47+ min ago (23+ words) Aussie cricket legend Michael Clarke reveals he had a skin cancer cut from his nose just four weeks ago. The Sydney Morning Herald...

4+ hour, 43+ min ago (1150+ words) Australian children born with ambiguous sex characteristics are being subjected to unnecessary surgeries with high complication rates because of outdated medical advice and pressure from distressed parents. As Victoria prepares to become the first state to ban unnecessary surgeries for intersex minors, a new landmark report says some hospitals appear to keep no records justifying the surgical interventions. Tony Briffa, the world's first intersex public official, was 11 when doctors put her on female hormone replacement therapies.Credit: Jason South Where records do exist, they are often patchy and inconsistent, which elevates the risk of inadequate oversight, law reform group Equality Australia found. The Missing Voice report, provided to this masthead ahead of its release on Monday, was compiled from more than 240 documents released by major public hospitals under freedom of information laws. Many medical records " including from Victoria " were so…...

13+ hour, 13+ min ago (690+ words) As a clinician, a husband and a father of three daughters, I'm frustrated that women are receiving second-rate care. The Sydney Morning Herald Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The idea that women need their own separate hospitals once felt noble. It came from a place of wanting to redress centuries of neglect. I understand the impulse. As an obstetrician and gynaecologist I work in these buildings and I have seen the pride that comes with creating spaces designed especially for women. But good intentions do not insulate a system from unintended consequences, and what began as advocacy has in many places hardened into something that feels much more like exclusion. There is a strangeness to these institutions that one only truly appreciates from the inside. They often sit…...

18+ hour, 52+ min ago (835+ words) The Trump administration is casting more doubt on the safety of vaccines, with an internal memo from the Food and Drug Administration linking the deaths of at least 10 children to the COVID vaccine and proposing new regulatory measures as a result. The memo was obtained by The New York Times and not publicly released. It did not provide details such as the ages of the children, whether they had any health problems or how the agency determined the vaccine-death link. Nor did it disclose the maker of the vaccines involved. The findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, drawing suspicion from some critics of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has repeatedly criticised the COVID shots as deadly, despite the scientific consensus that they are safe. A child receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Miami, Florida, in 2021.Credit:…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago (300+ words) Tina Rahimi is an Olympian. The 29-year-old shares her day on a plate. Credit: Artwork by Eliza Iredale 5.30am A piece of multigrain toast with honey before strength training. I drink two litres of water throughout the day. 9am Breakfast is oats with almond milk, peanut butter and honey post-training. 1pm Chicken tenderloins in a wrap with lettuce, tomato, shredded carrot, onion and peri-peri sauce. I have a Solo No Sugar between lunch and dinner. 5.30pm Pan-seared steak with salt and pepper and a side of air-fried potatoes and homemade chimichurri sauce. I am a big foodie! Plus a Solo No Sugar. 7pm I usually have a sweet tooth at night, so I eat a milk chocolate bar. Top marks for" Your lunch and dinner are strong on quality protein from the chicken and the steak, supporting muscle repair after training. The steak is also…...

1+ day, 15+ hour ago (835+ words) Hope Island resident Bill Leavy had started to notice his memory slipping, but it wasn't until an incident involving a handbag that he considered a more serious prognosis. His wife, Jenny, had asked him to grab her bag from the kitchen bench. Leavy obliged, but found no handbag in sight. Jenny insisted otherwise. Hope Island resident and Dementia Australia advocate Bill Leavy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2024. Credit: Courtney Kruk "She got up and there it was," Leavy explains. "Big white stone bench, beautiful big black handbag. "I'm thinking, how did she sneak around and put it there, because it wasn't there a moment ago." Leavy now understands the incident as a symptom of Alzheimer's disease, a common form of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behaviour, with which he was diagnosed last year. "It's a misinterpretation," he says....

2+ day, 29+ min ago (20+ words) A shark expert addresses the apparent rise in attacks and what can be done about it The Sydney Morning Herald...

2+ day, 4+ hour ago (379+ words) Have you noticed they no longer have salt and pepper shakers in restaurants? They don't trust you to adjust your own seasoning. You might add too much pepper, you feckless fool, and thus ruin the chef's "vision. Or you could add too much salt, harden your arteries, and bring yourself to the attention of your doctor. Hot coffee is hot, who would've thought?Credit: Getty Images People are not trusted to understand the most basic things. I'm told, courtesy of an advertisement in This Newspaper, that if I invest in the Australian sharemarket there's a chance my shares may fall in value. Who would have thought? I assumed they always rose. All these years on, it's good to finally understand what happened to my investment in second-tranche Telstra. If I buy insurance, I'm told, I should "check the PDF, which…...

2+ day, 4+ hour ago (1227+ words) The women I'm sitting with at this table are not trapped in sadness or anger, like a TV show," says Lucy Ormonde (pictured). They're interesting and vibrant and, despite their diagnoses, absolutely full of life."Credit: Peter Tarasiuk It's a Wednesday night in early November last year when I arrive for my first meeting, and I'm immediately confused. I'm looking for a table of women I haven't met before, but as I walk through the chaos that comes with $22 lasagne-and-wine night at an inner-city Melbourne pub, I see three, maybe four, groups of women that could be mine. The table of 20-somethings is immediately eliminated (mine are young, but not that young), closely followed by the table of women whose chemistry is giving lifelong-friend vibes. They can't be it. I'm eyeing off one of the remaining tables of possibility when…...

2+ day, 18+ hour ago (404+ words) Australia's healthcare system is often seen as a world leader, but when it comes to women's health, we're still facing a persistent, overlooked bias that could lead to real consequences for those seeking care. As an Olympian, a mother of six, and now a doctor working in women's health, this bias is something I've seen and experienced first-hand " on both sides of the doctor/patient relationship. Jana Pittman competing at the 2004 Olympic Games, and as a doctor today.Credit: Mark Baker/AP, Supplied For many women, the barriers rise when still young. Conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome or heavy or painful menstrual cycles are still routinely passed off as "normal" or "exaggerated", leading to years, sometimes even decades, without proper diagnosis or management. I've had patients who've been told, and I have personally felt the frustration of being…...