The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in conversation with

Dysmenorrhoea, also known as period pain, is a leading cause of pain-related school absenteeism among adolescent girls, yet it remains poorly understood and is frequently dismissed. Many adolescents do not receive a pain assessment until their symptoms become severe and disabling, and emerging evidence suggests that untreated dysmenorrhoea may increase the risk of chronic pain later in life. But what if we could identify those at risk before the pain begins? In this episode, Dr Melissa Lenert and Dr Andrew Schrepf from the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Center at the University of Michigan join Josefine Gibson and Gabriela Moisés to discuss the burden of dysmenorrhoea and their latest research on risk factors for severe dysmenorrhoea and on factors influencing the burden of dysmenorrhoea . New findings—now published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health—suggest that risk factors for future dysmenorrhoea can be identified in female adolescents before their first menstrual period. Further research could one day help identify young people at greater risk of severe dysmenorrhoea, opening up possibilities to act before period pain becomes persistent or debilitating.

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https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(25)00213-5/fulltext

2026 marks a remarkable decade since the regulatory approval of the very first disease-modifying therapy (nusinersin) for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in 2016. In this episode with Josefine Gibson, Professor Michelle Farrar and Dr Sharika Raga from Sydney Children's Hospital share their perspectives on how diagnostic and therapeutic advances for SMA have transformed the lives of children and families affected by SMA. We discuss the new long-term efficacy and safety results from the 3-year extension of the international FIREFISH trial of risdiplam for symptomatic infants with type 1 SMA, and we explore what children in the real world who are in treatment for SMA are revealing about adaptive functioning in their daily lives. Coupled with newborn screening, disease modifying therapies are yielding significantly better longer-term outcomes for children affected by SMA, so we consider their changing and individualised health-care needs and top priorities for clinical research in the next decade.

Click here to read the full articles:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(26)00127-6/fulltext

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(26)00126-4/fulltext

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(26)00070-2/fulltext

Boys and young men are often missing from conversations about adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Yet, girls do not live in isolation: boys share their classrooms, relationships, communities, and futures. In this episode, Mark Tomlinson and Maria Lohan join Esther Lau to explore how to engage boys in ways that support, rather than compete with, continued investment in girls’ SRHR. Together, they discuss why boys’ own needs around consent, contraception, STIs, help-seeking, respectful relationships, and care are too often overlooked. They also consider the role of comprehensive sexuality education, parenting, gender-transformative approaches, and youth-friendly health services in challenging harmful masculinities while supporting boys and girls to develop healthier relationships, shared responsibility, and more equitable futures.

Click here the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(26)00103-3/fulltext

Adolescent nutrition is at a turning point. 🌍

Dr Sara Estecha-Querol from the Global Adolescent Nutrition Network and youth advocate Milca Jane Cameseria from Act4Food join Josefine Gibson to talk about a new co-created global framework for adolescent nutrition — and why young people must be at the centre of adolescent nutrition research, policy, advocacy, and food systems change. Together, we explore the global triple burden of malnutrition, meaningful youth partnership, sustainable food systems, and the urgent need for coordinated action to improve adolescent health and wellbeing worldwide.

🎧 Tune in for a conversation on global health, nutrition equity, youth leadership, and the future of adolescent nutrition.

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(26)00012-X/fulltext

This episode considers how antibiotic use can be safely reduced in children in high-risk scenarios or with severe infections. To discuss this we are joined by Dr Nadja Vissing and Dr Ulrikka Nygaard, paediatric infectious disease specialists from Copenhagen University Hospital, who led a randomized controlled trial in Denmark evaluating the early discontinuation of empirical antibiotics versus extended treatment in children with cancer and high-risk febrile neutropenia. We hear about the importance of this trial for children with cancer and their families as well as for broader antimicrobial stewardship.

We discuss other recent RCTs that are informing safely reducing antibiotic exposure in children with urinary tract infections, uncomplicated bone and joint infections and probable early onset neonatal sepsis. Nadja and Ulrikka share with listeners their take home messages related to antibiotic decision-making from these trials along with words of wisdom and motivation for other paediatric clinical trialists.

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(26)00039-8/fulltext