Experts Share Health And Wellness Trends

And when it comes to menopause, future doctors will (we hope) regularly and proactively offer hormone therapy and other yet-to-be-invented treatments, like implantable devices that detect and dispense said hormones. A future in which women have the knowledge and tools to continue living their best lives well into their 60s, 70s, and beyond? “That would be my wildest dream,” says ob-gyn Jessica Shepherd, MD, author of Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause. “A lot of that has to do with how we treat ourselves—emotionally, nutrition, exercise—but also hormone replacement therapy, because it gives you the ability to have that longevity. Your body can thrive on it.”

Of course, 2045 could look a lot more dire for women in the U.S. The climate crisis (a warming world disproportionately affects women’s health, linking to issues such as preterm birth and worsened menopausal symptoms), stymied medical research (in early 2025, grant and funding freezes halted essential health-care research on things like endometriosis and cancer disparities), and reduced bodily autonomy (19 states have a full ban on or limited access to abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned) will remain essential issues that affect our overall wellbeing. But let’s get to the good shifts that experts are excited about.

1. Precision Care Will Transform Your Health

Here comes personalized every thing, down to skin-care salves formulated from a pinprick. Glenicia Nosworthy, MD, an internal medicine and aesthetic physician in New York City, is already offering her patients such solutions—think injections of your own blood platelets instead of synthetic fillers. In fact, she coined the term beauty hacking to describe using your own biology and genetics to glow up without going under the knife. And she expects this practice to become only more widespread. “If we are doing the proper blood work and realizing, ‘Okay, this is what your skin is lacking at this particular moment,’ [we can] customize your skin care to optimize you…versus just selling you a generic line,” she says.

Psychiatrist Jessi Gold, MD, chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee System, has a related vision for the future of mental health: Instead of the largely trial-and-error approach of current depression treatments, she’s eager to more definitively prescribe meds tailored to people’s biology, history, and other characteristics. As it stands, antidepressants work on the first try for only about a third of patients. “A little bit less darts and a little more precision would be very helpful,” she notes.

Your personal wellness routine and health-care choices will likely be more tailored to your unique needs too. Maybe that means structuring workouts around hormonal fluctuations, or taking supplements designed for your body, or using AI tools to make more-informed decisions about cancer screenings. Machine learning could help you avoid unnecessary invasive treatments—like a painful colposcopy following an abnormal Pap smear—by more accurately identifying the type of HPV present and its likelihood of developing into cancer.

Your personal wellness routine and health-care choices will likely be more tailored to your unique needs too.

That’s not to say health care in the future will be automated and cold. Doctors are focused on keeping people at the heart of medicine, whether you’re seeing a doctor virtually, chatting with a bot about meds, or hanging in an office designed for comfort, not sterility (think spa-like waiting rooms and sleeker specula). “I hope that we can embrace technology [and] AI but not lose the art of medicine, which is that personalized touch,” says WH advisor Navya Mysore, MD, a primary care physician in New York City. “That compassionate care—the ability to listen to someone, to hold their hand while they’re going through something challenging—is so important.”

2. Buckle Up: GLP-1s Are Here to Stay

It feels as if diabetes and weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are already *everywhere* right now, but by 2030, nearly 1 in 10 people are expected to be on a GLP-1. The injectable meds, which suppress appetite and lead people to lose an average of 15 to 25 percent of their body weight, are already influencing portion sizes, disrupting relationships, and infiltrating gym culture. Where will that put us in 20 years?

Among other unknowns, the drugs could spike rates of injury and bone loss in women who aren’t incorporating sufficient weight training and protein intake into their lifestyles, says Los Angeles–based celebrity trainer Jen Widerstrom. “You’re going to see a slew of problems like malnourishment and osteopenia and injuries cropping up,” Widerstrom says. She’s a proponent of the drugs in the right candidates with support, and she’s also concerned about their broader influence. Some reports show that nearly 80 percent of 17-year-old girls say they’re unhappy with their bodies, and roughly 1 in 10 adolescent girls say they’ve used nonprescription weight-loss pills—including “natural” alts to Ozempic.

On the other hand, the drugs’ widespread use could help drive down rates of obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. They could be repurposed to treat substance-use disorders and even behavioral addictions such as gambling. For now, many doctors feel strongly that these drugs are a positive, revolutionary treatment for obesity at a time when three in four people are overweight or obese in the U.S. (as of 2021 data).

3. Pay Attention to Policy and Politics—They’ll Shape Your Situation

Experts are focused, more broadly, on how the federal government’s priorities over the next four years are going to mold the future of women’s health. The fate of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research is murky (the web page itself has been archived), and the dangerous consequences of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which had previously granted women the right to an abortion, continue to reverberate.

One 2024 investigation suggests that pregnant women in states with abortion bans are at higher risk of dying from preventable causes, including hemorrhages and fatal infections. Other data shows strain on the already burdened foster care system and exacerbated racial and socioeconomic disparities resulting from women forced to deliver babies they can’t support.

Also frightening is the current disregard for investment in women’s health. As it stands, just 4 percent of biopharma investments go to female-specific conditions (and beyond cancer, it’s just 1 percent), and only 10.7 percent of the 2023 National Institutes of Health budget went to women’s health research. And now, that overall budget is facing major cuts.

Only 10.7 percent of the 2023 National Institutes of Health budget went to women’s health research.

Innovative clinicians, entrepreneurs, private companies, and charitable foundations will need to step in—and some already have. Scientists and researchers worked to save essential data from government health databases before it disappeared. And fem-tech start-ups are continuing to push forward with new funding from investors. “We need to be a bit more creative working within the system to be able to still push for change and progress.” Dr. Mysore says.

4. We Will Lift Heavy and Lift Often

Over the past few decades, we’ve changed our relationship with exercise, ditching a singular focus on all-cardio workouts to mix in strength training, trading out our little pink “girl” dumbbells for heavy-as-heck kettlebells, dumbbells, and barbells.

But it’s not about aesthetics this time around: Muscle health is finally a bigger focus for women of all ages. FYI, muscle mass can impact our metabolism, mobility, risk of chronic illness, brain health, and longevity. “We’re beginning to see the convergence of this concept of muscle being an organ system that is just as important as the heart, the lungs, the endocrine system,” says WH advisor Gabrielle Lyon, DO. “Women are turning toward muscle as their North Star. It was never like that before.” The hope is that more women will come to understand the importance of muscle mass and curate workouts that celebrate their bodies, build their strength, and support their health.

5. You’ll Use Your Voice for Change

Women can’t sit back, either. Not that we will—or have been. But we’re learning to get even more comfortable asking for what we need. “There’s a lot more women wanting to know more about themselves, as opposed to just going to a clinician, getting the recommendations, and taking the recommendations,” says Umo Callins, RDN, a sports performance and wellness dietitian in Oklahoma. Increasingly, a lot of that knowledge is being shared or discovered online. TikTokers detail their excruciating IUD insertions (and pave the way for the CDC to update its guidelines for physicians performing the procedures), and hundreds of thousands of people with poorly understood conditions pass along advice and offer support.

“The more we talk to each other, the more we can empower ourselves.”

Of course, this has its downsides, from companies peddling unregulated supplements to influencers without any credentials positioning themselves as experts. That’s why it’s critical to have an actual healthcare professional, like a PCP or obgyn, in your corner.

6. Social Connection Will Be Key

Similarly, Dr. Mysore suggests turning to your own family—not just your Insta family—for connection and to better understand what might be normal (or not) for your body. Ask your mom about her postpartum experience or about menopause. “What was that like for her? Talk to your aunt, talk to your grandmother, talk to your cousin,” Dr. Mysore says. “The more we talk to each other, the more we can empower ourselves.”

Widerstrom echoes that sentiment. She’s witnessing more women who—in a healthy response to the current “loneliness epidemic”—are appreciating their social ties in real life in whole new ways. After her popular women’s lifting class, for example, participants get coffee together. “There is an aspect of social health that is going to be on the rise,” says Widerstrom, “and, frankly, needs to be on the rise.”

Photographed by Chelsie Craig Prop Styling by Allison Ritchie

This story appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Women’s Health.

Anna Medaris is a freelance health and lifestyle journalist with nearly 15 years of experience writing features, narratives, explainers, and news hits for publications including the Washington Post, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, and US News & World Report. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and basset hound. Follow her at @AnnaMedaris on X and Instagram.