S2 #E8 Dame Lesley Regan: The women’s health strategy

04/17/24 • 69 min

Dame Lesley Regan is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Imperial College, St Mary’s Hospital, London. Having graduated from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London in 1980, Professor Regan pursued her career at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where she first became enthused by clinical & laboratory research, completing an MD on miscarriage, the commonest complication of pregnancy. She went on to set up the world’s largest recurrent miscarriage clinic at St Mary’s. Professor Regan was the 30th President (2016-2019) of the RCOG, during which time she co-chaired the national Women’s Health Task Force and published the RCOG Better for Women report which highlighted the need for an NHS led women’s health strategy. Lesley was awarded a DBE for her services to women’s health in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. She was appointed chair of the WoW charity in October 2020 and became the first ever Women’s Health Ambassador for England in July 2022, to help implementation of the Government’s recently launched Women's Health Strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of girls and women nationally.

In this episode we discuss some of the key topics in women’s health as Lesley’s interests span from the cradle to the grave. As well as her pioneering work on miscarriage, Lesley has been helping women with menstrual issues, fertility and infertility and menopause. She has been trying to deal with the many obstacles and myths around women’s health. In 2009 she presented a TV series called Professor Regan Investigates looking into how some companies use science to sell. This issue is even more important now, as women’s health tech has become a booming industry. Through her work, education has been key for Lesley to ensure all women lead their best and healthiest lives.

Date of episode recording: 2024-03-15T00:00:00Z
Duration: 01.14.35
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Joyce Harper
Guests: Professor Dame Lesley Regan
Producer: Joyce Harper

Date of episode recording: 2024-03-15T00:00:00Z
Duration: 01.14.35
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Joyce Harper
Guests: Professor Dame Lesley Regan
Producer: Joyce Harper

Previous Episode

S2 #E7 Lavina Mehta, MBE: The Feel Good Fix

Lavina Mehta, MBE, is an award winning personal trainer, wellness coach, mum of 3, was awarded an MBE in 2020 for her work in health and fitness over the pandemic and she is on a mission to help all ages feel good physically and mentally. Her slogan is Exercise for sanity not vanity. She has also done a great TED talk in a school to encourage young people to exercise. And is a patron of menopause mandate and an ambassador for diabetes UK, the Alzheimer’s society and Wellbeing of Women. The Feel Good Fix by Lavina Mehta is publishing on 30th May 2024 and is available for pre-order now (Penguin Life, £16.99) Follow Lavina on social media: @feelgoodwithlavina Lavina has not always been into exercising. She was the arty kid at school and had a very successful career in the corporate world. But over recent years she has been doing a huge amount of work to encourage everyone to exercise – exercise snacking whenever they can: whilst cleaning your teeth, cooking, on an aeroplane. Her work has also taken her into schools to talk about how exercising can help reduce mental health. Of course we talked about the importance of exercising during the perimenopause and beyond. And the importance of exercising outside, with friends. We can all do this – exercise snacking works and helps lead us to the Feel Good Fix.

Date of episode recording: 2024-02-20T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00:47:44
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Joyce Harper
Guests: Lavina Mehta. MBE
Producer: Joyce Harper
Transcription link: www.joyceharper.com/podcasts

Next Episode

S2 #E9 Dr Tessa Copp: Is women’s health tech empowerment or exploitation?

Tessa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the University of Sydney School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the psychosocial impacts of disease labels, overdiagnosis and evidence-based reproductive healthcare for women. Her PhD research examined the benefits and harms of a polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis, and this research has been published in high impact journals in the field. In this episode Tessa explains what women’s health tech and Femtech are, and ideally how they should be developed, with a basis on evidence-based medicine. Health tech companies probably have two aims – to improve health and to make money but maybe along the way, they get hijacked by making money. There is a saying that health tech fakes it until they can make it. Which is what happened with Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, who is now in prison for fraud. Tessa explains that regulation of tech is inadequate, and it may confirm that a test is testing what it says it is, but it does not mean that the test is of any use to the public. With social media and celebrities endorsing health tech, it makes it difficult for people to know what will be valid. But does it matter – surely health tech does no harm, except on the wallet? Tessa explains that it can do harm, using the example of Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH) testing. Tessa discusses her recent paper titled Marketing empowerment: how corporations co-opt feminist narratives to promote non-evidence based health interventions. We also discuss period tracker apps, IVF add-ons and menopause. Will anyone take any notice of research such as Tessa’s, or will marketing take over allowing unproven health tech to thrive?

Transcription link: www.joyceharper.com/podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2024-04-11T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00.56.49
Presenter: Joyce Harper
Guests: Dr Tessa Copp
Producer: Joyce Harper