Fixing Women’s Health and the Future of Healthcare with Dr. Nikita Kanani MBE

takeaways

1. Dr Nikita Kanani reflects on leading the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme, describing camping out in offices with the military, sleeping at work, and the lasting effect the period had on her stress and cortisol response.

2. She shares how building trust and relationships with communities — including a Black care worker who initially refused the vaccine — shaped a different, community-focused approach to the rollout.

3. The conversation covers how women are underserved by healthcare, including around three-quarters of a million women on gynae waiting lists, roughly 9-10 years to diagnose endometriosis, and how heart disease presents differently in women.

4. They discuss the gaps in clinician training on women's health and menopause, hesitancy around prescribing HRT, and Nikita's frustration when women aren't offered appropriate care.

5. Nikita explains the value of holistic, lifestyle medicine approaches and 'one-stop shop' service design, plus the importance of educating young people about healthy periods and cycles.

6. She outlines emerging technologies — integrated wearables, genomic sequencing and polygenic risk scores, continuous hormone monitoring, and a redesigned speculum — while raising concerns about equity of access via the NHS versus private care.

7. Nikita shares her own wellbeing practices: being kinder to herself, prioritising rest and sleep, mindfulness and Reiki, walking in daylight, no phones on waking, and valuing community and connection.

chapters