Around two per cent of women with primary ovarian insufficiency – the medical term for a permanent halt in menstruation occurring naturally before the age of 40 – are affected by changes to a particular gene, a study has shown.

The roots of the modern-day study of cancer risk lie all the way back in the nineteenth century at a nunnery in Italy.

Genetic makeup explains more than half of the variation between UK women’s ages at first period, according to a study of almost 26,000 UK women published today in the May edition of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.

Lifestyle and health factors starting from before birth may affect the age at which a girl begins her periods, a major new study published today in the British Journal of Cancer shows.

The first research from the Breakthrough Generations Study could lead to a test to predict a woman’s reproductive lifespan. 

Sarah Brown has joined the world’s most comprehensive study into the causes of breast cancer – as the Breakthrough Generations Study reaches its target of 100,000 participants.

Details of a unique, ambitious and decades-long investigation into the causes of breast cancer - The Breakthrough Generations Study - were revealed today by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, and The Institute of Cancer Research, one of the world’s leading cancer research organisations.