Pregnancy
Guidelines developed for managing blood cancers in pregnancy
A new set of guidelines has been developed to assist with the diagnosis and expert management of serious blood cancers in pregnancy, with an Australian working group having published a position statement based on current evidence and expert consensus.
About 12.5 pregnancies per 100,000 are affected by blood cancers such as acute leukaemia and aggressive lymphomas, and their incidence has been rising.
The new statement forms a practical guide for doctors, including recommendations for diagnosis and staging, imaging safety in pregnancy, therapy in pregnancy incorporating a multidisciplinary approach, supportive care, oncofertility, and pregnancy and birth management.
Lead author Dr Georgia Mills from Macquarie Medical School says a cancer diagnosis in pregnancy is incredibly distressing for a patient and her family.
“But on top of this, women can experience treatment delays, inaccurate information and communication breakdowns, all of which increases the worry associated with a cancer diagnosis and fears for their unborn baby,” said Mills.
“Patients have also described a lack of sensitivity about fertility preservation, breastfeeding, medication risks to the unborn baby, and a lack of information and support groups.
“We want women and their babies to experience the best possible health outcomes, not delayed or denied care.”
Senior author Dr Gisele Kidson-Gerber says taking a multidisciplinary approach was of paramount importance in preparing the guidelines: “Blood cancers in pregnancy present unique therapeutic challenges, yet there were no clinical guidelines for diagnosis or management,” she says.
“As clinicians, we have to balance the need for optimal treatment for the mother with the safety and wellbeing of the unborn child.
“Most treatments are possible during pregnancy, including many forms of chemotherapy, but this is not what patients expect.”
The guidelines were drafted using co-design principles, with a patient representative on the working group to ensure patient concerns were well understood.
Victoria Bilsland was diagnosed with stage 4B nodular-predominant Hodgkins lymphoma when she was 17 weeks pregnant, however, her symptoms were repeatedly dismissed as pregnancy pain or possible infection, making getting a diagnosis a struggle that led her to lose faith in doctors.
“I was told I ‘needed spinal surgery’ and to ‘consider termination’, and when I declined termination as we still didn’t know the extent of the cancer, I was advised to ‘think logically’,” she said
“I was offered to terminate my pregnancy on multiple occasions, but I had no information about the risks to me or my baby, or knowledge of what stage the cancer was or even where it was.
“How could I make an impossible decision without information? And why could no one provide me information regarding cancer and pregnancy?
“The process was a rollercoaster of trauma, depression and anxiety.”
Eventually put into the care of a specialist team experienced in managing haematological cancers in pregnancy, she received appropriate treatment and delivered a healthy son at 32 weeks.
She hopes the new guidelines will help other doctors to make the same decision in a timely way, putting the patient first and reducing potential trauma.
The guidelines have been endorsed by the councils of the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand and the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand.
A £50m maternity consortium will bring together UK clinicians, researchers and communities to tackle the most critical gaps in maternal care.
Funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research has established the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium under the leadership of the University of Birmingham and Newcastle University.
Higher education bodies, NHS organisations, community groups and voluntary organisations from across the UK will work together through the programme.
The NIHR has committed £50m over five years to support research led by clinicians, researchers and communities across the consortium.
Professor Joht Singh Chandan, consortium co-lead for research at the University of Birmingham, said: “National attention on maternity safety and equity has never been greater, but ambition must now be matched by evidence and implementation.
“Through this consortium, we will work across the UK to understand what works, for whom and in what contexts, and to ensure that research leads to practical changes in care for the women, babies and families who need them most.”
The launch comes at a pivotal moment for UK maternity care, with growing national attention on improving safety, equity and women’s experiences of care.
The government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights the need to improve care before and between pregnancies for underserved communities.
Against that backdrop, the consortium will generate the evidence, interventions and research capacity needed to help turn national ambition into practical improvements for women, babies and families.
University of Birmingham is leading work to improve maternity care pathways across the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods.
Antenatal care covers pregnancy before labour, while intrapartum care refers to care during labour and birth.
The consortium will examine how women and families can be better supported before pregnancy and between pregnancies.
This includes improving access to advice and care that can help people prepare for pregnancy, manage existing health conditions and reduce risks before they build up.
Other research will focus on improving care during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks after birth.
This will include work on major causes of poor maternal health, such as high blood pressure, diabetes in pregnancy, obesity, perinatal mental health and complications during recovery after birth.
Professor Judith Rankin OBE, consortium co-lead for research and capacity development at Newcastle University, said: “This funding represents a critical opportunity to make the step change we need to improve outcomes for women and their babies.
“Alongside the research, the Consortium will be investing in tomorrow’s research leaders today to ensure we have the capacity to deliver on improving pregnancy outcomes, access to, and experience of, care.”
The University of Liverpool has secured £1.8m to test a device for postpartum bleeding and launch a new women’s health studio.
The PPH Butterfly is designed to help control postpartum haemorrhage, which is severe bleeding after childbirth and a leading cause of maternal death worldwide.
The funding will support research into how the device can be used in clinical practice and generate evidence to inform its wider adoption.
The university has launched the Women’s Health Innovation Studio, known as the WIN Studio, alongside the project.
The £1.8m initiative is predominantly funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which is providing £1.5m, with additional support from the university.
The PPH Butterfly project will involve a multi-centre clinical trial across the UK and a global feasibility study looking at how practical it would be to use the device in different healthcare settings.
The WIN Studio is led by Andrew Weeks, professor of international maternal health care at the University of Liverpool and a senior investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and Dr Teesta Dey, a tenure track fellow in the department of women’s and children’s health.
Dr Dey will also lead the PPH Butterfly project.
Its work will cover conditions linked to female biology, including endometriosis, menopause and pregnancy-related complications.
It will also support technologies for diseases that affect women differently or disproportionately, even when they are not usually classed as gender-specific conditions.
Dr Dey said: “Women’s health has often been marginalised within healthcare systems and innovation markets, resulting in treatments, devices and care models that fail to adequately account for women’s specific needs. WIN Studio seeks to change this status quo and reconfigure how health technologies are conceived and delivered.
“The funding from NIHR for this £1.8m project is precisely the kind of innovation the WIN Studio exists to foster: clinically urgent, women-centred, and with the potential to save lives at scale.”
The studio recently hosted an event at Liverpool Women’s University Hospital as part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.
Seven innovations are currently undergoing clinical testing through the studio, with three developed internally.
The studio will work closely with NHS University Hospitals Liverpool Group and provide clinical, regulatory and commercial support to people developing women’s health technologies.
It will also involve patients and members of the public in shaping research priorities and product development.
Its wider programme includes collaborations involving clinicians, engineers, economists, academics and policymakers.
The project team says the PPH Butterfly is a simple, low-cost device designed to control severe bleeding quickly and with minimal training.
According to the team, postpartum haemorrhage causes around 70,000 deaths globally each year, equal to about one death every seven minutes.
The device previously received £1.1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The latest £1.5m grant will support a randomised UK trial, in which participants are allocated to different treatment groups by chance, and a global feasibility assessment.
Weeks said: “In an area where women face deep health inequalities, WIN Studio has a vital role to play. By working in partnership with the NHS, local government and communities, we can ensure that research leads to real-world impact.
“Liverpool has a highly integrated ecosystem of academic, clinical and commercial expertise. By bringing these together under a single platform, the WIN Studio aims to act as a national exemplar for equitable health innovation. Transforming the way medical technologies are developed is essential to addressing gender disparities in healthcare outcomes.”
Another product supported by the university, the LifeStart Trolley, has already reached commercialisation.
The small mobile resuscitation trolley allows newborn care to be carried out at the bedside while the baby’s umbilical cord remains intact, enabling delayed cord clamping.
Delayed cord clamping means waiting before cutting the cord so blood can continue flowing from the placenta to the baby after birth.
Clinical trials conducted around 10 years ago found that life-saving care could be provided successfully at the bedside using the trolley.
It was later commercialised by Inspiration Healthcare and is now used in more than 70 UK maternity units and in 36 countries, including Norway, Italy and the US.
Type 2 diabetes diagnoses are rising twice as fast in women under 40 as in women over 40, new data shows.
Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition and can lead to complications such as heart attacks and strokes. When it develops in younger people, it can be more aggressive and have more severe and acute effects.
Diagnoses in women under 40 rose by 47 per cent between 2017/18 and 2023/24. By comparison, diagnoses rose by 22 per cent in women aged 40 to 79.
During the same period, type 2 diabetes diagnoses in men under 40 increased by 34 per cent.
Diabetes UK said it is concerned about the follow-up care offered to women who have had gestational diabetes, also known as GDM, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy and usually goes away after birth, but it raises the risk of type 2 diabetes later.
Colette Marshall, chief executive at Diabetes UK, said: “These figures should be a wake-up call. Type 2 diabetes is rising twice as fast in younger women compared to older women, and a crucial opportunity for prevention is being missed. Every diagnosis is life-changing, but when it develops in younger people, type 2 diabetes is even more aggressive.
“Pregnancy shouldn’t be a pathway to ill health. Yet despite facing a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes, too many women with GDM receive little or no follow-up care after pregnancy.
“As the Government turns its Strategy into action, support for women who have had gestational diabetes must not be overlooked.”
Last year, the NHS published the first national GDM audit for England in 2024/25, which revealed inconsistencies in follow-up care.
Only 57 per cent of women with GDM received an annual HbA1c test, which should be offered to every woman with GDM.
An HbA1c test measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months.
Only 4.5 per cent of women had received support through the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.
The report also found that 11 per cent of women developed prediabetes within five years of having GDM, while 15 per cent developed type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
Prediabetes means blood sugar levels are higher than normal and a person has a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A recent survey funded by Diabetes UK also found that more than a third of women with GDM felt abandoned by healthcare services after giving birth.
If you live in England and have had gestational diabetes, you can self-refer to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, which supports people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you live in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, you can speak to your GP about support.
Diabetes UK has written to women’s health minister Baroness Merron calling for urgent improvements to postnatal support for those diagnosed with GDM during pregnancy.
GDM affects between 10 and 20 per cent of pregnant women, but Diabetes UK said cases have long been underreported and UK-wide data on the condition has not been readily available.
The charity said poor follow-up care for women who have had GDM may be contributing to rising rates of type 2 diabetes in younger women.
It is calling for consistent postnatal follow-ups for women after GDM, more referrals to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, greater accountability for improvements in postnatal care, and action on inequalities affecting women from deprived and minority ethnic communities.
Hormonal health2 weeks agoPerimenopause misinformation ‘putting women at risk’
Hormonal health3 weeks agoNHS urged to update website following renaming of PCOS
News2 weeks agoWomen still being failed when they reach menopause, experts say
Insight4 weeks agoPCOS renamed after decade-long campaign to end ‘cyst’ misconception
Entrepreneur2 weeks agoWomen’s Health Innovation Summit opens submissions for 2026 Innovation Showcase
Insight1 week agoBritish women among angriest in Europe, health survey reveals
News2 weeks agoThree menopause innovators shortlisted for Femtech World Award
Fertility4 weeks agoAI could transform ovarian care through personalisation, study finds