menopause than before. well, i can see the problem, but can menopause be delayed? we hope so. there are very few animal species that actually go through menopause. so, what that means to me as a scientist is that it's probably not a biological imperative. there's no benefit to it that i can see. combine the latest scientific understanding of menopause and the often symptomatic years running up to it, the perimenopause, with big data and things get really interesting. at cambridge biomedical centre, genomicist stasa stankovic is trying to develop reliable menopause prediction tests. the access to these kind of data basically allow us to read the dna of over 200,000 women who are menopausal.

we can basically analyse and understand what are the differences in their dna that actually determine at what age they will become menopausal? some of the scientists i've spoken to have been focused more on health equality. it seems, for you, this is also about fertility. we actually capture both sides. it is really necessary for the tests in the clinic to have long—term predictive potential. and, at the moment, theyjust tell you whether you are menopausal or not. exactly. but once you detect the problem of infertility, you're usually too late to do anything about it, such as go through ivf or cryopreservation. what our tests might do is the long—term predictive capability, which means that you will be able to plan your family and fertilityjourney extremely early on so that you don't end up in the situation of unexpected infertility where you don't have a solution how to battle it. how close are we to tests that can do that reliably

being available for anyone to use? we are at about 60% reliability, which means we lack around 20% more to enter the clinical practice. experts can't agree on exactly how much genetics impact the exact time of menopause. stasa estimates it to be around 60%, the rest being down to lifestyle or health, stress or medical issues. but, particularly for those who do face it early, these tests could give some clarity. when i found out i was going through an early menopause, i think i was quite taken aback. i'd been on the oral contraceptive pill for quite a number of years, and i recently had a relationship break down, so i came off that, and it was whilst i'd come off the pill that i started getting some hot flush symptoms, and i hadn't really thought much of it at the time. but after it was happening every day, i went to the doctor to get some blood tests, and everything kind of started to unravel

slowly from there, really. and it wasn't until i went through several diagnostic tests that i actually found that it was too late and i'd gone through the menopause and i wasn't then able to have children and i was infertile. so that was quite a lot to take on at the age of 31. unless, of course, you could then take a drug to delay it. the imperative for someone like siobhan may be greater but research into developing therapeutics to do so is aimed at all women. back in cambridge, scientists are replicating in mice the signs that have been identified in human dna. so, to test the genes that we find in humans, we have to work with lab scientists. so you can see here gerry working on some mouse cells, validating our targets that we discovered in humans. 0k. so what we can do with this is, first, find out what, _ what the reason is, _ or what the function of that protein is, so that then we can - hopefully try to target that as a drug therapy. so, so far what we've done very well

is categorise the kinds _ of variations that you find in large data into different groups. - we know that some affect how many eggs that a woman is born with. - and we know that some affect the survival - of the eggs into adult life. and so that's already a big step | forward in trying to understand| mechanistically the different causes of infertility. - there are already start—ups working in this space. new york—based oviva therapeutics is currently trialling its menopause delay drug in animals, this being an engineered form of the anti—mullerian hormone, which plays a crucial role in regulating reproductive potential. what oviva is developing is a therapeutic that essentially can be used to extend the ovarian reserve or the number of eggs that we have at any given point in time, and using this as a means to extend ovarian function. now, what's interesting about this is, mechanistically, this is something you could take at any given point in your life, and it would essentially be working as an anti—ageing contraceptive. and this therapeutic is something

that you could start taking once you're in your 40s. whether you're finished having your family, or perhaps you don't want children, it would be easily used at a later date, closer to when you might enter menopause, as a means to really stave that off. health risks vary pre— and post—menopause. exposing the body to hormones for longer can be associated with a higher risk of breast, ovarian or endometrial cancers. whether this method of delay might impact that cancer risk in humans is unclear, though, so far, there's no evidence of this in animal studies. the likelihood of toxicity is quite low, but there's a lot that we need to better understand about the consequences of having that as a therapeutic, but then also of extending the function of the ovaries for longer. so i think ideally we'd be able to take this therapeutic for a number of years, essentially for as long as we would want to forestall menopause. but have there been moody mice? the question of whether mood will be

impacted is an interesting one, and i think we know that this is acting very early in the cycle to basically pause the eggs and follicles from entering that maturation pathway. and, in doing so, you're actually creating a little light suppression on the cycle of oestrogen in particular. progesterone, i don't think we've seen any direct impact on. but i think the critical thing here is we just need more data. whilst initial signs are promising, daisy�*s questions over extending women's hormonal lives are echoed by other experts. before moving into health tech, dr stephanie kuku was a gynaecologist also researching women's cancers. what do you think of the concept of creating therapeutics to delay menopause? delaying menopause might mean that you are exposing the body to hormones for longer than we are naturally used to, so perhaps we need to think about what the side—effects of that could be. the trouble is that we need really long periods of testing to really

see these side—effects. so, whilst initial, preclinical studies might show that delaying the menopause is safe, i think long—term clinical studies in humans will be really important to guarantee the safety and efficacy of therapeutics to delay the menopause. if we had better treatments and more access to hrt, because hrt does work, then perhaps it wouldn't be such a topic of conversation that menopause should be delayed rather than just managed better. i definitely think if there was something along those lines then that would be really encouraging because it could... yeah, it could really, really change some people's lives. and i think, mainly for me, it's been the fertility side that's had such a big impact because that's something that's now been taken away. so i think if i could've maybe had a bit more time with that, i'd, yeah, it would definitely be interesting. it's hard to look back and see, but i think it's very exciting that these things

are possibly out there. and there is something else. there's been a big problem with underfunding in women's health. do you think that menopause delay is actually the right place to be investing money? so we have to think about delaying menopause in the context of prioritising women's health needs. what is mission—critical is...investing in trials to find better therapeutics for the very deadly ovarian cancer that has sort of limited treatment options, the right way to invest? or should we be really thinking about delaying menopause in the context of who it would be most beneficial to delay menopause for? clearly, women's experiences vary hugely. and this is controversial. but as we start to recognise the impact menopause has on countless women's health and wellbeing, the case for better or different safe treatments strengthens.

and that's it for the short version of our women in tech programme, the full length show can be found on iplayer. thanks for watching we should be back next week. bye— bye. hello. the big freeze is set to continue throughout the weekend and probably well into next week as well as we'll see in a moment. on friday, plenty of blue skies and sunshine, but there are a number of places where temperatures stayed well below freezing all day.

and we've got a really sharp frost to come friday night into saturday morning with temperatures probably getting down to about minus ten in the very coldest areas. now, there's also going to be some fresh snowfall overnight, particularly dumfries and galloway, cumbria. could be up to three centimetres here and some fresh snowfall in northern eastern scotland and eastern england, too. so ice will be a hazard first thing in the morning. but as those temperatures begin to lift through the day, the showers will tend to turn back to rain or sleet. many of the showers through saturday will be across western areas. and then it's another day where temperatures will struggle to get much above freezing. saturday evening, saturday night time, we see clumps of showers moving across england and wales and these could bring some localised disruption because we're quite likely to see some snow and i think mixed in with this. there is the potential of seeing some freezing rain, that's liquid rain that's got a temperature below zero and freezes solid to ice on impact with any surface. so imagine it turns roads and pavements to ice rinks, really dangerous stuff and we might see some of that across england, wales saturday night. further northwards, though, it's clear spells and another really cold night with temperatures again probably getting down to about minus ten and the very coldest areas. now for sunday, that's

a wintry weather. mix will tend to clear away from eastern england quite quickly. in the south, we're pestered by further weather systems, probably bringing rain and a bit of threat of winter illness on the leading edge of that. away from that, a few mist patches to start the day. otherwise, a lot of dry weather with still some sunny spells around. but it's another day where temperatures will struggle to get much, if anything above freezing. heading into monday. we've got an area of low pressure that's set to move to the south of the uk and on the leading edge of this band of rain, we may also see some wintry ness. it's probably over hills where you most likely see some snow, but a lot of this will actually depend on the exact track that the low takes and certainly away from the south as little change in the weather picture. lots of sunshine, some wintry showers, freezing cold nights and temperatures struggling by day again to get much above freezing. so it stays very, very cold for the vast majority of the country.

tuseday we see that area of low pressure slip away into the near continent, we get something of a ridge behind that. so a quieter today of weather, i think for all parts of the uk on tuesday with again cold frosty start to the day, maybe a few more mist and fog patches around, particularly given that will have lighter winds, i would expect rather more in the way of showers to affect some of the north sea coasts of england. and again, some of those could be a mixture of rain and sleet as we head through the day. it stays cold temperatures maybe about three to six degrees celsius for most parts of the uk. beyond tuesday, the forecast really isn't very reliable. there's a lot of uncertainty. and the main uncertainty really is to the extent that milder air moves in off the atlantic, this model in particular is showing a return of wet and windy weather conditions, with temperatures lifting quite quickly. however, we quite often see these changes to milder weather conditions delayed by a few days. so that might be something that you see from wednesday onwards.

so just keep that in mind in the outlook. but for the time being, the big freeze continues for now.

live from washington. this is bbc news. a child says goodbye to his father — one of dozens of people killed in israeli strikes. a stark warning from the un — inside a gaza hospital. this hospital simply can't take more children. the 35th anniversary of world aids day brings renewed hope for cure. and — expelled — the us congressman accused of fraud, lying and stealing. george santos is kicked out by the house of representatives. fighting has resumed in gaza after a seven—day ceasefire between israel and hamas expired. israel says it has hit two—hundred �*terror targets' since its bombardment of the gaza strip resumed.

hamas health officials say nearly 180 people