White Coat, Black Art CBC Health & Sport

When cancer patients receive chemotherapy, they often lose their hair, and that can wreak havoc on physical and mental health. Cairo Gregory was just 15 when she got ovarian cancer. Chemotherapy meant she lost her long curly hair just when she started to love it. She struggled to find a suitable wig through the hospital. She says the healthcare system must do more to help women deal with hair loss, especially young Black women like her.

Esther Schreiber felt like the luckiest woman when she married her sweetheart Eddi. They enjoyed a busy life until he was diagnosed with young onset dementia a decade ago. Now he's almost completely non verbal. The caregiving demands are all-consuming but she draws inspiration and support from other spouses.

Primary care providers don’t always recognize menopause symptoms for what they are, focusing instead on whether they’re a sign of a more serious problem. Not all know that menopausal hormone therapy is a safe and effective treatment for many women. We explain why that’s the case, and the range of treatments that can help women.

When famed British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, he was forced to confront aging and his own mortality. Marsh reflects on both in his book, And, finally: Matters of Life and Death. 

Canada’s nursing shortage is so dire that many provinces are stepping up efforts to recruit nurses from the Philippines. And as producer Stephanie Dubois discovered from Manila, that recruitment process is a well-oiled machine with a lot of players involved. From the Philippines government, to recruiters, to nursing schools, the message to nurses is clear: better opportunities only exist abroad.

Health-care workers are making sure they're ready for increasingly severe wildfire seasons. An EMS manager and hospital co-ordinator share how they evacuated high-needs patients from northern Alberta towns affected by wildfires in 2023. And how their best practices have already been tested this year.