Action Needed to Improve the Health of the 51%: Women

Dr Edward Mullins (Ed) was a thought provoking speaker with some authority on the subject of women’s health at our meeting on 26 June.

Ed is Senior Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital and Editor-in-Chief of the recent “Annual Report on Women’s Health” and presented the findings of this ground-breaking report prepared for the first female Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Professor Dame Sally Davies. Ed is pictured here on the left with Members of the Club’s Sustainable Environment and Wellbeing (SEW) Team, plus President Rita Andrews on the right (in case you’re wondering Ed is holding the Club mascot Sally Bear).

Ed’s presentation can be downloaded here: Ed Soroptimist Health Presentation 260617 and the audio recording of the evening can be played from here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArNtdNTFVpB2gz_ig5hQqmAST0R0 He spoke to a well informed audience of almost 50 people (Soroptimists and guests) who asked some searching questions. Some of the highlights were around violence against women, pregnancy, menopause, incontinence, ovarian cancer, obesity, Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE). One of the challenges is to encourage women to speak openly about some of these issues which in the past have been considered “taboo”. Soroptimists have campaigned for improvements in many of these areas and are now planning our next moves. A fuller report from one of our Members can be downloaded: SpeakermeetingJuly17report

In the first half of the evening Ed explained the report clearly to us – how it came about, choices made, his experiences, opportunities & problems arising. Leading into the key topics of the report, the CMO’s reason for focusing on this & the recommendations and follow up so far. The second half was a very lively Q & A session – where we also discussed what had improved for women’s health in recent times.