8 h. ago 'Doctors thought I was pregnant – then they found teeth and hair inside me'

Valentina Milanova believed she 'was dying' when she experienced her first period aged nine, but has since set up a business to help prevent other girls suffering as she did

Society

15 h. ago Woman baffled by painful periods had huge ovarian cyst filled with hair and teeth

Valentina Milanova was told she might have an ectopic pregnancy, despite not being sexually active

Politics

18 h. ago 'Doctors didn't believe me, it was filled with hair and teeth'

Valentina Milanova, 30, had her first period at nine years old and put on the pill at 11 after experiencing excruciating pain

Society

19 h. ago 'I had painful periods from 9 then doctors found hair and teeth inside me'

After years of pain, Valentina was prescribed the contraceptive pill at the age of 11

Society

6 d. ago Doctor's urgent warning to women over trendy diet that could wreck chances of motherhood

An NHS surgeon has has warned the downsides of a trending diet that could wreak havoc with the female reproductive systems.

Events

2 w. ago Military clerk who stole £1m from the MoD to pay for hair transplants, Turkey teeth and 'fake six

Former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie, 34, ran the scheme while working at Regent's Park Barracks in central London.

Economics

2 w. ago Military clerk stole £1m from the MoD to pay for hair transplants, Turkey teeth and 'fake six

Former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie, 34, (pictured) ran the scheme while working at Regent's Park Barracks in central London.

Economics

2 w. ago Rogue doctors stole one woman’s eggs to get another patient pregnant. What happened next is an unlikely tale of friendship against the odds

When it emerged that a fertility clinic had made one woman pregnant with another’s baby, Renée Ballou and Carole LieberWilkins were advised to ‘lawyer up’. Instead they did something extraordinary – even as one raised the other’s biological childRenée Ballou thought she was a lucky person. In the 1980s, she was living in a beautiful home an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, with a job she loved, a happy marriage and a young son. Everything had always felt so easy for Renée – until she began trying for a second child. Two years on, she still wasn’t pregnant. “I was pretty much used to getting what I wanted,” Renée, now 67, tells me with a sad smile. “It was very stressful.”Along with her husband, Wesley, Renée went through a battery of tests, followed by years of surgeries, supplements and hormones. Her gynaecologist referred them to Dr Sergio Stone, a fertility specialist at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in Orange County, for more treatment. They tried artificial inse...

Science

3 w. ago ‘This weird dream just keeps going!’ Wet Leg on overnight success, sexual epiphanies and facing fears

The UK indie-rockers won two Grammys for their debut album. Ahead of their second, they explain how they protected one another amid sudden fame – and how queer love and Davina McCall inspired themWet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale looks like a pop star from a different era. She walks into a bar in east London wearing a giant, floor-length pale-pink padded coat. She has bleached eyebrows, dip-dyed hair, drawn-on freckles and jewels stuck to her nails and teeth. For a moment, Top of the Pops could be on primetime TV and a copy of Smash Hits in my bag. But then Wet Leg’s story always did feel anachronistic. In 2021, they managed what indie bands don’t often manage any more and became an overnight success. That June, they released their first single, Chaise Longue, a deadpan, perfectly simple and cheerfully daft megahit; they conquered the US and Japan, toured arenas and topped the album charts with their scathing, self-titled debut, scoring two Brit awards and two Grammys.They were still touring...

Politics