Professor John Studd

Editors comment 

Professor John Studd passed away on the 17th August 2021. The enormous contribution that he made in the area of women's health and to our understanding of the menopause in particular cannot be overstated. He pioneered the use of HRT, setting up the first specialist menopause clinic in Europe in 1969 - in Birmingham. He also co-founded the National Osteoporosis Society, now the Royal Osteoporosis Society. Total Health had the honour of working with "The Prof" for over a decade and he will be very badly missed. However, his legacy will endure, and a number of specialist consultant gynaecologists who were trained by by him now contribute to Total Health - please email info@totalhealth.co.uk for further information.

Biography

Professor John Studd DSc, MD, FRCOG, has been a qualified doctor for over fifty years. He set up the first specialist menopause clinic in the country and he is a past Chairman of the British Menopause Sociey and current Vice-President of the National Osteoporosis Society. Professor Studd heads a team of highly experienced Consultant Gynaecologists at the London PMS & Menopause Clinic. The team includes Mr Michael Savvas, Mr Neale Watson and Ms Beverly Benster.

Professor John Studd is an expert in the treatment of menopausal symptoms, pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), osteoporosis and hormone responsive depression using hormone replacement therapy (HRT). He is a recipient of the highly prestigious Blair-Bell Gold Medal, which was awarded by the Royal Spociety of Medicine in recognition of the immense contribution that he has made to the field of gynaecology. Professor Studd was a senior Consultant Gynaecologist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London and also Professor of Gynaecology at Imperial College. He now consults privately at the London PMS and Menopause Clinic and The Osteoporosis Screening Centre, which he established and runs.

Guru and Champion of Women's Health

John Studd has been described as a “Guru and Champion of Women’s Health”. He has loomed over his field for decades, and has been extensively singled out for the quality and utility of his work. He is chairman of the British Menopause Society, runs the London PMS & Menopause Clinic, and in 2008 was awarded the Blair Bell Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine for his lifetime contribution to women’s health.

He first studied at the Royal Hospital School and Birmingham University Medical School, following which he went to work in Bulawayo in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He then came back to the UK, where he qualified as a Doctor and, in 1969, established the first menopause clinic in Europe. He later returned to Africa, where he studied the mechanism of labour and published extensively on it’s complications. This set the trend for his ongoing career, with emphasis on both ground-breaking work in obstetrics and gynaecology, and furthering the cause of medical publishing. He founded the internal press of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, on whose council he served for more than twenty years. He has published over five hundred peer-reviewed articles and written or edited more than forty books.  Later in life, he has made a number of high-profile media appearances and is considered a spokesperson for the Ob/Gyn community.

In the early 2000s, he was involved in a controversy concerning hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the use of which he advocates in the treatment of numerous conditions affecting older women. Two limited studies were released in short succession suggesting that HRT was responsible for a number of potentially deadly side-effects. The effect of this was to cause patients to shy away from treatment which was often most appropriate for them. John has since worked to outline the flaws in these studies, such as the choice of one of them to observe the effects of a preparation which is not available in the United Kingdom, and has indicated the single factor – the continuous use of a hormone called progestogen – which may indeed be responsible for serious side effects. On a piece on his website covering this subject, he says:

“There is no evidence that oestradiol given in the appropriate dose in women below the age of 60 is associated with serious side effects although the addition of continuous progestogen may be the harmful factor in the causation of cardiovascular disease.”

He has also been vocal in a second controversy around the use of HRT; in this case in the treatment of menopausal, premenopausal, and premenstrual depression. He promotes the prescription of oestrogen in such cases, and is wary of the over-reliance of psychiatrists on classical antidepressants, which he considers inappropriate. He blames the psychiatric shyness towards non-traditional therapies on professional territoriality, and is keen to promote the benefit of patients over the professional stubbornness of some psychiatrists. He says:

“Gynaecologists have no desire to take over patients but wish to encourage psychiatrists to learn the simple practice of prescribing estrogens [sic].”

Professor Studd is still in active practise and remains an unparalleled authority in his many fields of expertise. He operates the London PMS & Menopause Clinic at 46 Wimpole Street, and the Osteoporosis Screening Centre at the same address.

See below to book an appointment or for a DEXA SCAN.