Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,09 Sep 2026,26 mins

Addressing the risks of period pain in childhood

Health Check

Available for over a year

There is still a lot unknown about why period pain can be so intense for some and not others. To find out more, Claudia Hammond speaks with Dr Melissa Lenert, research scientist at the University of Michigan in the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Centre. Her new research examines what early risk factors are associated with the intensity and onset of period pain in adolescents. Claudia is then joined by Rebecca Katz, Professor and Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, who has just returned from the 9th World One Health Congress in Lisbon, Portugal. We hear about the public health threats she has been monitoring, including a measles outbreak in Sweden linked to a music festival. And Health Check listener, Philip in Lagos, Nigeria, got in touch with a question about the link between asthma and the eye condition keratoconus. We spoke to Dr Kareeshma Wadia, a cornea, cataract and refractive surgeon based in Mumbai, India, to get him an answer. Rebecca also brings us the development that researchers have identified antibodies that could combat alpha-gal syndrome which can cause allergies to meat. And, does the temperature of your morning cup of tea increase your risk for oesophageal cancer? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Georgia Christie

Programme Website
More episodes