ADHD and women, Author Claire Lynch, Gaming for good
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A study led by the University of Oxford shows a 20-fold rise in the proportion of women over 25 using ADHD medication in the UK. The study looked at 5 countries - Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK - showing use has more than tripled in 13 years - the UK having the highest relative increase. To unpick this, Anita Rani is joined by Amanda Kirby, former chair of the ADHD foundation and Emeritus Professor of neurodevelopmental disorders at the University of South Wales and Kat Brown, author of It's Not a Bloody Trend, who was diagnosed with ADHD aged 37 and uses medication.
The Oscar nominations are out and to celebrate we revisit our recent interviews with nominees, Hamnet director Chloe Zhao and Kate Hudson, who's up for best actress for her film Song Sung Blue.
Author Claire Lynch discusses her debut novel, A Family Matter, which recently won the Nero Book Award's prize for debut fiction. Having spent her career teaching literature in universities, the author of non-fiction book Small: On Motherhoods, was inspired by her discovery that 90% of lesbian mothers in 1980s’ divorce cases lost legal custody of their children. The novel alternates between 1982 and the present day and explores love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care.
Miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy is common. But clinical NHS practices for disposal of pregnancy tissue following an early stage miscarriage can sometimes appear to be at odds with some women’s wishes and are not conducive to inclusive care. That’s according to a new study published in Social Science and Medicine and reported in the British Medical Journal. Susie Kilshaw, Professor of Medical Anthropology at University College London, spent nearly two years observing miscarriage care inside one of England’s NHS Foundation Trusts and interviewing women about their experiences. Susie explains how she found that the choices available often didn’t match what women want.
Can video games be used for good? From reducing our environmental impact to fundraising for access to education for all, Jude Ower from not-for-profit gaming platform PlanetPlay has spent the last two decades creating initiatives to do just that. Jude has now been named by the Aurora awards as one of ten women to watch, who are shifting the dial in the gaming industry. She joins Anita in the studio.
Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and |
| 0:32.6 | podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:40.8 | What a lovely way to start the programme. Thank you and cheers to you. Good morning. Welcome. |
| 0:45.3 | On the programme today. ADHD, attention, deficit, hyperactivity disorder. |
| 0:50.4 | New research has found the number of women over the age of 25 on ADHD medication has |
| 0:56.1 | increased dramatically. We'll be understanding more. We're also going to be discussing a very |
| 1:01.8 | sensitive issue around miscarriage and what happens to the pregnancy tissue in a clinical |
| 1:07.6 | setting. What options are offered, if at all, to women going through this trauma? |
| 1:13.3 | And we'll get an insight into the world of gaming and how games can be used as a force for good. |
| 1:19.3 | Plus, author Claire Lynch is here to talk about her debut novel Family Matters. |
| 1:24.6 | The story is based around the little-known history of the treatment of lesbian |
| 1:29.5 | mothers in British courts in the 1980s. Around 90% of lesbian mothers in divorce cases lost legal |
| 1:37.1 | custody of their children tearing families apart. The novel is about a child who we meet as a woman |
| 1:42.9 | in her 40s who never knew the real |
| 1:45.3 | reason she didn't see her mother, a secret kept from her. So maybe this is a story you can relate |
| 1:52.3 | to, in which case we would very much like to hear from you this morning. Or is there a family |
| 1:57.7 | secret that you only discovered as an adult? Maybe you're keeping a family secret from others. |
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