Hi and welcome to the first edition of Tara Lab, a space dedicated to health, energy, and longevity, viewed exclusively through the female lens.
In this first letter, I want to share the story behind the creation of this space, give you a sense of what you can expect going forward, and spotlight some emerging research: from a study that shows that menopause symptoms appear decades early, to new findings on why female brains may age more slowly, and a cause close to my heart: how climate change disproportionately affects women’s health.
You’ll receive a new letter every Sunday, softly landing in your inbox with research, reflections, and experiments to try on in your own rhythm. Next week, we’ll explore whether cycle syncing, the idea of aligning your life with your hormonal phases, is actually backed by science.
Happy reading!
Why Tara Lab?
The shortest answer?
Because women’s health is different.
Our hormones affect how we experience illness, recovery, resilience, and yet this reality is still overlooked in research, medicine, and even how we talk about our own wellbeing.
Did you know that the warning signs of cardiac arrest or stroke differ between women and men?
That hormonal shifts can worsen insulin sensitivity at certain points of the cycle?
But for me, Tara Lab didn’t begin with research. It began with something more personal, something my body had been trying to tell me for years.
For years, I tried to push through.
Despite the unexplained fatigue, the anxiety, I kept going. Over and over.
Efficiency, productivity, consistency… at all costs.
Eventually, I burned out. Again. And again.
It took me over 30 years to discover that I was living with a hormonal disorder.
During ten years, I tried everything, dietary changes, mindfulness, somatic work, and other mind-body practice.
And when the symptoms got worse, it took two years of medical errance and dismissal before I began to piece the puzzle together through my own research and intensive tracking.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, I’ve finally started to find a way to reclaim my health, both for my body and for my mind.
And while this story is mine, the data shows I’m not alone: women spend 25% more years in poor health compared to men. If we translate this into years, that means 9 years of poor health for women.
Almost a decade of our life…
And this isn’t just about illness or imbalance.
Even if you don’t suffer from an hormonal disorder, the truth remains:
Female biology is fundamentally different.
Our hormones influence how we sleep, think, metabolise, recover and age.
Every woman, from her first period onwards, should be taught how to understand her body and her hormones.
How to live and thrive with her body, not against it, through all the moments of her life, through the fertility years, into perimenopause and menopause and beyond.
And this isn’t just about awareness.
It’s about research. And data.
Women were excluded from clinical trials for decades. Even when included, most studies don’t separate out female-specific findings.
The result? A huge gap in knowledge—and a lack of targeted solutions.
📊 76 out of 86 commonly used drugs show sex-based differences in absorption and response, yet guidelines often ignore this.
And then there’s stigma.
We’re still taught that hormones are unpredictable, emotional, or inconvenient, that we cannot talk about our cycle, that we should hide it, or fix it. That our “women” issues are normal.
But that narrative is changing.
With technology, wearables, AI, and more women asking questions, and searching for answers, we now have the tools to reclaim knowledge about our own bodies.
But we need to give it more space, to make it the priority it deserves.
That’s why I created Tara Lab.
Tara Lab is not a brand or a product.
It’s my deepest wish that every woman, at every life stage, can feel informed, empowered, and supported.
While my long-term dream is to contribute to research and help accelerate innovative solutions, this begins gently.
As a notebook. A space for conversations with researchers and experts who are changing the narrative, reflections on lived experience, and science-based insights around:
🌀 Hormonal resilience
🌀Female healthspan
🌀Nervous system care
🌀Cycle-conscious productivity
🌀And ageing gracefully, on our own terms
Tara Lab is a lab, a space for gentle experiments. For evolving research. For the science of womanhood.
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Here’s what you can expect from future letters:
✨ Conversations about hormone health, energy, and cyclical living,
✨ Research and experiments to explore in your own rhythm,
✨ Notes on building a life (and a business) that honours your biology.
🔬This week in women’s healthy longevity research
Now, here’s what caught my eye in the science this week: from early menopause symptoms to the surprising resilience of the female brain.
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🧠 Women are suffering menopause symptoms decades early
A study of 4,400 U.S. women revealed that symptoms like brain fog, mood shifts, fatigue, and disrupted sleep are showing up as early as age 30.
Yet most of these women didn’t know their symptoms could be hormonal.
Only 20.7% had ever spoken to a healthcare professional about menopause or perimenopause.
Even more troubling: many were dismissed or misdiagnosed.
What this study makes clear is that perimenopause is not a switch flipped at 45+. It’s a slow hormonal tide that may begin years, even decades, before the textbooks say it should. And if we want to support women in ageing well, we need to listen earlier. Track earlier. Understand earlier.
📖 Read the full study
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🧬 A new study reveals a gene that slows brain aging in mice
We know that one of the biological advantages of being a woman is that the brain appears to age more slowly than that of a man. Studies have shown that women’s brains retain a younger metabolic profile, exhibit fewer signs of aging on a genetic level, and often outperform men’s in memory and cognition later in life. But until recently, the underlying mechanisms behind this resilience remained largely unknown.
The researchers in this study decided to explore the key differentiator between men and women: the chromosomes X. In early development, one of these chromosomes is largely silenced. What the researchers discovered is that one of the genes of the “silent” chromosome X increases its expression with age, particularly in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and learning centre. The study found that when this PLP1 gene was delivered via gene therapy to older male mice, their memory and cognition improved. And in females, who already showed a natural reactivation, a modest boost of this gene enhanced these effects even further.
This finding not only deepens our understanding of why female brains may be more resilient to age-related decline, but also opens new avenues for treatments that support cognitive health in both men and women.
It’s a compelling reminder that investing in women’s health and in research in female-specific biology doesn’t just benefit women; it benefits everyone.
📖 Read the full study
📚 Other women's health & longevity news
🌍 Unequal burden: How climate change is disproportionately impacting women’s health
Climate change isn’t gender-neutral. This recent piece gives data on a critical but often overlooked reality: as temperatures rise and diseases like dengue, malaria, and Zika become more prevalent, women, especially in low-income and rural areas, face a disproportionate health burden. This is linked to their daily roles, exposure, and unequal access to healthcare. This piece explores how a gendered lens on climate policy is crucial for building resilient, equitable health systems for the future.
📖 Read the article
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I hope you enjoyed this very first issue.
If this resonated, feel free to connect, reply if you have any comments or questions, and forward it to someone who might be interested.
See you next Sunday!
If you have been forwarded this email, you can read more about Tara Lab here: