Dedicated to raising the profile of menstrual health

Mission and Purpose

The Menstrual Health Coalition (MHC) is a coalition of patient and advocate groups, life sciences industry, leading clinicians and individuals who have come together to discuss and make recommendations around menstrual health.

The Coalition aims to raise the profile of menstrual health on the political and policy agenda, to reduce the stigma around talking about periods, and campaign for change to help women adversely affected by their menstrual health.

“the best way to champion women’s health is to empower women to speak about their bodies”

Paula sherriff

Members of the Menstrual Health Coalition’s Steering Committee

dR ANNE CONNOLLY MBE

After a two year volunteer posting to a under-resourced mission hospital in rural Zimbabwe Anne returned to General Practice in inner-city Bradford in 1990 and is currently working as a GP providing care for asylum seekers, refugees, homeless and sex workers.

She is a GPSI in gynaecology, accredited as a hysteroscopist, colposcopist and FSRH trainer. She has been involved with commissioning since 2006 and retired as Bradford City CCG clinical board member with remit for maternity, women’s, children and young people’s healthcare in 2020.

Anne is chair of the PCWHF and RCGP Clinical Champion for Women’s Health. She is also co-editor of Women’s Health in Primary Care.

Anne was honoured to be awarded an MBE for her work in women’s health in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Emma Cox

Emma joined Endometriosis UK as Chief Executive in February 2016, and has overseen a sustained period of growth and development for the organisation, including awareness raising, new campaigns, and building key relationships with healthcare practitioners, researchers and policy influencers. A highlight has been Endometriosis UK’s successful campaign to get Menstrual Wellbeing included in the school curriculum for the England from 2020, a campaign still ongoing for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Emma’s background is as strategic change management specialist with over 20 years’ experience gained working in volunteering, membership organisations including Diabetes UK, NUS and the Chartered Quality Institute. Emma has an MSc in Organisational Behaviour and an MBA.

Endometriosis UK perform the secretariat function for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Endometriosis, and Emma is a member of the World Endometriosis Organisations Steering Committee.

katharine Gale

Katharine Gale is a Nurse Consultant in Women's Health and the current Chair of the Royal College of Nursing Women's Health Forum which launched the publication 'Promoting Menstrual Wellbeing' and the 'Women's Health Pocket Guide'. The women's health forum is currently leading a new project entitled 'Making sense of women's health' to raise awareness and guide nurses to appropriate resources in order to support women experiencing gynaecological conditions.

Katharine is an enthusiastic nurse who has used her expertise in a number of areas of women’s health to enhance care and professional practice, and this has included operational and strategic engagement in both clinical and political issues that affect service provision, healthcare, and the well-being of girls and women across the UK.

Katharine is sonographer, hysteroscopist and non medical prescriber and has a specialist interest in menstrual wellbeing and the menopause. She is currently employed by North Bristol NHS Trust and has received hospital charity funding to research the 'Working lives of menopausal women in the NHS'. As well as a nurse, she is a Certified Coach and supports women particularly around the time of the menopause.

Janet Lindsay

Janet Lindsay is Chief Executive of Wellbeing of Women, a charity improving the health and wellbeing of women, girls and babies. Best known for investing in early stage research across a woman’s life course, Wellbeing of Women recently underwent a strategic review and the charity is now embarking on an exciting series of campaigns, education and awareness raising to tackle taboos and improve outcomes in women’s health.

Janet started her career working for a global advertising agency before running her own communications agency. Prior to joining Wellbeing of Women, Janet worked for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Starlight Children’s Foundation in fundraising and communications.

Previous Members

PROFESSOR DAME LESLEY REGAN

Professor Dame Lesley Regan is Chair of the Board of Trustees at Wellbeing of Women, Secretary General of FIGO (the International Federation of Gynaecology & Obstetrics) and a member of the NHS Assembly. She was the 30th President (2016-2019) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, only the second woman to ever hold this role and the first in sixty-four years. In December 2019 she launched “Better for Women”, an RCOG report which champions menstrual health, period problems and poverty issues.

Professor Regan is Professor of Obstetrics at Imperial College London and Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary's Hospital; she is also director of Women's Health Research Centre, co-director of the UK Pregnancy Baby Bio Bank and co-Chair of the People and Culture Committee (Athena SWAN) for the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction.

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 and laboratory research, completing an MD on miscarriage. In 2015 she received an Honorary Fellowship of the American College and a Doctorate of Science from University College London for the contribution to women's health.

Professor Regan was awarded a DBE for her services to women’s health in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List.

Professor Regan was appointed as the Women’s Health Ambassador in June, to help drive system-level changes to close the gender health gap.