Jo Waters

Moles are mostly harmless and it’s normal to have some, but sometimes they can change or new ones can appear. This can sometimes be a sign they are turning cancerous and are melanomas, the rarest but more serious type of skin cancer.
The chances of a mole on your skin becoming cancerous are relatively low, less than 1 in 200,000 for men and women under 40. For a 20 year old, the lifetime risk of a mole becoming cancerous by the age of 80 is 1 in 3,164 for men and 1 in 10,800 for women.But you...

Sunshine can make you feel good, as well as increasing your levels of vitamin D. You probably love the feel of the warmth on your skin – and maybe the ‘sun-kissed’ look it can give you, too.
The downside is that the sun can cause skin ageing – think lines, wrinkles and dark spots (sunspots) – as well as sunburn, skin cancers and other health issues. Stay in the sun too long and it can also lead to itchy heat rashes, eye damage and even heatstroke.
But with the right sun protection and sun saf...

The legal status of abortion may vary depending on the country of your residence and may be illegal. For example, in the United States, the right to abortion is no longer protected by the Constitution. This means that individual states are now able to decide their own abortion laws. Information in this article is correct at the time of writing. Abortion laws in the US are changing rapidly due to recent legal developments.
If you’re considering an abortion you might be wondering how to go abou...

Fertility is still an area shrouded in myths and misconceptions.
As a recent survey of 1,000 people, commissioned by Healthily revealed, there’s still a degree of confusion about how lifestyle factors such as smoking and weight can affect your fertility, when exactly you can get pregnant in a monthly cycle, and whether men have a biological clock or not.
More than a third (36%) of the 1,000 men and women polled believed men did not have a biological clock and 30% wrongly believed females coul...

Josie, 58, is a nurse who lives in London. She’s married to Johnny and has 3 grown-up children. Here, she shares the huge psychological impact of her menopause symptoms.
Hot flushes were among the most embarrassing symptoms of my
menopause
, but they were only part of the story.
The
hot flushes
began 5 years ago, just as I’d started a new job in the NHS, which meant I had to lead a lot of meetings. I needed to feel confident, but the flushes made me turn bright red and I’d suddenly be soaked ...

Ever wished you could be more in control of when you have your period – or even skip it for a few months altogether?
Whether you want to enjoy that big event or holiday (think swimming or wearing white trousers without worrying), or you’d like a break from periods for your health or sex life, it can be handy to be able to avoid your period. Not to mention those other issues you might get with your monthly bleed, from pain to PMS.
There’s no natural way to delay your period, but there are medi...

Feeling short tempered and snappy, having to use your ‘PMS bra’ because you get breast pain, bloating so much you feel sluggish, finding you have sleep problems and food cravings you can’t get rid of – these are just some of the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), which you may already know too well.
PMS is the medical name for the collection of physical, psychological and behavioural symptoms that can affect you in the lead-up to your monthly period.
Up to 9 out of 10 women get some sym...

Disclaimer: The legal status of abortion may vary depending on the country of your residence and may be illegal. For example, in the United States, the right to abortion is no longer protected by the Constitution. This means that individual states are now able to decide their own abortion laws.
If you’re thinking about having an abortion – sometimes known as terminating a pregnancy – you’re far from alone, as 1 in 3 UK women will have had one by the age of 45.
Although some religions and cult...

The 2022 cost of living crisis is hitting hard in the US and the UK with rising food and fuel prices.
Healthily has practical tips and know-how to help you stay healthy and save money and beat the high cost of living.
3 tips for staying healthy during the cost of living crisis
DISCLAIMER: The content of this video is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and is for informational purpose only. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qua...

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by a virus that makes your skin break out with spots or blisters filled with pus. It was previously only found in humans in the tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria and was occasionally brought to other countries by travellers.
But in 2022, monkeypox outbreaks began to be reported in regions of the world where the virus isn’t regularly found, including Europe, United States of America and Australia.
If you’re worried about the...

Periods are part of life for millions of women throughout the world, and more and more people now talk about them openly. However, if you have worries or questions about blood clots, flooding, or how your period blood should smell, it can feel like these sorts of topics are still off limits for discussion.
But how will you know what’s normal and what’s not if you can’t talk about it? Healthily is on a mission to help women get the healthcare they deserve – and this starts with frank and hones...

Try our Smart Symptom Checker, which is trusted by millions.
What is IBS?
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a medical condition consisting of a wide range of gut symptoms including bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, gas, tummy pain, cramps and spasms.
You might get all or just some of these, and your symptoms may come and go. But it’s often a lifelong condition with personal triggers that you’ll need to get to know in order to manage it.
IBS can be painful, feel embarrassing if your symptoms ...

Try our Smart Symptom Checker, which is trusted by millions.
For some people, recovering from COVID-19 can be a long process, with symptoms lasting for many weeks and months after infection.
You may feel breathless or struggle with extreme tiredness (fatigue), memory and concentration problems (brain fog), muscle pain or sleep problems. Symptoms like these can be both physically and mentally draining, and in some cases may make it hard for you to go to work or manage your normal day-to-day ac...

It’s been a tough few years, but here community practitioners offer their advice on finding job fulfilment and preserving personal wellness in a time of crisis. By journalist Jo Waters.
Cutbacks in community staffing levels in some areas, rising workloads, plus the pandemic and its resulting social problems have meant it’s not exactly been an easy time to work as a health visitor, school nurse, district nurse or community nursery nurse.
The latest NHS staff survey in England gave a snapshot o...

Some 20 months after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK, the damage to the population’s health is already becoming apparent – and it’s looking rather unequal. Journalist Jo Waters explores the impact and way forward.
With some of the world’s higher rates of obesity in adults and children (World Obesity Federation, 2021), rising levels of type 2 diabetes, a growing mental health epidemic – particularly among young people – and widening social inequalities, the UK population was not ideally place...