The content on Patient is peer reviewed by our clinical content team, following the NHS Standard for Creating Health Content.
Sarah Graham
Freelance health journalist
MA, Newspaper, Journalism
Sarah Graham is an award-winning freelance health journalist, and founder of the feminist women's health blog Hysterical Women.
Sarah specialises in mental health, women's sexual and reproductive health, gender and feminism. She writes regularly for Grazia, Refinery29, Patient and Broadly, and has also been published by Stylist, Women's Health, Cosmopolitan, BBC Three, Planet Mindful, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The i.
She has an MA with Distinction in Newspaper Journalism from City University, and has been freelancing since 2014.
Sarah’s web presence
Recently contributed to:
First licensed during the 1960s, 'the pill' has been giving women control over their reproductive systems for nearly six decades. But, in recent years, there's been a growing movement of women turning their backs on this method of birth control. So, with many having been on the pill since their teens, what actually happens to your body if you're coming off the pill?
Amy* was just 21 years old when her close childhood friend Lydia* took her own life three years ago. "I went through so many different feelings and emotions - complete grief and sadness, mixed with anger and guilt," she explains.
It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. But if you struggle with your weight, eating, and body image, the weeks around Christmas and the New Year can be an absolute minefield.
For decades women have been taking the combined pill for 21 days at a time, with a seven-day pill break and withdrawal bleed in between. But is it safe to skip your period by taking two - or more - packs back to back? As the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) publishes new guidelines on continuous pill use, we look at the evidence behind all the different options.
In 2008 the NHS introduced free vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) for girls over the age of 12 years. Ten years on, it was announced in July that this vaccination programme will be extended to cover boys. But what exactly is HPV, who is it most likely to affect, and why is it a threat to public health?