When the doctor behind the trial of a new HIV prevention drug heard the results, she could not contain her emotions. “I literally burst into tears,” said Prof Linda-Gail Bekker. “I’m 62, I’ve lived through this epidemic … I had family members who died of HIV, as did many, many Africans – many people around […]
Sundresses and rugged self-sufficiency: ‘tradwives’ tout a conservative American past … that didn’t exist | Life and style
Illustration: Kensuke Koike/The Guardian “Hey guys, and welcome back to my channel! Today, I’m going to be giving some tips for the ladies on how to attract a masculine man – a provider man,” the perky blonde woman tells the camera. Beaming and dressed in a pink dress complete with matching sweater, her swoop of […]
Bullied, belittled but indisputably brilliant: how Victoria Pendleton survived everything – and became a cycling legend | Victoria Pendleton
Victoria Pendleton is driving us to the stables in Dorset. We’re off to see her two horses, Vesper and Sarah. She has two bags with her – one containing her cycling gold medals, the other crammed with carrots and apples. She is convinced she’s going to feed the horses the medals. At times, you sense […]
DIY smear tests are on their way? I’ll be first in the queue | Emma Beddington
DIY smear tests for women in England may be imminent, after a pilot scheme produced promising results. In London, 27,000 undertested or untested women were offered a DIY kit by their GP or were sent one by post; 56% of the first group did the test and 13% of the second, presumably picking up women […]
This old thing? How UK customers are clamouring for ‘trashed-look’ vintage clothing | Vintage fashion
At the 99 Vintage store in the centre of Winchester, curated rails of worn-in Dickies trousers sit alongside paint-splattered band T-shirts and a 1964 track-and-field hoodie with the left cuff falling off. “We call it the trashed look,” said Jack Edwards, 27, who co-owns the family business. “In the past, I would have rejected things […]
I never realised how much freedom and comfort softness could bring | Health & wellbeing
My work used to land in the form of harsh clacking on a titanium-reinforced MacBook, but these days I prefer to write in a pale blue suedette notebook that was given to me by a relative a few Christmases ago. It is an object that until recently I had kept at the back of a […]
‘It’s just insane. It’s so far…’: Lael Wilcox on her record-breaking attempt to be the fastest woman to cycle round the world | Cycling
“I’m not in pain, which is unusual!” laughs ultra-distance cyclist Lael Wilcox over a patchy WhatsApp call from somewhere in rural Serbia. She is almost a month into an attempt to be the fastest woman to circumnavigate the globe on a bicycle and, despite being able to follow her mile-by-mile progress online, it’s surprisingly hard […]
I’m in my 50s, deeply in love for the first time – and terrified | Life and style
The question I am a woman in my 50s and I have recently fallen deeply in love with someone I’ve known for many years. Beyond the strong physical attraction between us, we seem to have in common several emotional and intellectual attributes and, for the first time, I feel I am perfectly compatible with a […]
This is how we do it: ‘After our child was born we didn’t have satisfying sex for seven years’ | Sex
Ruth, 51 I started trying to avoid sex and that fuelled Lawrence’s suspicions. He thought I was having an affair But it stems from the fact that I had an episiotomy when I was in labour with my daughter, which means the doctor made an incision in my vagina to make it easier for me […]
Frozen in Time: the motherhood dilemma for single women in China | Reproductive rights
Fertility tourism is booming for single Chinese women with hopes of future motherhood. China’s birthrate is at a record low, yet unmarried women are not legally allowed to freeze their eggs there. We meet Lei and Abu, as they travel to the US for the procedure, battling self-doubt and scepticism along the way. What does […]