed a retrospective cohort study with data from all patients reported to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) Clinic Outcome Reporting System who completed cryopreservation only of autologous oocytes for fertility preservation between 2014 and 2021. They also assessed all linked oocyte-warming cycles. The surveillance system collates data on all ART cycles from 90% of ART clinics in the US.
The data show that the number of patients undergoing egg freezing for elective fertility preservation jumped from 4153 in 2014 to 16,436 in 2021 (P < .01).
“That shows that it’s a procedure that’s more accepted, more talked about, and being performed more,” said Shahin Ghadir, MD, obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive endocrinologist/fertility specialist with HRC Fertility in Beverly Hills, California, who was not part of the study.
Ghadir, also an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, told Medscape Medical News that the paper reflects what he sees in his practice.
Age of Women Undergoing Egg Freezing Dips
The authors noted the average age of women undergoing egg freezing also decreased slightly from 36 years in 2014 to 34.9 years in 2021 (P < .01). Ghadir said the age decrease has been even more dramatic in his practice and has changed from “women coming in just before their 40th birthday” to women seeking the procedure at age 31 or 32.
They point out that the rate for those who come back to use cryopreserved oocytes within a 5- to 7-year follow-up period from planned OC cycles occurring between 2014 and 2016 was low and decreased with increasing patient age at the time of egg freezing. Only 852 patients (5.7%) returned for oocyte warming. But the outcomes after warming are reassuring.
Most Oocyte Warming Yields Usable Embryo
“Of patients who returned for oocyte warming,” the authors wrote, “78.5% (n = 669) obtained a usable embryo, while 21.5% (n = 183) had no useable embryos.”
Ghadir noted that often lifestyle and careers drive the choice to freeze eggs, and “some of those things don’t go away,” he said. “Trying to find the exact time when to use [the eggs] and how to use are issues. And not every single one of the patients who freeze their eggs say they’re going to come back. They just want to leave options available.”
“I think one of the most important takeaways is that for many people freezing their eggs, their success rates are basically the same as other patients undergoing fertility treatment,” Ghadir said. “In the beginning stages of when we were doing egg freezing, we had to tell people that their success rates were going to be much lower than if you were making embryos and trying to have a baby at that time. But the science has advanced so much that the success rates are by far higher and equivalent to probably the rest of the fertility world.”
Higher Age, Lower Odds of Success
However, the researchers found a significant decrease in the likelihood of obtaining a usable embryo with increasing age (P = .01) and that, Ghadir said, may be the most critical message in counseling patients.
“One thing we can clearly tell people is that the younger you are when you freeze your eggs, the better the chances of having more eggs that are quality eggs with better outcomes. Being proactive at a younger age is much more important than anything during this process,” Ghadir said.
Racial Breakdown Unchanged
Though the number of OC procedures has grown, the racial breakdown for those seeking them has not changed, according to the report.
“Patients pursuing planned OC tend to be single, Caucasian women who are highly educated, from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and in professional occupations,” the authors wrote. “Our findings show that populations with the least access to ART continue to be the most underrepresented, despite increased access and utilization. Our findings serve as a further call to action to rectify disparities.”
