Serious health talk without the hush.
5 Live News Specials, in these That Time of the Month editions, treats women’s health as public-service journalism rather than private embarrassment. It brings patient stories, caller questions, and medical context into steady conversation about symptoms, choices, care gaps, and stigma.
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5 Live News Specials becomes especially intimate in its That Time of the Month editions. The series gives less-spoken-about women’s health issues the time and seriousness they need. It is not glossy wellness chat. It is practical, sometimes painful public-service broadcasting built from callers, personal testimony, and medical explanation. Episodes often begin with a subject that people know exists but still struggle to name aloud. Urinary incontinence is framed as preventable in some cases, and deserving of proper pelvic floor support rather than a leaflet and embarrassment. Surgical menopause is explored as a life-altering transition, with questions about HRT, symptoms, follow-up care, and the burden placed on patients to advocate for themselves. HRT is handled as a confusing field of options, from oestrogen and progesterone to gels, patches, sprays, coils, rings, creams, and non-hormonal measures. Ovarian cancer coverage stresses the difficulty of vague symptoms, late diagnosis, and the absence of a UK screening programme in the discussion. Pelvic girdle pain is described through the ordinary movements it can steal, including walking, climbing stairs, turning in bed, and stepping through a doorway. The teen special brings period pain, hormones, mental health, school stigma, and young people’s language into the same room. The TFMR episode is the heaviest material. It treats termination for medical reasons as a lived experience of grief, choice, antenatal testing, foetal anomalies, maternal health, and love under impossible pressure. The show is strongest when it refuses easy distance. It lets guests explain what happened to them, then slows down enough for medical context to catch up. The questions are direct. The answers are allowed to be long when they need to be. Dr. Christine Akechi and Dr. Nagata Reef provide recurring clinical grounding, translating specialist language into something usable without flattening the emotional stakes. The programme also leaves room for listeners and named guests such as Emma, Victoria Robertson, Tilly, Evie, and Ella to show how health conditions reshape ordinary days. Some episodes are hard listening. They are still careful rather than sensational. Across the set, the recurring argument is simple and persuasive: shame makes care worse, and better conversations can change what people ask for, notice, and expect.
Made for: For listeners who want careful, emotionally literate reporting on women’s health, especially subjects that are often minimized or avoided. It suits people seeking plain-language medical context alongside real experiences.
What sets it apart: Its edge is the combination of BBC current-affairs discipline with unusually candid health conversation. The show keeps expert explanation close to lived experience, so the information feels both grounded and usable.
Showcasing BBC Radio 5 Live's news specials, including in-depth interviews.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes neglected health issues publicly legible by connecting clinical guidance, patient testimony and pointed questions about gaps in care.
5 Live News Specials turns under-discussed health problems into careful public-service conversations, pairing the host's direct questions with clinical explanation and first-person testimony.
A doorstep becomes a medical clue, and your "is this normal?" gets room to breathe.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, practical look at urinary incontinence, prevention, and the case for guided pelvic floor care.
Urinary incontinence is handled here as a practical health issue, not a private embarrassment. Dr. Christine Akechi and Dr. Nagata Reef make the case for bringing pelvic floor care into the conversation earlier, connecting childbirth and other modifiable risk factors with…
A candid look at how surgical menopause can reveal the gap between treatment and aftercare.
Surgical menopause is framed here less as a single medical event than as the difficult aftermath that can follow when excellent surgery gives way to patchier support.
A careful, humane conversation about TFMR, from medical explanation to the decisions families may face.
This episode takes on terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons, where antenatal testing, foetal anomalies, or maternal health can bring a wanted pregnancy to an abrupt and painful end. Consultant gynaecologist Dr. Christine Akechi, GP Dr.
A clear, compassionate episode on how pelvic girdle pain can make pregnancy's simplest movements feel suddenly difficult.
Pelvic girdle pain can turn routine pregnancy movements into a daily negotiation, and this episode keeps that loss of ease in sharp view. Victoria Robertson's account of not being able to lift her foot over a doorframe gives the subject a plain, physical force, while the medical…
A teen health special connects period pain, anxiety and stigma through expert guidance and candid youth-focused discussion.
Teen health gets a clear public-service frame in this special edition, tied to Five Live and Bitesize's Teen Summit. It brings hormones, periods and mental health into the same room, with the host joined by Dr.
A warm year-end review of pain, stigma, and delayed care around often unspoken gynaecological conditions.
That Time of the Month closes the year by returning to conditions that can mean severe pain, heavy bleeding, and the exhausting work of being taken seriously.
Birth choices, argued in plain language.
Warm health talk for messy real life.
Claire MacDonald interviews Dr.
Host Naga Munchetty and doctors Nighat Arif and Christina Ketchy review the first year of 'That Time of the Month', a podcast exploring under-discussed women's health conditions.
BBC Radio 5 Live's "That Time of the Month" focuses on urinary incontinence, which the NHS estimates affects around 14 million people in the UK and about one in five people.
BBC Five Live’s That Time of the Month focuses on surgical menopause, defined here as both ovaries being removed before a natural menopause, with the hosts noting that women are usually around 50 to 56 when menopause happens naturally.
Five Live News Specials talks to Dr.
A review of 2025 episodes of 'That Time of the Month' discussing women's health topics and listener engagement.
This episode answers listener questions about navigating HRT options for menopause, including types, dosages, and timing.
This episode discusses ovarian cancer, its symptoms, diagnosis challenges, and survival rates in the UK.
5 Live News Specials: That Time of the Month focuses on pelvic girdle pain, with Naga Munchetty, Dr.
A BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Bite Size Teen Summit edition of That Time of the Month focuses on hormones, periods, mental health, and how young girls are treated in healthcare and school.
Naga Manchetti and two doctors review the first year of their monthly show discussing under-talked-about women's health conditions.
This episode discusses MRKH syndrome, a condition where women are born without a womb, exploring its impact on life, relationships, and mental health.