This month marks the 100th issue of Women’s Health. But while the experience of existing in a female body has gone from hushed up to headline news in the 10 years this magazine has been on the newsstands, are women any better off? From heavy periods to HRT, Roisín Dervish-O’Kane reflects back on a pivotal decade
Cast your mind back, if you will, to 2012. Perhaps you were posting a picture of your Starbucks ‘skinny’ Frappuccino to your 12 followers on this new app called Instagram. Or maybe you were sporting Primark leggings and an ex’s hoodie to slog it out on the cross trainer at your local LA Fitness. If you were, there’s a strong chance you were doing it in an attempt to ‘burn off’ that lower-abdominal bloat that lingered for 10 days every month. Oh, and we suspect you’d rather have double-dosed on Feminax than actually talk about your crippling period pain.
It was into this era that Women’s Health magazine first landed on newsstands and doormats up and down the country. And while much has changed during the decade we’ve been decorating coffee tables, bedside tables and gym receptions, much more… hasn’t. From the research published about the way our bodies operate, to the services we engage with to stay healthy and the way in which we converse about our illness and wellness, we’ve rooted through the archives and recruited some of the key figures in female health to ask: what’s shifted for the better? Has anything got worse? And what lessons can we learn from the past decade to help women live happier and healthier lives in the next?
Open season
‘I have women coming to me in their forties and fifties who’ve been living with debilitating heavy periods for years, and now they’re finally seeking help,’ says GP Adwoa Danso-Boamah (@theclinicdiaries) from her east London consulting room. A decade ago, she was a junior doctor and, the way she sees it, a major win from then to now has been an increase in assertiveness among women when it comes to addressing their health issues. ‘Many of my friends are taking ownership of their health and are able to advocate for themselves, thanks to positive educational material on social media. It’s been life-changing.’
Maisie Hill, bestselling author, women’s health practitioner and coach has seen a similar trajectory among her own clients. A decade ago, she was a reproductive health practitioner, who used tools such as acupuncture, massage and reflexology alongside her work as a birth doula. ‘My work was all about hormones, menstrual cycles, fertility, pregnancy and birth,’ she recalls, adding that clients were typically coming to her as a ‘lastditch attempt’. In the decade since, she has authored two bestselling books – 2018’s Period Power and 2021’s Perimenopause Power (both £14.99,
